p. 14 | MEN BOUGHT AND SOLD by T.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jan 23, 1907

MEN BOUGHT AND SOLD.

By T.

IN Elizabethtown, Ky., a man was recently sold to a farmer for nine months for one dollar. The man was charged with "vagrancy," and they have a statute in that state permitting such persons to be sold for a given time to the highest bidder.

This may seem like an innocent occurrence, but if a man may be sold for nine months, what is to hinder selling him for the term of his natural life? And if a man may be sold for "vagrancy" it is easy to find other excuses for selling men. No matter how honest or industrious a man may be, if he is overtaken by a misfortune that renders him weak or defenseless, he is liable to be sold.

Lurking under the shadow of this apparently innocent thing is the principle that makes it possible for one class of men to permanently enslave another. To keep ourselves free, it is necessary constantly to keep in mind the basic principles of freedom and eternally contend for them. Vagrancy is to be properly dealt with, but we can not afford to deal with it in such a way as to lay the foundation for slavery. You may say that there is no immediate danger; but if we sow the seed to-day, we must surely reap the fruit to-morrow.