When the Local Paper Cheers the Mob
A governor's push to prosecute the Colfax vigilantes draws a shocking defense from Whitman County newspapers—and a sharp rebuke from The Olympian.
The story, cleaned up
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The Olympian. This is the miserable sentiment that some of the Whitman county papers are encouraging. The Tekoa Globe says: 'Gov. McGraw is concerned to have Hill's late jury brought to justice and directs Attorney General Jones at Spokane to get after the villains. Mr. McGraw should remember that mob has rendered more to society than he can ever expect to.' The people of Whitman county cannot afford to permit such sentiment to exist. Mob law is bad enough and disgraceful enough, but when it is openly encouraged and the executive and judicial officers of the state are denounced for their efforts to enforce law and order, it is evidence of a very serious social condition. It is just such sentiment as the above cropping up over Whitman county that indicates that nothing should be omitted in the effort to bring the perpetrators of the Colfax outrage to the bar of justice.
“Mr. McGraw should remember that mob has rendered more to society than he can ever expect to.”
The editorial's alarm over newspapers cheering a mob echoes modern debates about vigilantism, media responsibility, and whether elected officials can hold lawbreakers accountable when local sentiment sides with them. Colfax's 'outrage' reminds us that extralegal violence has deep roots in Washington state.
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