All thoughtful men know that respect for law is the basic principle of civilization, and are agreed as to the evil of any overriding of the law. All reasonable men know that the overriding of law readily creates a spirit of lawlessness, under which progress is retarded and civilization suffers and dwindles. This is as clearly recognized at the South as at the North. To overcome this conviction and stir up rational men to a pitch where the law is trampled under foot, the officers of the law are attacked, and their prisoners taken from them and executed, there must be some imperative cause. And yet the record of such overriding of law in the past has been a terrible one. The _Chicago Tribune_ has for some time been collecting statistics on the subject of lynching, and the following table taken from that paper, showing the number of lynchings for a series of years, is assumed to be fairly accurate: 1885 184 1886 138 1887 122 1888 142 1889 176 1890 127 1891 192 1892 235 1893 200 1894 190 1895 171 1896 131 1897 166 1898 127 1899 107 1900 115 1901 135 1902 96 1903 104 1904 (to Oct. 27) 86 —————————————————————————+———————+————————+——————+—————— Total lynchings. |Whites.|Negroes.|In the|In the | | |South.|North. —————————————————————————+———————+————————+——————+—————— 1900 115 | 8 | 107 | 107 | 8 1901 135 | 26 | 107 | 121 | 14 1902 96 | 9 | 86 | 87 | 9 1903 (to Sept. 14) 76 | 13 | 63 | 66 | 10 —————————————————————————+———————+————————+——————+—————— _Causes Assigned._