The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-18

The grand jury of the Federal Court of the Middle District of Alabama whose in- vestigation and action upon peonage and conspiracy cases have attracted national attention and comment, yesterday com pleted its labors and submitted its report to Judge Thomas G. Jones.
 The report is clear and lucid review of the work of the grand jury, whose in- dictments for peonage and conspiracy. have made it one of the most famous juries that has assembled in Alabama Tn recent years The report crystalises the facts of the peonage conditions in Ala bama. showing that most of the state ments made concerning the existence or peonage in Alabama have been widely ex- aggerated.
 The report states that after diligent and thorough investigation that peonage conditions existed in only two localities fin two counties in the Middle District The grand jury reported that in two To- calities of Coosa and Tallapoosa counties citizens of the State had been systemat- ically deprived of their liberties on trumped-up charges and with the colu- sion of the officers of the law. The re- port states that eighteen persons had been Indicted for the offense of peonage, total of ninety mine indictments having been returned.
 The grand jury was gratifed to report that the ofS nse of peonage and conspir- acy was confined to the two localities in Coosa and Tallapoosa counties. It is stat ed in the report that in several of the other counties of the Middle District the grand jury investigated alleged peonage cases but In none of them was sufficient evidence found to warrant an indictment.
 The report severely condemns peonage and declares that the great body of peo- pie in this District are violently opposed to the practices for which indictments were returned.
 The system followed by the men indict- ed for peonage Is carefully outlined and described in the report. Crimes were committed, the report declared, by which citizens of the State were systematically despoiled of their rights and liberties, confined and made to work and not in- frequently cruelty treated. It is declared conspiracies were formed between justices of the peace and employers of labor to convict ignorant and defenseless persons and to sell them into involuntary servi- tude. These practices it Is explicitly stat ed in the report were confined to two To- calities.
 The report recommends that the powers of justices of peace and notaries public with ex-officio powers to impose punish ment to hard labor should be taken away. The State. it declares, should have con- trol of all places where convicts are kept The charters of towns and cities author 1zlng the hire of hard labor convlcts should be repealed. In closing the report 1t states that it feels sure that the inves- tigations and indictments have given the death blow to what Is called peonage.
 The grand jury with the exception of a recess of three weeks. has been in ses- sion since the first Tuesday in May. The report of the grand jury was made by it's foreman J. T. Moses, we'll known citi- zen of Montgomery,
 The work of the grand jury was heart fly commended by Judge Jones who said a:Ser the report had been read in court:
 Gentlemen: You have discharged your grave duty. with fidelity. courage and high-minded conservatism. Your labors will redound to the good of our country and the welfare of our State. You need give no heed or thought to the evil minded who malign your motives. or af- feet to misconstrue your purposes. You have stood up for humanity, liberty and law. You rightly say, We think the truest friends to our people are those who tell the exact truth as to these mat ters.'' The time is not far distant, if it is not now here, when all right-thinking. honorable people will realize and Le-