The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-26
Age of Consent Legislation
(continued from Ninth Page.)

neighborhood in which | was reared Gin
VirginiaD il Is thought to be not only
all right, but the Bible is given as an
authority for the assertion, that members
of the churches may cohabit with each
other with Gods approval. A text, which
of course exists only in the imagination
of these ignorant people, is quoted TO
sustain the assertion.
The legislation of Solon at Athens as
early as 600 3. G. shows an attempt 10
meet the demands of cultivated lust. !
use the term "cultivated lust" advisedly.
THE BROTHEL Is THE SUPPLY TO
MEET THE DEMAND OF MAN
CULTIVATED PASSION. Scion pur-
chased women and fixed prices, and 1t
became a profitable business to the gov
ernment. A similar asystem started in
Rome at later period Among the
English-speaking people this legislation
started by the licensing of houses OF
prostitution in the city OF London IN
1851. AS has been already shown, the
American laws regarding age of consent
were taken from England.
THE PRIMARY SOURCE OF ALL
AGE Of CONSENT LEGISLATION IS
THE DOUBLE STANDARD OF NOR
Atty. If there must be two standards,
then somebody's daughter must be made
an outcast to sustain the mans standard
while he breaks the woman's. The double
standard position is utterly and absurd
ly illogical. Aside from that, however,
and having discussed the origin and his
tory of age-of-co consent legislation, what
ma ybe said about it's results? The nat
uarl results of such legislation as that
which has been pointed out as existing
on the statute books of the various
States, might be easily foretold even II
hideous illustrations did not already
point to the horrible crimes that are per-
mitted under the cloak of such laws,
which not only allow but even encourage
boys and men to become moral lepers,
and then allow and encourage these lepers
to ruin thousands of our young girls
and maidens and thus send them either
to carly graves, or, worse still, to houses
of prostitution.
Do not imagine, my owcitizens,
that / am dealing i'm mere figures of
speech, or exaggerating for the sake of
effect What / have sad, or shall say, is
easily capable of proof, and l would like
for that sober fact to burn itself into
your brains The results of such age Of
consent legislation are seen in the case
of little Nellie Conroy, 12year old
child who was sold by drunken mother
TO her own paramour, and after being
cast adrift entered house of ill-fame
where else would society permit her?
There was no law to punish this mother,
and the law was a cloak to protect the
brute who ruined the girl.
Its results are seen in the case of
man enticing an unsuspecting young girl
into house of bad repute on the night
of December 20, 1886, in Chicago, and
running her. When brought before the
courts the man was fined the sum of
ONE DOLLAR! a human soul going,
going, gone" at one dollar! Can the
slave market surpass this?
i ann not bringing these awful instances
to your attention without a purpose; and
that purpose is to give you concrete in
stances-andl they are by no means ex-
ceptional ones-showing the inadequacy
OF existing laws for the protection Of our
young girls from brutes, and showing,
also, how such laws actually serve as an
encouragement to boys and men to wal
low in sexual vice.
To show how legislation discriminates
in favor of boys and men and against
girls, l might mention the instance of
lad under 16 enticing a girl 13 years old
from her home and taking her to his
sisters for few days, where she yielded
two or three times to his desires. What
said the law? The girl was one year I'M
10 h., aP but fho hoy
not be touched because he was under IS
and therefore not responsible. Here is
boy Is and not responsible, while the
girl, had she been IA, could have been
responsible in the sight OF the law and
could have consented to her own ruin;
and the scoundrel who ruined her, were
he Is or 25 or 40, could walk out of the
court room as innocent as saint, so far
as the law is concerned.
Another instance is on record where a
charity organization was appealed to, to
invoke the aid of the law to prevent the
parents of a 14-year- old girl from forcing
her into life of shame. The attorney OF
the Society filed the necessary papers in
the case and was informed by the court
that there was no law in the State to
CONtt the case. Inc JuuSe vi lHG NlTCult
Court, after carefully investigating the
matter, seriously advised the Society TO
kidnap the child in order to save her.
Here is a Judge, the upholder of Law,
advising charity organization TO
BREAK THE LAW IN ORDER TO
SAVE A LITTLE GIRL FROM RUIN,
What is government for? Is it to pro-
tect the strong in their wrong doing, or
is it to SHIELD the weak from injustice and
oppression. and to secure equal rights for
all? What a state of hellish anarchy is
this, my fellowmen, when the State pro-
tects the parents who would sell their
daughters virtue, and protects the brute
who robs her of that which should he
more sacred than her life. and all because
she was IA years old and could consent"
to her ruin, Why need one go outside
of this State to speak of such instances?
Doubtless investigation would show them
to exist in North Carolina also. l am
told by a lawyer that the same thing
could happen in this State; that parent
could sell his Tor herr daughters virtue,
If the child is Il, and the law could effect
nothing. In this State girl from IA to is
may not legally marry without consent