TO PROTECT CITIZENS AGAINST LYNCHING HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SIXTY-FIFTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON H. R. 11279 Serial 66 STATEMENTS OF MAJ. J. E. SPINGARN AND CAPT. JUNE 6, 1918 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1918 TO PROTECT CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES AGAINST LYNCHING IN DEFAULT OF PROTECTION BY THE STATES. SERIAL 66. COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, The CHAIRMAN. There are present two gentlemen from the War College who have been invited by Mr. Dyer to discuss a bill which he introduced. Mr. DYER. Mr. Chairman, there are two gentlemen here, Maj. Spingarn and Capt. Hornblower, and they desire to present some facts in regard to this proposed legislation to protect citizens of the United States against lynching, etc. STATEMENTS OF MAJ. J. E. SPINGARN, UNITED STATES INFANTRY, R. C., MILITARY INTELLIGENCE BRANCH, EXECUTIVE DIVISION, GENERAL STAFF, AND CAPT. GEORGE S. HORNBLOWER, UNITED STATES NATIONAL ARMY, MILITARY INTELLIGENCE BRANCH, GENERAL STAFF. The CHAIRMAN. Major, we will be glad to hear you. Maj. SPINGARN. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, the attention of the Military Intelligence Branch was called to Representative Dyer's bill, H. R. 11279, by reason of the fact that our branch has evidence of a great deal of bitterness among the colored 3 people as a result of lynching, and, as a part of the military statesmanship of the General Staff, it was thought necessary that some kind of counter offensive should be started against this disaffection by having some such bill passed. There is no question, so far as we are concerned, of the disloyalty of the colored people, but there is an unusual amount of bitterness which is spread by some 200 colored newspapers, most of which are absolutely unknown to the white. people of the country; but these newspapers are read not only by colored civilians, but also in the Army camps by the colored soldiers, and the colored soldiers have more time to read now than they ever had before. This bitterness is also spread from mouth to mouth. Mr. WHALEY. Where is this disaffection, or where do you find it mostly? Maj. SPINGARN. It is virtually everywhere. I was going to read a number of reports from all over the country, but Representative Dyer tells me that you can only give me 10 minutes. Mr. IGOE. I suggest that we have an executive session if the major is going to disclose some secret facts in the possession of the military. authorities. Mr. GARD. Do you want to have this an executive session? Maj. SPINGARN. This information may be so worded that there will be nothing about it that need be kept private. Mr. WALKER. Have you gone into the constitutionality of this proposition? Maj. SPINGARN. Capt. Hornblower, of the Military Intelligence Branch, has done that, and if you will give him the time he will discuss that thorcughly. Now, as I said, we believe that the way to counteract this bitterness is not by suppressing newspapers, but by a counter offensive which would strike at the cause of the disaffection, and so our attention was attracted to the Dyer bill. We found, however, that the Dyer bill was based on the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution, or, in other words, that it was not a war measure, and our interest in this matter is entirely military. We wish to have an antilynching bill passed, because lynching may be regarded as interfering with the success of the United States in the war. Mr. REAVIS. Why would that interfere with the success of the war any more than the commission of murder by any other method? Maj. SPINGARN. I was coming to that. Capt. Hornblower, of the Military Intelligence Branch, was requested to draw a bill based not on the controversial fourteenth amendment but on the war powers granted by the Constitution. We approve the principle of the Dyer bill, and something of that sort ought to be enacted, but we think that we have substituted for it something which is more available at this time, because it is distinctly and only a war measure. intended to accelerate the prosecution of the war, and nothing else. Therefore this tentative draft was made by Capt. Hornblower, which reads as follows: A BILL To punish the crime of lynching in so far as such crimes tend to prevent the success of the United States in war. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever the United States is at war whoever shall participate in any mob or riotous assemblage whereby death or mortal injury is intentionally caused to any man or woman employed in the service of the United States, or any man liable to service in the military forces of the United States under the act approved May 18, 1918, entitled "An act to authorize the President to increase temporarily the Military Establishment of the United States," or urder any present or future statute of the United States or any person held under arrest by or as a prisoner of or in internment by the United States, or the wife, husband, brother, sister, father, mother, son, daughter, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, or first cousin, whether of the whole blood or half blood, of any person in the military or naval forces of the United States or liable to service therein, as aforesaid, shall be deemed guilty of a capital offense against the United States and shall upon conviction be punished in accordance with the punishment prescribed for the crime of murder under the United States Criminal Code. Mr. WALSH. May I ask you a question at this point? Maj. SPINCARN. Certainly. Mr. WALSH. Suppose, for instance, there is a colored person in the United States Army and in camp now, and a crowd should assemble and get by the guards and take that colored person out and hang him to a tree. Do I understand that the Government would be without authority to punish tho e people at the present time? Maj. SPINGARN. The Government has authority to punish the crime that would be committed in that particular case, but suppcse Mr. WALSH (interposing). Suppose a young man were walking up yesterday to register, and as he came out, after he had registered, he was seized and lynched. Would the Government be without authority to punish the people who lynched him? Maj. SPINGARN. I will refer that question to Capt. Hornblower. Capt. HORNBLOWER. I am afraid that the difficulty about that is that the statute which would cover that offense would not impose adequate punishment. Mr. WALSH. Would not that be interfering with the recruiting of the Army? Capt. HORNBLOWER. Perhaps so, but the penalty is only six months' imprisonment. Mr. REAVIS. If it be true that the Government has no jurisdiction over an offense of that kind, then by what authority does the War Department consider tho e boys who register as deserters if they do not show up in the draft? If they are not in the drafted Army from the time that they are registered, so as to make crimes committed against them ainenable to the Federal law, then by what authority does the War Department consider them in the Military Establishment to the extent of considering them as deserters when they do not appear? Capt. HORNBLOWER. My opinion is that they are not considered as deserters until they have actually been inducted into the military service. They are considered to be draft evaders under a special provision of the selective-draft act if they fail to appear. That is their status from the time they are registered until they are inducted into the service if they fail to respond to the summons, but there is a clear distinction between a man's status between the time he is registered and the time he is inducted into the service and his status after he is inducted into the service. Mr. REAVIS. If the War Department does not consider a registered man as a part of the Military Establishment, upon what theory of the Constitution would you make murder committed on him a Federal effense? Capt. HORNBLOWER. On the theory |