The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-05-17
Labor Laws in Louisiana.

From he Tribune.
Ex Governor Hahn, OF Louisiana-who never
was reckoned a very tempestuous radIca-has
written letter TO Senator Howe in elucidation
of the laws passed by the Louisiana Legislature
relating to freedmen. The Louisiana Legsla-
ture had no doubt OF the merit of their work, TOR
they printed it sll in a pamphlet-but that was
for home consumption, and calculated, like the
amanacs, for the meridian OF New Orleans. OF
the code as a whole Governor Hahn Justly re.
marks that "howe much credit may be due
for the skill with which the dniD1us of these
laws was sought to be disguised, there is never
theless really very little desire to do justice to
one-half of the population OF Louisiana"
The first statute requires the freedmen within
the first ten days Of January OF each year to
make contracts for the whole year. That IS what
is called free labor in Louisiana. Suppose we
transfer 1t to New York, in order to test its
value. Put a law in the statute-book of this
State, requiring every mechanic or day laborer
on aIm to dispose of himself for the whole
year by bargain to be made in the first ten DAYS
OF the year. If he refuse, If he cannot make
bargain to his liking, If he find capital lCagued
to control the labor market during those ten
days, 1t he see employers conspiring to fix wages
at five dollars a month, and therefore the me-
chanic or laborer decline to sell himself for such
a plice-call him vagrant, subject him to arrest
bya Justice of the peace, and sell him at auc-
ton, or put him at forced labor as a Punishment
what the law OF Louisiana does for her free
lab rers. We can imagine what the working
men OF New York would think OF it. They would
say this is law which makes laborer nomi-
nally free for ten days in the year. and really
slave tor the other three hundred and ffty-fYe.
They would say, We will not respect or obey
law so foolish, unjust, or inhuman. And they
would be right. Is there, then, any difference
between New York and Louisiana which can
make statute which would be wicked here q
righteous law there?
The contract required in Louisiana must be
entered into in writing before q justice of the
peace, and when written shall be conclusive
evidence OF the intent of the parties thereto"
One OF the parties thereto is negro who by the
law of the State for fifty years has been forbid
den to learn to read or write. How is he to
know what the written instrument contains
There are to be two 'disuterested Witnesses
Who can they be? Not negroes, who can
witness nothing, but white men, planters
planters friends nelghbors OF the Justice and Of
the planter, with every bias on the side of
their own race and every prejudice against the
negro. A contract thus enforced thus put in
writing, and thus witnessed, is practically
contract of which the freedman knows nothing
in which he has no representative, in which
his interests are at the mercy of those whose
interests are In every way opposed to his.
The workingmen OF New York may say this
distant injustice does not concern them. They
are mistaken. They will yet learn that the
Interests of labor are the same throughout the
country, and that it is not possible to pass law
depressing labor in Louisiana that does not
strike at the rights of labor in New York.