The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-19
THE PEONAGE CASES
MIR. MURPHY DEPENDS THE
 SOUTH.
Declares Local Sentiment Can Be De- pended on to Secure Justice.
 Writes Following Letter in
 New York Evening Post.

ten by MT. Eu8hr SdruHer MuIPHy VI this city in reply toan editorial in that paper:
 1 To the Editor of The Evening Post: Sir--I beg that you will permit me to enter c courteous but earnest protest against a passage in a recent editorial in your columns entitled 'The Nation and the Negro" Referring to the cases of "peonage'' in Alabama, you declare.
 There is an artificial solidarity in the South as relates to all questions affecting the negro's rights. Honest men dare not protest against what they know to be cruel wrongs to the n gro lest they be at once accused of being dlsloyal to their section. or even of being willing to en. courage "social equality with colored l men. That is the taunt which dries up the protests of Southern men against outrages upon the negro Privately they writhe under the blot upon their State. but publicly they lift no voice." As citizen of Alabama I wish to say i that the words which have quoted are a | palpahle though unintentional. misrepre- sentstion of the facts. The very editorial | In question opens with the statement that ''the leading Alabama newspapers are ex- plicit and emphatic in denouncing the system of negro peonage which has lately been unearthed." The honored judge through whose vigorous cooperation the eases have been brought to light, Is a Southern man, an eX-Governor Of Ala hama. The sentiment of the whole State has been unanimously insistont upon a thorough investigation of the charges and upon the rigorous punishment of the guilty. There has been no eVidenc of the slightest desire to prevent discussion. There is evidence of a universal desire to know and to make known the truth. There has been some tendency perhaps to reserve just few of the adjectives of execration until the cases have been tried and the vsrdicts have been reached but t. he desire to know all the facts Is not wholly inconsistent with the interests of either justice or righteousness.
 If these crimes are not of recent origin and if the failure of our local courts to reach them is proof of the moral apathy or cowardice of the whole people of Ala bama then to whose apathy and coward ice are we to attribute the failure of those courts which represent the nation with big "N?' The Federal courts have been operating in Alabama Tor thirty years. These courts have at their command the most powerful detective agency of the country, supported by all the resources of the general government. Is it reasonable to pass wholesale condemnation upon Alabama because local courts have failed to do what the Federal courts have thus far left undone?
 
 in isolated regions where local courts and local constabularies are often inefficient md sometimes corrupt, are always in danger of becoming the prey of brutality and greed If 1t is hard for the best sen timent of New York to protect effectively the poor immigrants of her great port from the avarice of thieves and '1oan sharks" and if it is difficult for your city to protect some of it's young girls from the degrading barter of the 'cadet' 1t should be remembered that it Is also diff hc,ilt at times in spite of many protests. to reach and prove certain classes of crime in Alabama.
 This consideration does not excuse crime in Alabama or in New York. It does not excuse in Alabama the apathy or frefficiency of any local court which may have failed to do It's duty, but it does make clear the fact that 1t is pal pably unjust to single out a few grave crimes and with these as a text. to put the odium of an infamous trafic upon the life and character of a whole State. This is the charge suggested by your assumption that the conscience of the State has been involved in q complicity of silence. You say there is an artifi' cial solidarity at the South as relates to all questions affecting the negro's rights. Honest men dare not protest against what they know to be cruel wrongs to the ne- gro. Privately they writhe under the blot upon their State, but publicly they lift no voice." Yet you open your editorial with the admission that the leading Alabama newspapers arc explicit and emphatic" in denouncing the very evil of which you have complained!
 At the Montgomery Conference on tho Race Problems of the South on the even ing of May g. 1900, the late Dr. J. L. M. Curry. a man honored and loved through all the South, a man having the cordial devotion not merely of the Southern mi- nority, but of the Southern majority, used these words:
 we have heard much already. and will hear more before we adjourn, of slavery. It was an economic curse, a legacy of ig norance.
 "It cursed the South with stupid, ignor- ant, uninventive labor. The curse in large degree remains. The policy of some would perpetuate 1t and give a system of serfdom, degrading to the negro, corrupt ing to the employer The negro is a valuable laborer; let us improve him and make his labor more intelligent. more skilled, more productive. Shall the Caucasian race, in timid fearfulness, in cowardly injutice, wrong an inferior race, put obstacles to its progres? Left to itself, away from the elevating influence of con tact and tuition. there will be retrogres- sion. Shall we hasten the retrogres- sion, shall we have two races side by side equal in political privileges. one educated, the other ignorant? Unless the white people, the superior. the cultivated race lift up the lower, both will be inevitably dragged down.
 Look at these roses on the platform. They have been developed from an in- ferior plant by skilled culture into gorge ous American Beauties. So 1t is with other flowers and fruits; so with animals and so it is with men. Eight hundred years ago our ancestors were pirates, careless of laws either of God or man. and yet by culture and education, and discipline and free institutions and liberty of worship. they have been made the grand people they are today, Gods throne is justice and right and truth. un- seat Him from that throne and He be- comes a demon and so will sink our Southern civilization into infamy If We are guilty of cruelest injustice 10 an inferior race, whom God has put into our hands as trustees for their elevation and improvement, and for His glory"
 That was a noble expression of con science which you declare to be without uterance or influence; and yet. as heard Dr. Curry's words. could not say which was the more ennobling, the moral vlrility with which he spoke or the earnest and impassioned approval with which his great Southern audience responded to his message. Dr. Curry was a commanding leader, but he had multitudes of follow CTS in every Southern State. Born reared, and educated at the South, have