The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-30
A TRIBUTE TO JONES
NEW YORK TRIBUNE ON ERADI-
 CATION OF PEoNAGE.
Declares That His Course Turned Public Opinion and Result is the Stamping Out of An
 Iniquitous System.

Washington, July 2e.-tSpeciaLO-The New York Tribune today has the follow ing editorial:
 .'Peonage in Alabama according to The Montgomery Advertiser is now memory. The convictions secured in Judge Jones court and the general awakening of local sentiment have dealt the new slavery fatal blow. The most fragrant offenders have bean sent to prison and others, pleading guilty of less serious ocnses' have been fined or released on parole. Public opinion having acquiesced Tn tne Federal courts determination to crush out peonage, the .whole odious fabric oI impressment and slave driving has Ialien with crash.
 TO Judge Thomas G. Jones or the Northern and Middle Districts or Aia- bama conspicuous credit is due TOT the prompt collapse of the forced labor sys- tenn. His conduct of the peonage cases was marked from the outset by hign minded sense of duty and by sincere abhorrence of the injustices practiced on virtually kidnapped blacks. Ills atitude was unfortunately misrepresented by narrow minded local politicians. who pre- tended to see in the crusade against the employers of forced labor only another effort, dictated by Northern enmity, to blacken the fame and honor of the State.
 
 vice agents were being used to gather testimony against Alabama planters, which testimony. garbled and distorted, was being made the basis of unjust at- tacks in Northern newspapers on Ala bama standards of conduct and life. Lo- cal passions and local prejudices were skilltuliy played on, and a deadlocked jury in one of the clearest of the peon- age cases was one of the first results.
 In his rebuke to that jury and in his address of congratulation to the jury which found verdict against the Good water constable, Robert N. Franklin. Judge Jones firmly and eloquentiy re- pelled the insinuation that outside opin- ion or outside pressure had driven the Federal judiciary in Alabama to redress the abuses of the peonage system. To root out the evils of peonage was a duty. he said, to which his oath as a judge bound him. It was a duty, also. to which sense of humanity, mercy and justice bound the conscience of the State. No manly man and no manly community could escape the obligation to protect the defenseless and the weak; and 1t was far more Alabama's concern to rid herself of the shame of tolerating conditions so re- pugnant than to stop and ponder over the possibility of tracing the peonage prosecutions to some fancied ebullition elsewhere of partisan captiousness or sec- tional hate.
 This same and wholesome view seems now to have found a general acceptance in Alabama. No jury since the Judges first admonition has failed to do its duty. Prisoners who two weeks ago would have stood trial are now pleading guilty and imploring mercy and the Montgomery docket has been practically cleared of peonage cases.
 Commenting in candid praise on the results accomplished in the Federal court The Montgomery Advertiser of last Sun day said, We have witnessed the pass ing of peonage in Alabama. The acts of a few men for a time, cast a blot on our fair name. The evil, however, has been redressed by Southern men. most of them Democrats Nand thoroughly stamped out. It was difficult to understand whence came the tempest of passion invoked to defeat the effort of the court to break up the evil. The press of the State brought public opinion to bear. The wills of the politicians came to naughe The people sustained the Seourt. Distrust and sus- p!cion ended. Alabama stands today without a stain on her escutcheon in this
 Tt is gratifying to know that labor