LYNCHING: Different

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Something new in the history of Georgia was brought about last week when Major Brown, white, pleaded guilty as the leader of the lynching party which dragged Dave Wright, white, out of jail in August and killed him.* Eight other members of the party followed Major Brown's precedent by also pleading guilty. Thereupon, Judge Harry Reed of Douglas, Ga., sentenced Major Brown to life imprisonment and his companions to terms of from four to twenty years. Thus, Georgia had punished lynchers within 90 days of the lynching. Georgians were justly proud of Georgia justice. Meanwhile, in Aiken, S. C., there was little progress in the investigation of those responsible for the lynching of the three Lowmans, Negroes, one of whom was a woman—an unusually nauseating incident (TIME, Oct. 18, Nov. 22). The Ku Klux Klan demanded that the New York World, which has led in forcing the investigation, cease its series of lynching articles and recall its reporter from Aiken. Governor Thomas G. McLeod of South Carolina also implied that the World articles are causing hostility to his own investigation, but he has offered to protect the World reporter from any Klan violence. Another actor in the Aiken episode is Senator Cole Blease, alert blatherskite, who last week announced that he would defend Aiken County against damage suits which are to be brought by relatives of the Lowman Negroes.