The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-07
The Nation and the Negro.

mg AlaDama newspapers are explicit and emphatic ifi denouncing the system of negro peonage which has lately been un- earthed in certain counties of that State. The disgrace is admitted. Severe pun tshment for those found guilty of the crime against the laws of the United States is called for. The Montgomery Advertiser, for example, rej1irss that Federal Judge Jones, before whom the cases will come, is not only a capable and fearless ofloial,' bu. a Southern man who has the honor of his section deeply at heart. He will use every power under his control to get at the bottom of these cases. and to make examples of the cruel law-breakers involved"
 This Is as 1t should be- Still more significant. however, Is an expression of The Montgomery Journal After speak ing Of the gross outragcs which had leen inflicted upon ignorant and inoffensive negroes" it declares:
 "Law-abiding people all over Alabama are looking to the Federal Court to do what the State courts have tried for many years to do. and failed-failed be- or were prevented from testifying before the grand juries for some other unknown rason.
 Certain it is. with full knowledge of the traffic that has been carried on in cer- tain section of Alabama in what is prac- ticaly and to all intents and purposes hu- man slavery, and the cruelties that were being practised upon the poor un- IOTIunaJeS, the courts nave been unaDle after years of effort, to bring the culprits ao justice"
 Here is an instructive if unwilling con- fession that the question of justice to the negro Is and must be national. It Is impossible to treat it as local. neigh borhood question. This country has such thing as a national citizenship, with dts rights and immunities. It cannot, without stultifylng It's laws and constitu- ton, allow any locality to nullify in secert ar 1frika dOUn nnAnlV fha which 1t throws about the humblest. There must be strong arm of the nation able to reach every violator of the laws which the nation enacts. We see how promptly the plea for being "let alone" falls to the ground in Alabama today. The very citizens of that State are thank full for Federal interference to right a great wrong, which the local officers of justice are too weak or too cowardly to deal with themselves.
 The evil Is of proportions only begin ming to be realized One reason why it has now started into light is that 1t Is let or hindrance inI the Black Belt' of Alabama, the system of worse than slovery is edging its way even into the up- lands, where 1t was never known before.
 A great deal was heard of the startling revelations at Goodwater. This Is in Coosa County, and The Coosa Democrat says of the crimes laid bare: We had read of such at other places in the State and knew the serious result that the cult ure and growth of crOokedness must bring to any people. Goodwater will ever suffer from this, but the innocent should be spared and the name of Coosa should not be mixed and besmirched with mat fer that her citizens have all along heartily condemned"
 It Is ofIthe utmost importance that the extent and nature of these crimes against humanity and the laws should be pub licly understood But fragment of the ha5 far hean fold We in- formed that afidavits are fin existence proving not only illegality but cruelty of the most shocking description. Ne- groes not only are compelled to work finder guards, being shut up in what is practically a prison at night, but are flog- eed to their work after the worst style of the plantation in the days or slavery; Slaves used al least to be fed and housed and clothed, after a fashion; but these new Alabama slaves are sometimes work ed naked and barely kept from starvation. And all, be it remembered, owing to conspiracy between the officers Of the la and heartless employers. First, the ignorant and friendless negro is arrest 7d on some iimsy or trumped-up charge; then he is fined to the full hmit or the statute; then sold at hard labor, and kept in the most abject form of slavery long after his fine and costs have been worked out, and there no longer exists even 6 pretence of an uneXecuted sentence of a court hanging over him.
 | Why has II been left Tor teuetdl olhceI | to bring these horrors to public notice | for redress? Has not Alabama thou
 sands of humane and public-splrited citi- gems who loathe such injustice? An
 here we come again upon that plight | which slavery cast over the Sopth What a region" said Emerson before tho | war, without a minority, with only one | opinion!" There Is an artificial solidarity | in the South, as relates to all questions | affecting the negro's rights. Hones' 1 rnan dare not nrotest against what hey know to be cruel wrongs to the negro, les | they be at once accused of being disl2ya
 to their section, or even of being willing \ to encourage social equality" with color