The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1907-02-02

! timidate them INTO staying dt
home on election day.
The Negro is wanted in the
| South as a beast of burden, and
as nothing else. So long as he
is willing TO remain .such, to
hold himself as a servant, and to
ask no questions about his rights
as a citizen, the South wants him.
lust the moment he begins L.
open his eyes to his possibilities
the South throws off all pretense
OF friendship and recognizes in
! him a menace to her civilization.
which it is her duty to muzzle.
If the Negro is lacking in the
( quality of virtue, the white man
is to blame for it. The difficulty
started far back in slavery days.
1t was the duty of the slaves
to increase and multiply and re-
plenish the purses of their owne',
hence he encouraged the pro-cre-
ative act. When the Negroes
did not breed fast enough to SUIT
him the white man took a hand
in the matter himself, and helped
along the process of evolution
and incidentally added TO the
value of his personal property,
by bringing into the world "a
MANY half-breeds as he was able
Z To produce. But now the white
man complains bitterly because
the tendency of the Negro of to-
day is to reproduce his SpccI,,
irrespective of the law. The
tendency was inherited from his
ancestors. and originally was foS-
tered and encouraged by the
white owners themselves.
As matter of fact. immortality
is still encouraged in the Ne
grocS. and when not absolutely
encouraged. IS winked at. The
law of Louisiana. at least. has
been made very elastic. in order
that Negro may marry as often
as he pleases. and secure a di-
vCrce without difficulty. 1t Is
strange that there should be one
divorce law for the white man.
and another for the Negro. Per
haps the crudite law makers and
interpreters can explain IT. Inc
fact remains that without going
into court. without spending
more than. perhaps. frteen mn.
uteS of his time, without the OK
pcnditure of more than SIS. the
Negro can secure divorce.
which entities him To MARI,
again. have wondered. alwav~.
just where the graft" comes in.
graft" there is in this for some
one.
In MANY cases Negroes are
married by preacher. Nj
preachers will not perform the
ceremony under the circum-
stances. but there are MANY who
/ do. In such cases the marriage
does not bear the Eagle brand"
as one Negro woman expressed
1t. But no one interferes with
the relation thus established.
1t Is told that one woman went
to town to secure a license to
marry. who had been married
and divorced so many times the
Recorder would not help her out
any longer. and would not give
her a license. She went right on,
serenely, and married the man.
who was not divorced from his
own wife and they have never
been moleSted in any way.
II is readily seen that there
must be unwrittcn law, as the
State does not sanction it except
in that it does not put a stop to
it. incidentally who gets the
money paid for Negro divorces
secured in this loose way? Does
it go into the public treasury o.
does the lawyer split up the SIS
with the official:
Why don't you turn that
woman out AMI get another
wife? She is no good to YOU.
You ought to have a wife that
could get out into the field and
work, was the advice of one
landlord.
Outside of other tendencies |
toward immortality, the crowding
of large families into one or two
small rooms. to put it mildly. Car
not but lead to broad views on
tire subject of virtue. Entire
families, as many as ten persons
often SleeD in one room IN ,,,l,;cL