Digital History>eXplorations>Lynching>Anti-Lynching Legislation of the 1930s>Editorial from the Greensboro Daily News

Editorial from the Greensboro Daily News (November 25, 1935)

FOLLOWING SENATOR BORAH

While the Daily News has steadfastly admired Senator Borah and loses no admiration in the Senator's clearcut pronouncement of opposition to proposed federal anti-lynching legislation, an unusually strong statement from any one in political life, there is insurmountable difficulty in following the position which he assumes.

The leonine Idahoan would, if he were elected President, veto such legislation as the Costigan-Wagner act, were it passed, because of its unconstitutionality. Mr. Borah is one of the recognized constitutional authorities in Congress, and far be it from deponent to question, much less dispute, such erudition. We only know, without attempting to inter-pret what we read in that document: i. e. stipulation in the fifth amendment that "No person shall be… deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law" and again in the sixth that "the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial" under conditions which include presentation of witnesses against him, "compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor" and "the assistance of counsel for his defense." How the seizure of a suspect and the taking of his life stack up with these guarantees, Senator Borah can doubtless explain. Somewhere in that explanation, however, impotence of the states, to whom the responsibility may be intrusted, will have to be given consideration. when the states do not meet their responsibilities and obligations, what then anent the constitutional guarantees which are flouted?

The senator from Idaho will likewise face the item of his inarticulation upon other measures which have been enacted by Congress in recent times and which appear to go equally far beyond the constitutional limitations which he envisions. The Lindbergh kidnapping act is an ever present case in point. Several kidnappings have centered in the states where they occurred, but that circumstances did not preclude federal assistance in their solution. On the other hand, lynching may take and have taken on interstate aspects. Remember that instance of sever months ago when a Florida mob took a negro from an Alabama jail and carried him back across the line to weak its vengeance? Yet, so far as the public has been advised, there was no calling of Washington's attention to what transpired, much less a move to do anything about it.

With all the stretching to which the constitution has been subjected, it is refreshing to hear somebody speak out as Mr. Borah has done; but that in no wise affects the clarity of the logic of his position."