The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-07
GROSS EXAGdERATIoN AND MIS-
 REPRESENTATION.

The New York Evening Post is no more in favor of the seyerest punishment al- lowed by law for the men who may be proven guilty of the "peonage" charges brought against them. than is the great mass of citizens of Alabama. The latter feel that they will stand condemned be- fore the world if the practice is not broken up. and for the practice, although charged against only a few. there Is in Alabama nothing but feeling of utmost detestatlon and horror. The Post, how ever, seeks to take advantage of these few cases fin order to exploit its peculiar notion of virtually placing Alabama where it was during the awful and evil days of Reconstruction and negro and carpet-bag rule.
 It is too much the rule with extremists to take an, exceptional case and seek to make it general. Notwithstanding the evidence, of the papers of Alabama, from three of which The Post quotes in it's ar- ticle. published on this page of The Ad- vertiset. it would have the whole civiliz- ed world believe that there is a general disposition in Alabama to put the ne- groes into slavery. and that only Fed eral intervention in all of our affairs down here, can prevent it. That some men have taken advantage of some form of law, wholly wrong in Interpretation and execution, and deprived a few ne groes of their liberty under the guise of working out a court sentence. is true. This thing, when first heard of was taken cognizancs of by State Courts, and, as already stated, efforts were made to push those charged with the crime to trial and conviction. Men are prone to timidity when they have to do things calculated to set others. whom they have known always and associated with in daily life. into trouble. The conse- Quence was that trials in the vicinity were failures. Witnesses were either run off. or, on their own motion, got out of the way in order to avoid going into court.
 The efforts of the State to break up this business in all probability led to the ac. ton of the Federal Court. In the latter court, jurors are summoned from & large extent of territory. witnesses do not have to so on the stand right in the heart of the locality where the prisoners live and have families and connections, and, therefore, the Federal Court, in view of the crime alleged, being a violation of the Federal Constitution and Statutes. as well as the State. is the proper tribunal for the hearing and determination. It would have been better if all the pro- ceedings had originally been conducted there. We can say this with perfect re- gard for whatever rights may belong to the State Courts. and without in the slightest degree giving any tolerance to the idea of The Post, for making the Federal authorities the arbiters in every case where a negro is involved.
 The Post Is wickedly wrong in seeking to stir up ill-will against the people of Alabama, nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand of whom are dis posed to aid the negroes in every way they can. If population existed in New York or Massachusetts, which bore the same relation to the white people there that the negroes do to the white people here, we venture there would have been an hundred times more injustice cruelty and wrong practiced against them than has been the case here.
 The cases of "peonage" now on tria are exceptional, yet The Post would have it appear to be general and a sufn cient cause for indictment of all the peo pie. A few days ago a jury in Dalla! County, one of the heaviest negro coun | ties in the State. brought in ,verdic against a negro charged with murder 0 a white man. The verdict did not appea to the presiding judge to be right, anc he promptly set 1t aside with a rebuk to the jurors. Within the last few day three prominent white men were ar raigned in Mobile County charged witt the murder of Q negro. Two of then were bound over, without the benefit O
 bail to await the action of a grand jury
 and one who was proven clearly inno
 cent was discharged. These two case
 are cited simply to show the injustice O | the charge of The Post that white mel
 have no regard for the rights of the ne
 gro, and not because they are by an!
 means exceptional.
 It Is e matter of deep regret that
 paper usually so fair-minded as The Pos
 should be leading @ crusade against tw
 millions of people, because of alleged wrong-doing of a very few men
 The cases will be tried. and if the partie
 are guilty, the people of Alabama will
 be glad to see the utmost penalty of tn l law pronounced against them.