The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1911-05-05
THE SLAVE TRADE

When natives of Africa were being
kidnapped and put aboard vessels to
be carried across the Atlantic to be
sold into life of service for which
they received nothing, those engaged
in the inhuman traffic were known
as "slave traders" or "slavers," and
the way the poor creatures were
crowded into the holds of vessels
and confined there like so many hogs
in a pen, without the commonest
means of toilet or ventilation, gave
rise to stories of suffering and death
that were a reproach upon the CIV
ilized world.
Finally laws were passed against
engaging in the trade, and vessels
ploughed the seas watching for
'slavers. And when about to be
overtaken, the vessel loaded with
negros often caused it's human car
go to file out and Jump into the sea
to remove the evidence of its crime.
During the past few years much
has been discovered about men and
women dealing in their own coun-
trymen-people of their own race
and the fairest of them all-and in
vestigation shows the average term
of service to about five years, for
which they receive oniy death and
burial. The term of service is mark
ed by deception, treachery, humiliG-
ton, insult, SEPARATION from friends,
melancholy, loss of health, disease
and long suffering, ending in death.
The incentive to build up and con-
tinue the business is the enrmous
profits-always going ultimately to
somebody else, not the active victims.
1t is generally conceded that the un-
natural or depraved passions of men
and women are the prime cause of
the business, but commissions that
have made the most comprehensive
study of the evil are now advancing
this theory of profits as being the
incentive, and their reports seem to
prove the conclusion.
History for thousand years past
is replete with efforts of society to
stamp out. OF regulate such things,
and success and failure have always
played in the balance. The report
of commissions that have made a
worldwide study of the subject, re-
veals such appalling conditions that
the more progressive nations are be-
coming aroused to action. The most
drastic laws are being enacted
against every step in the business,
and the twin vices" white slavery
and the liquor trade, are forcing
themselves upon the peoples atten-
ton.
The report above referred to by
its darkest phase brings the most
encouraging ray of light on the sub
ject. The thought that the evil is
kept up more by the desire for finan-
cial gain than by the inherent de-
pravity of humanity, that an over
whelming percentage of the victims
of the traffic are by inclination the
least disposed to 1t, but are deliber-
ately entrapped, and that the patrons
of the business are largely brought
into It by frequent contact with OPP
portunity, afford the hope that by
drastic measures to destroy the bust
ness end of the evil the greatest
problem will have been met.
Another hope lies in improving
the conditions that make for heredi-
tary effects. The use of liquors and
drugs that create abnormal appetites
and that are magnified and stamped
upon the rising generation so that
they are influenced by them all their
lives, is perhaps the second greatest
hope for eliminating the causes of
conditions of society that afford
ready material for the slavers.