Arizona republican., 1903-06-10
PHOENIX. ARIZONA. JUNE 10, 1903.
Modern Slavery In Alabama.

During the past few years the press reports have contained, from time to time. stories of the peonage to which negroes are subjected in remote sec tions of the south. but only recently has the government given attention 10 the matter. Last week United States secret service officers arrested Robert N. Franklin of Goodwater, Alabama, upon the charge of being a party to revolting system of enslaving helpless negro laborers. This system consists in securing the arrest of the victims upon trivial charges and their sentence to convict camps, where their labor IS desired by contractors. The Washing ton correspondent of the New York Evening Post, in describing the system gives the details of typical instance which are briefly as follows:
 .In 1901 a young negro was working for a cotton buyer at Goodwater. Ala bama, and had agreed to work for certain length of time. One day ne went into the country about two miles and whede returning to town was ar rested TOT DIcdhlll5 hlS NCAANASA~Nf ried to Goodwater. arraigned before a justice of the peace, and fined, with costs. five dollars and fifty cents. As he was unable to pay or to give secur- itv. he was transported to an adjoin- ing county and sold to a contractor for convict labor. He was required to sign an instrument in writing, which proved to have been a contract to work
 .l.- rr,rN moi la IT read nor write, and the instrument was net read to him. he had no idea of the plight into which he was putting himself. He is a good farm m-hand, and having served his year and month or two over, he discovered that his em- ployer had no right to hold him, and attempted to escape. He left the farm. seized a skiff mOored on the banks of the Cocsa river, made his way across, and took to the woods. The hounds put on his track, after chase of two and a half days, caught the runaway. The negro heard the dogs good many times. knew the voice or each, and felt sure that they would catch him in the end. but he kept on moving till he could stagger no fur ther, and when the pursuing party reached him they took him back to the convict farm There he received a severe whipping. The form of trial was next given him at the house of the contractor, and he was sentenced to one years labor for breaking the con- tract and six months more for stealing the skiff. He was then compelled to sign a new contract with his employer, agreeing to work till August, 1904 This last contract and the person of the negro are now in the possession or the United States marshal"
 This case" says the Posts corre- spondent, "is only typical of hundreds of others and Franklin is only one of many conspirators against whom in dictments have been secured. The growing abuse, he writes, was brought to the attention of the department of justice by United States District At torney Reese, at Montgomery, Ala bama. In the prosecution of offenders the attorney general has been vigor- ousIy supported by the treasury de- partment, which controls the secret service. We are inclined to question whether the revolting system exposed has acquired the dimensions asserted in the dispatches, and we are glad to recall that in some of the southern states the whole system of convict camps has been overthrown by popular indignation at its inhumanity.