The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1926-05-29

mobS members wants to fortify him
self with a DRINK OF WHISKEY,
good or bad,-well, he had better be
careful, for the Federal prohibition
men might get him.
Black, Wet, or Dry?
To compare color, or the absence
of color with a situation seems the
height Of incompatibility; yet, to the
Column there is an association be-
tween the Negro and the present wet
and dry "fandango" which is unforget-
able. The South, it is said, was the
pioneer in bringing about the present
alcoholic dearth, because of the alleged
drinking habits which the Negro had
absorbed from the white man. And now
comes the tremendous agitation for a
change in the Eighteenth Amendment,
which will restore the demon rum, in
some form, to the semi-thirsty coun-
try. Learned Senators have debated
the questions and have agreed on the
floor of the Senate that the Constitu-
ton has been 'winked" at in more
ways than one. Feeble efforts
though stronger than those aimed to
enforce the Fifteenth Amendment
have been made to make Federal su-
pervision stand up in the face of nullif-
cation, in the states, of the Eighteenth
amendment. Today finds ardent cham
pions, black and white, of the wet
cause, clamoring for notification of
the Eighteenth Amendment on the
ground that it was put over on the
people" that there never was united
dry" public sentiment; and that it is
an encroachment upon the rights of
states to decide for themselves the
question of whether they will be dry
or wet.
Upon reflection, it will recur to the
gentle reading public of black hue that
exactly the same arguments were ad-
vanced as to the Fifteenth Constitu-
tional Amendment; and SO emphatic
did the arguments become that virtu-
ally every southern state has found a
way of multiplying the application of
the Fifteenth Amendment to the BALI
wicks of Dixieland We would like to
ask the simple query: What kind of
a precedent would be established were
the Eighteenth Amendment to be posi-
lively nulli6ed; and what would be the
effect Of this precedent upon a later
attempt to positively nullify the Fif-
teenth?"
We quote ourselves, but learned SEN
ators who said in the record that under
such a precedent SLAVERY COULD
BE RE-ESTABLISHED. Is It not
time to let reason put rashness to rout,
and TO cling to the theory Of constitu-
tionaI enforcement. Who is worse. the
bootlegger or one who from him buys,
or the one who makes it impossible for
the Negro to shake hands with a bal
lot? Which is the more devastating
civicly, feeble endorsements Of the
Eighteenth Amendment or disregard
Of the Fifteenth Amendment? Which
is more important to a black man,
being citizen or being wet or dryf
We beg to sound the warning, simply,
sincerely and following a period Of
careful reasoning. Don't be fooled by
advocating repeal of the Eighteenth
Amendment, if you think your children
or your grandchildren might have the
time Of their lives trying to stay on
board the Constitution. Stand by the
Constitution, even if the country be-
comes bone-dry. Ask for enforce
ment ard reinforcement of the docu-
ment which gave citizenship to a slave
race, FOR. wet or dry, the Race is black.
from one drop upwards; and black