The leader., 1903-01-07
M1sD1REcrED CRITICISM.

whitecappers and bulldozers. In
another they condemn in the
strongest terms the efforts of the
labor agents to decoy laborers
from their homes The latter
resolution will not add to the force
and effect of the former. A labor
agency may be highly unpopular
and in a certain manner of opera
ton has been made, we believe, a
statutory misdemeanor. But it is
not crime per Sc, nor blow at
social and personal rights. And
a meeting ostensibly designed to
initiate a movement against an
offense of that kind cannot classify
the two together without extenuat
ing, in effect, the graver one. In
fact, the severer condemnation of
labor agencies, which are mere in
cidents of the right of free move
ment by the negro, is moral neg
alive of the declaration against
whitecapping; which has for one
of its main motives the suppress
sion of that right. -
Our distinguished contemporary
of the Herald is rather over-dis-
eliminating in his remarks, above
quoted, and we do not believe
would have INDUCED such a
criticism, if he had been upon the
ground and had a just conception of
the true inwardnessof the situation
in this locality. No one who had
voice in adopting the resolutions
criticized, questions for a moment,
so far as we have any knowledge,
the right of labor agents to operate
where and when they please, in an
honorable and legitimate way, or
questions the right of the negro to
free movement" whithersoever
his inclination or legitimate inter
ests lead him. The labor agents
were CONDEMNED in the strongest
terms" because, in the estimation
of the committee which prepared
the resolutions adopted and other
participants in the meeting, there
was much circumstantial evidence
in their possession tending to
show that labor agents have taken
an active part in aggravating the
labor disturbances in this locality
in the manner recited in the resolu-
tions adopted; if, indeed, some of
them are not at the bottom of the
whole trouble. A clear-headed,
intelligent, discriminating man,
who has travelled over a great deal
of Lincoln and Franklin counties
during the last six months and
knows the people, white and black,
thoroughly we'll, says he is con-
WINGED from various facts and cir
cumstances which have come to
his knowledge, that shrewd and
INSCRIPTIONS labor agents, inter
ested in transferring the negroes
from this section to Louisiana or
to the delta, are primarily the
originators and instigators of the
whole trouble.
According to this authority and
others, shrewd negro emissaries
were first sent out several months
ago to advise the negroes to Or
ganize, buy guns, etc., and thus
caused some of the worst and
most insolent negroes who fol-
lowed this mischievous advice, to
become conspicuously offensive
to their white neighbors. Then
in some mysterious way, the
rumor was started and spread like
a prairie fire, that the ne
groes were arming and intended
to "rise''. These things natural
ly aroused all the whites who gave
credence tot he reports and caused
them to arm and begin to organ
ize, the best citizens as we'll as 9TH
ers, going into the movement to
suppress the supposed insurrec-
ton. Then the vicious and law
lessly inclined white element,
prompted and abetted by those
who had originally planned the
trouble, began to ride at night
and post threatening notices and
resort to other methods of in
timidation. Meanwhile, the bet
ter, law abiding element of whites,
seeing there was really no danger
of the negroes rising" and Civ
ing trouble and that the move
ment they went into at first in
good faith was assuming a lawless
turn, quietly withdrew; while the
worst whites and those with the
bitterest preiudices against the
negro, abetted and encouraged by
labor agents, continued their mid
night rides until nearly all the
negroes in certain portions of Lin
coin, Franklin and Amite, were
completely terrorized and large
number began to move.
How easy it was for unprin-
cipled labor agents to profit by the
whitecap disturbances and secure
the posting of all necessary no.
tees, after the whites and negroes
both had become aroused, may be
easily guessed from the following
dispatch sent from the Vicksburg
Herald's own city last Saturday:
Vicksburg, Jan. 3.-Negroes
from Amite and other counties of
the State are taking to the Delta,
owing to the whitecap trouble.
They are passing through Vicks
burg almost daily. About sixty
of them went through here on the