Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-11-02

| SUCCESSFUL, euOTl VIII De iudue Wnen tue
Legislature reassembles TO have the laws
governing labor in South Carolina radical
ly changed. What the leagues demand
and it must be remembered that they
are directed by some of the heaviest land
owners and most influential men in the
S'ate-is, that hereafter all agricultural
each violation of which shall be considered
a misdemeanor punishable by forfeiture
Of crops or Imprisonment, or still worse,
by whipping. The leagues will also ask
that all unemployed negroes shall be de-
clared Migrants under the law. and pun
ished either by the lash or Imprisonment,
and that the same course be pursued in
regard to all persons found trespasslng.
Failing in this effort to secure the passage
of these and similar "reform laws, the
gentlemen who compose the leagues have
agreed among themselves that they will
refuse to sell or rent land to black men.
that they will only employ field hands and
other aborers at rates of wages to be
agreed upon by them, that they will en-
ploy no servant or workman without the
consent of his former master, and that no
cotton, corn. or other agricultural prod
uct shall be purchased from negroes, I'M
less such products have been raised upon
the land of the purchaser. How abso-
lutely the black laborer, under such sys-
tenn as this, would be in the power OF
his white employer is sufficiently obvious
without further comment. We can only
regret that no mention of the Labor
Leagues was made by the eloquent gen
tlemen who were recently at such pains
to inform the President that the negroes
were now sure of being protected in all
their rights. Their silence on that sub
iect can be well understood, however,
for a mention of The South Carolina or
CARNATIONS would of necessity have
brought to light other matters of a SINH
lar character which every good Southern
democrat is anxious to conceal.
For instance the dominant party in
Louisiana is not satisfied with the very
Just Registration law now in force in that
State, and plain notice has been given
that it is soon to be repealed and poll-tax
law substituted in its place. Those who
advocate this change pretend to do so on
the ground that il would result in the to-
tai suppression of frauds at elections, and
would bring a large revenue to the State.
1t is commended that Registration laws al
WAYS promote the election abuses which
they are designed to prevent, and that
they are cumbersome In operation, ex-
pensive to the taxpayers, and erroneous
in principle" On the other hand, it is
argued by the advocates of the change
that a poll tax of two dollars and fifty
cents, to be paid by each voter before he
should be allowed to deposit his ballot,
would produce a revenue of 100000
year to the State, besides doing away
with the expense of $4,000, 900 per annum
which it is alleged is now made necessa-
ry y the Registration law. or course.
the newspapers of Louisiana are all warm
" In favor of the proposed enactment.
The New Orleans democrat, the official
organ of the White League, commenting
upon it, says, in substance, that a man
who is not willing to pay small pol-tax
for the maintenance of his Government is
not fit, in fact, to be voter. Further,
il approves of the proposed new law on
the ground that though it might measure
bly curtail the vote of the State, it would
at the same time rid the election of vot-
ers whose influence is pernicous. In plain
English this means that the democrats OF
Louisiana desire the passage of a poll-tax
law because they know from the expert
ence of their brethren in Georgia that such
| AN enactment would have the effect Of
driving the black men from the polls, thus
'ridding the elections of their pernicious
| influence" Two dollars and fifty cents
may not be large sum. but there are at
least twenty thousand negro voters in
Louisiana who could not afford to pay it
Cor the privilege of going to the polls.
Many of those who did so would doubt
less, before the day of election, lose their
tax receipts, and consequently be disfran.
chised 1t is for these reasons, and be-
cause the present Registration enactment
prevents naturalization frauds in New Or
| leans, that the democrats are so earnest in
their demand for the passage of poll-tax
law.