To the Editor of the Crimson:

It is unfortunate that certain groups at Harvard are now trying to make an issue out of the antilynching bill. The most unfortunate aspect is that any action on the bill will inevitably result in a hard fight in Congress. These times are not to be filled with the picture of a Congress wasting days on such a bill.

If the truth is to be known, no need exists for the passage of anti-lynching legislation. Such a bill too often is backed by a group of self-called northern liberals, a group with little or no knowledge of and less desire to understand the South. A group which 80 years ago would have been staunch abolitionists and supporters of reconstruction. And too often a group filled with the human urge to meddle--in a time when there's too much meddling.

No decent Southerner either supports or condones lynching. A steady rise of public opinion has resulted in the number of lynchings dropping to none or one or two a year. But those same decent Southerners rightfully resent this type of interference from outside sources.

It might be well to point out that serious doubt exists that any federal anti-lynch bill could improve conditions. A lynching is not the result of careful planning on the part of a few leaders. It springs from mob violence. When such violence has risen to the point where it will result in a lynching, the existence of a law will have no effect. And is it to be supposed that any federal law will result in later effective action against a mob whose leaders often "are not known".

No one denies that a serious race problem exists in this country. Anyone who knows the South realizes that its democratic solution rests in careful and planned education toward cooperation and understanding. Raking up the issue of the anti-lynch bill has more harmful than good possibilities. Thomas Carroll '42.