KKK, Mob Rule is UnAmerican, Says J.W. Bailey, May 1, 1923

Mob Rule Is a Serious Menace to Government. . . So Says Mr. Bailey. . . There Is Only One Way to Enforce Order, Declared Mr. Bailey in an Address at Pittsboro Today, and That Is by Law; If Officers Fail, Turn Them Out

Pittsboro, April 30—“When men singly or in groups take the law into their own hands, they at once become enemies of the government,” declared J.W. Bailey of Raleigh in address at the Pittsboro high school today. “Putting hoods on their heads and going in groups makes the matter all the worse.”

“No matter what the provocation, they cannot justify themselves,” said Mr. Bailey. “There is but one way to enforce order—and that is by law. If officers fail the only course is to turn them out. To undertake to do their duty for them is usurpation of power—it is lawlessness itself. It is no better than anarchy.

“We have had in this state many manifestations of mob rule—rather mob lawlessness—lynchings, whippings, intimidations. Those are all acts of anarchy. They are destructive of law and government. Whenever a group of men take to themselves the duty of executing the law or maintaining order and get away with it, they are in revolt to civilization. They are overrunning the state and the law which is their life. Call this evil thing ‘100 per cent Americanism’ it is 100 per cent Anti-Americanism. It is Turkeyism, it is Russianism; it is anarchy. It is the antithesis of Americanism. No man in his senses will tolerate it. Those citizens who have joined any organization that stands for this sort of thing ought without delay to repudiate every feature of the organization that tends to encourage this freedom-destroying business.

“No one can be unaware of the threats to exercise this invisible power in politics. We are told that candidates that do not cater to government by secret assault and intimidation will be beaten by invisib le powers. This is also unlawful. Whenever we reach the point that candidates for office will be permitted by the voters to pussyfoot on this subject, all is over so far as free government is concerned. The issue must be made with this evil thing from the beginning. Every candidate for office must be tested with this test. And his position must ring clear. If he is afraid of or in league with secret groups of or invisible usurpers of the function of government, he is unfit for place or power, he cannot be trusted. A public officer is a minister of the law. He cannot be a minister of the law and fear or compromise with those who take to themselves functions of the state, and the courts without authority from the people, for this authority and accountability is indispensable to free government.

From the front page of The Wilson Times, May 1, 1923