merly an Ohioan, was in the city today en route to Washington, D. C, to attend the Missionary Council of the Episcopal Church, and the convention of the American House of Bishops. Speaking of the race problem, he expressed himself quite plainly. " While I do not justify lynching, I can find no other remedy adequate to suppress the crime for which this has been made a punishment by the people of the South," he said. " I am a Northern man, and used to look with hor- ror on lynching, but since I have been South, my eyes have been opened. Imprisonment does no good. " I am of the opinion that it would be well to leave the solution of the negro question to the Southern people ; they know best what to do. " The enfranchisement of the negro has been a seri- ous mistake. Very few of them have any convictions and their votes are cast as a rule for the men who pay the most money." Such opinions, coming from the Christian Church, stirred up all kinds of bad blood, especially as only a few days before another " pastor " had expressed himself to the same effect. The following from the same newspaper stands in evidence of this (Monday, September 7, 1903, p. 2) : — SCORE PRO-LYNCHING PASTOR The Rev. Mr. Hillyer of Macon Gets Letters Suggesting That He Ought to be Hanged. (Special to The New York Times.) Macon, Ga., Sept. 6. — The sermon of the Rev. J. I. Hillyer, a prominent Baptist minister, in which he at- tempted to show that there is Biblical authority for lynch-law, has resulted in his receiving abusive letters from the Northern and Western States. Some of these letters are couched in language that approaches a vio- lation of the postal laws.
