The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1917-02-17

at stake, even in the face of the great
est odds, a courage meant by Dunbar
when he said,
"That the man who is strong to fight
his fight,
And whose will no front can daunt,
If the truth be truth and the right be
right,
Is the man that Ages want.
Tho he fail and die in grim defeat,
Yet he hath not fed the strife,
And the house of Earth will be more
sweet,
For the perfume of his lfe."
In the recent controversy concerning
the Municipal Sanitarium, when it
seemed that color was to be final bar
to recognized ability, man of noble
purpose plunged into the fray to Sc
cure for the applicant a fighting
chance. Some so-called friends endeav-
ored to dissuade him, by saying that
it was foolish for him to jeopardize a
promising political career for the sake
of an unknown brother in a forlorn
cause. What was his answer. "1nas-
much as you do it to any of these, my
people, so do you unto me, and at no
time will 1 fail to speak in their be-
half because of a cowardly fear of
consequences. If upholding the
rights of those who sent me means a
sacrificed career, then am 1 ready to
return to my people, for 1 am first a
Negro and then a politician. This an
swer was of the true courageous spirit
exemplifed in the life of Douglass, and
the brightest ray of optimism in our
future is the fact that some of it still
lives. And we now serve notice that
if any man selected to represent US
fails to demonstrate that he is an in
heritor of this spirit, should he fail to
voice the cause of justice and fair play
through selfish fear of personal conse-
quences, then shall he be branded I'M
worthy and return, Benedict Arnold
to his conscience and his race.
How important it is for us of to-
day, in the face of increasing Difficult
ties, in the day when it is the custom
rather than the exception to discour-
agingly and disparagingly of the Ne
gro, when we stand bewildered by sur
rounding prejudices that not only re-
strict our progress, but even peril our
peaceful existence, how necessary it is
that we be imbued with the courage
| typifed in the life of this fearless man.
And sometimes / wonder, if from his
position on the other side of the cur
tain in the Great Beyond, as he looks
anxiously down, solicitous for the fu-
ture of not only his race, but the en-
tire nation, if he attaches any blame
to us for failing to understand and
gratefully appreciate the actuating mo-
tives of nation that demonstrates
with Russia, and points a righteous fin
ger of protestation at Turkey, while in
the meantime busily engaged in legal
izing segregated pales of residence for
10000 of its own loyal citizens, con-
trary to all principles upon which its
constitution is based.
And I wonder if he understands as
we do not, why this nation should per-
nit and foster the creation of condi-
tions sharply limiting the possibilities,
opportunities and privileges, of one
tenth of its population, putting pre-
MUM on stagnation by withholding all
incentive to rising ambition, and then
add further injury by citing whenever
possible the tragic human failures that
are logical results of nationally approved
restrictions, as evidence per Sc of in
herent inferiority.
And as we view with alarm the in
creasing disrespect for law and order
when applied to us, wonder if he
sympathizes with our growing suspi-
cions that although we may not be ex-
actly cannon fodder, yet we are looked
upon as pretty good lynehing material.
And would he blame us, should we
draw the inference that American love
for the oppressed increases in direct
ratio with their distance. from her
shores.
Would he advocate meek surrender
of principles to conditions, especially
in view of the fact that whenever this
has occurred, and it has many times,
that prejudices and restrictions has
not been lessened, no additional priv
ileges have been handed us by a phil
anthropic world, but attendant upon
the trail has stalked Acknowledgement,
injustice, and illy-coneealed contempt.
Would that Douglass might answer
these questions that perplex us. I be,