LYNCH LAW
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,âYour admirable article on . the lynching madness seemed to imply that troops were used against the mobs in all cases. This was not so in California. It would not be unjust to say that the authorities co-operated with the lynchers ;. the victims were removed from the safety of San Francisco prisons to San Jose in the very face of the imminence of mob actionâthe authorities knew it, the papers knew it, the people knew it, perhaps, God help them, even the prisoners knew it ; and the resistance put up by the San Jose sheriff's officers was farcical, even to those who kneW the inside of the case. The subsequent _blessing of the unmentionable Governor Roph, together with the complete indifference of the District Attorney's office to the prosecution of the youth allegedly responsible, also must be pondered.
Those of us who lean to the radical side see in the San Jose lynching a threat in answer to the wave of agricultural strikes that has swept California in the last few months. That is debatable ; though, as I know myself, the San Jose headquarters of the agricultural workers' union has since received lynch threats. But, however considered, these lynchings represent a-startling danger to-American civilization.
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