The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1875-11-17
THE TRAFFIC IN SEED COTTON.
It is about time the General A

| xuE LAT E1V IN OEhV WA VNs
It is about time the General As
sembly took some action in regard to
the nefarious practice of trafflcing in
seed cotton after dark. Most ofthe
troubles which have arisen in the pa
rishes can be traced to this PERM.
cious custom. 1t may be urged that
as all men are free now, no one can
deny the right Of every man to dis
pose of his property. in any manner
that to him may seem best, whether
during daylight or dark, and that no
one can justifiably object to it. But
there is another side to the picture
which is not SO rosy -colored, and it
is that the privilege is abused by
thieves who take the honest earn.
ings Of others and sell them to those
who secretly conniye at the practice.
And it is SO wherever cotton is grown
in the South. Now, the question ari-
ses, how to put stop to this state
of things. Police juries may enact
such laws as to them may seem best
to prevent this illegal traffic, but
they cannot 20 beyond the limit al
lowed them by the State in such
cases, and it is for the General AS
sembly to take the matter in hand
snd devise some ways and means to
prevent it in the future. It is hard
for the poor white and colorcd men
who only raise a few bales of cotton
every year to have their produce sto
len and sold under their very noses
and have no means to preventit. To
warn all purchasers ofcotton at night
to abandon this plan of doing bust.
ness, may all be very we'll, and, un-
der the circumstances, highly pro-
per, but sufferers have no legal RENE
dy to preventit unless they take the
law into their own hands and destroy
the premises Of those who will not
heed the warning fairly given them.
In certain cases the ends may justify
the means, and perhaps few will be
disposed to censure, but it is a viola
ton of the frstrules ofsociety, peace
and order, and must for the sake of
harmony be abandoned. Laws may
and ought to be enacted to protect
the honest producer in the results OF
his labor, and the member of the
Legislature, House or Senate, who
will introduce bill covering the
grounds Of complaint, will deserve
well of the people and receive their
thanks for SO doing.
A few days ago one Of our largest
cotton planters, colored man, told
us that during the previous week,
when the moon was in her full, near
~ one acre Of his best cotton had
been picked and carried away and he
had not the remotest idea who the
thieves could have been. The stolen
cotton could not have been taken far
for purchaser, whether on this or
the other side of the river. What
remedy had he for the theft, and how
could he have prevented it unless by
having a watch kept upon his farm
during the night2 To employ men
for such purpose would only in
crease expenses already heavy, and
while he may have prevented it in
this manner upon his own place, hun
dreds Of others would have suffered
for want of watching, and so on to the
end of the chapter.
The only effective remedy we see
for this, is the passage of a law max
ing it a penal offense for any person
to purchase seed cotton between sun
set and sunrise, and to force every
seller Of seed cotton to prove that be
raised it and was legitimately his
own property. This may appear
hard to the industrious small produ-
Ger, and in one sense casts doubt
upon his integrity, but when he is
made to understand that it is as
much for his good as that of others,
if a sensible man, he will not object
to it.
While this nocturnal traffic is per
mitted to continue, we will have no
peace in the cotton growing sections
of the State, and the sooner stop is
put to it by legislative enactment the
better for all concerned, and the vel
fare Of the people at large. Sugar
Planter. Oct. 80.
4 LBATA SILVER PLATED WARE
"A at
FERGUSON & SCHNACK.