G
THE SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE SECTION
TEMPERING THE UW IN DIXIE
BIT HARRIS DICKSON
Wustajctiot,sr J. N. MARCHAND
IIB NEGRO, consciously or uncon-
sciously, occupies a mental attitude
toward the law that is essentially an
tagonistic -to that of the.average white
. , man. Blacks hide each other from the
officers and refuse to give information,
' which constitutes a grave factor in the
Southern problem. If a stranger should appear in
a negro settlement and ask for a certain man, the
neighbors will stolidly deny all knowledge of him.
And the deputy sherilT seeking information is suro
not to get it.
There are, perhaps, two reasons for this; one deep
and racial, the other a reason that shames the white
man and his boasted law. The 11 ret cause goes to the
very core of things. The Anglo-Saxon for ages has
guarded that priceless hcritago he calls tho law.
Detail by detail, the traditions of his race bring down
to him the story of how each precious privilege was
won. His right to bear arms; his right to know tho
exact nature of a criminal chargo against him; pre
sentment by a grand jury; speedy and public trial
by a jury of his peers; to bo confronted by tho
witnesses; to be heard in his own defense every
lino and syllable of that story is written in the best
blood that warms his veins, poured out upon a hun
dred battlefields. In his heart the Anglo-Saxon says :
"Tho law is mine, for I have mado it." Somewhcro
in tho depths of every white naturo lurks a pride in
tho work of these forefathers, and an instinctive
desire to uphold it.
Tho negro race, through its thousands of jungle
years, made no such laws; jungle hearts beat to tho
stirrings of no such impulse. To the negro law means
an irksome collar that somebody else has riveted to
his nock. The same might also be said of many
immigrants, newly ar
rived upon our shores,
to whom tho law typi
fies terrorism and tyr
anny. They, too, havo
had no part in its mak
ing; havo only felt its
wrong and wrath.
Hut there is another
reason that is not a the
ory. However distaste
ful it may bo to us of tho
South, wo should look
facts squarely in tho
face.
The negro seems to
think that tho law was
devised for his oppres
sion. It looks thot way
to him, and ho has excel
lent grounds for tho be
lief. Throughout tho
South, especially in its
cities this sacred law,
built up by patient con
turies of sacrifice and
heroism, is often loft in
tho hands of tho most
degraded whites for its
enforcement. The negro
absorbs his notion of the
law from that officer
with whom ho comes
most closely in contact. Too frequently that officer
is tho lowest type of thief-catcher, himself a violator
of every rule of morality and every idea of decency.
He may live among negroes and with negro women;
, ho may eat, drink and sleep in a negro house. His
modo of life may merit, win and wear tho negro's
unutterable contempt. Tho negro knows full well
that this man arrests him not from any high-minded
motive of enforcing tho law, but solely for tho pur
pose of wringing from him a few dollars in tho way
of costs.
If tho dockets of every justice of tho peace were
thoroughly oxamined, they would show innumerable
entries of a one-dollar fine, and seven, eight, even
ten dollars costs. Tho one dollar goes to tho state;
the constablo and justice divide the ten. As their
i
income is dependent upon convktion, it is remarkable
indeed when a negro can be acquitted in their courts.
Of course, this is not universal; there are many
honest justices and excellent constables. But there
arc too many of the other kind. .
The fine the state's portion is often remitted
and tho negro allowed to pay his costs in weekly
instalments. It is no uncommon thing for the con
stable to go on Saturday evening to some mill or
public work where negroes are employed and meet
them as they come out of tho office with their pay.
Here tho white official receives his weekly blackmail,
and the negro may know perfectly well that he has
been guilty of no crime. But it is cheaper for him
to submit to this extortion than to employ a lawyer
and to fight.
LET us suppose a case : A working negro who gets
nine dollars a week is arrested, charged with some
trivial offense. Tho question of his guilt or inno
cence cuts no figure, and may be disregarded. The
only question to the constable is whether the negro
ms a job and can pay a fine. He is fined one dollar,
and nine dollars costs. It would cost tho negro ten
dollars to employ a lawyer, and it 's just as easy to
pay ono man as tho other. By paying the constable
ho keeps on friendly terms; by fighting his case he
only paves the way for another arrest. So the negro
goes to a money-lender and borrows the ten dollars,
giving a bill of sale of his household furniture. He
agrees to pay this loan shark twenty-five per cent
interest a month "two bits on the dollar," as the
negro puts it
By no possibility can this negro ever hope to get
ten dollars to repay tho original debt. He simply
takes upon himself tho lifelong burden of two dollars
and a-half n month to
bo paid out of his earn
ings. Month in and
month out, ho pays this
two dollars and a-half,
until ho has discharged
tho debt many times
over; but he still goes
on paying. He can not
do that and live. Tho
money-lender knows
that if tho negro were
to take his caso into
court the bill of sale
would bo held invalid
and ho would bo forced
to disgorge every cent
that had been paid in
excess of the original ten
dollars. But the money
lender is shrewd. He
will never lend.the negro
an amount sufficient to
justify his employment
of a lawyer. If by any
chance the negro tells
his troubles to some
friendly attorney, who
out of kindness under
takes his cause, that
money shark immediate
ly abandons the claim,
tor be can not attend to
go into court with it. He does not dare to let other
negroes know that his debts are uncollectible under
the law. Oftentimes the loan shark seeks the con
stable, and that benevolent officer threatens the negro
with "arrest for obtaining money under false pro
tenses. Then the negro steals something to pay it, or
leaves the state.
But tins incomprehensible black man will volun
tarily pay the loan shark before he pays his grocery
bill or Ins house rent, for the reason that ho must
havo a place to go and get a quick loan the next timo
lie gets into trouble with the justice of the peace.
Bad as the loan-shark system may be in the South,
it is possibly worse in Northern cities, notably Wash
ington. But here the negro is the chief sufferer,
which makes it a part of tho problem. It may be
When tho therlff captured Milo, he still hud the bub
said, however, that where a negro is able to make
his bond and appeals from a conviction before a
justice of the peace to a court where his case is tried
by a jury of twelve men, this jury, knowing the
system, almost invariably acquits him. The justice
of the peace, to discourage appeals, fixes his fine and
costs at a bargain-counter figure, cutting the price
just a little below a lawyer's fee.
It is the low white man who keeps the cocaine
dead-fall for the negro; it is the white man who
keeps the so-called "negro dive." The negro sees
tho constable refusing to arrest the men who run
crap games and sell whiskey in prohibition terri
tory. The dive-keeper is a political power and helps
to keep the constablo in office. The negro feels him
self singled out and punished, while tho low-class
white criminal goes free; and he resents it. Worse
than this, he sees decent and respectable white men
The white official receiye hit weekly blackmail
voting to perpetuate tho system. It destroys bis
respect for the only law he knows, and he can not
altogether be blamed.
DECENT and respectable business men do not real
ize what is going on under their noses, nor do
the' indorse the system that their votes perpetuate.
They simply do not know, and the sorry scheme rocks
along. Tho legitimate fees of a justice of tho peace
are rarely sufficient for an honest support, and high
class men do not seek such positions. There's the rub.
It is a far cry from tke English country squire keeping
tho King's peace on his own lands to an American
justice of the peace. Tho vice lies in tho abominable
feo system, that makes the income of tho justice
dependent upon the number of men ho convicts. No
man would bo allowed to sit upon a jury, nor would
any judge preside, who had a direct interest in tho
outcome of the trial. But tho justice of the peace
is both judge and jury, and tho costs paid by con
victed persons go to him. If he acquits a man ho
gets no costs and the constable gets no costs. If he
persists in acquitting people, his constablo will leave
him; and it is the constable who brings grist to
the mill.
This methodical wrongdoing is not racial; that is,
it is not directed against the negro becauso he is
black, bi I because be is ignorant and helpless.
Neither is it peculiar to the South. The samo practice
of plunder by standing officers has obtained in all
countries of the world since the beginning of time.
An ancient Chinese proverb warns the people to
"Beware of the. magistrate." Among tho Turks, the
Cadi was notoriously purchasable. After hearing
a case, he always took it under advisoment, pending
(Continued on Page 171
