The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-12
PEONAGE IN THE SOUTH.
1t Exists There, and In Not Confined
to the Negro.

'Southerner." in New York Independent.
The first conviction under the peonage
laws was that Of s. NJ. Clyatt, OF Triton.
Ga, who, on May "a. 1902, in the United
States Circuit Court at Tallahassee. Fla,
was convicted of a violation of Section 5526
of the Revised Statutes. The defendant in
this case came from Georgia into Florida
accompanied by armed men. and with the
assistance of the sheriff of Levy county.
Florida, arrested two negroes who had run
away from his turpentine farm In Georgia
while indebted to him. The men were forci-
bly, arrested, taken out of the State without
legal process, and forced to work on de-
PENDANTS turpentine farm. AT the time OF
capture the defendant announced that his
purpose was to take the negroes back to
Georgia in order that he might make an ex-
ample of them, SO that other employees would
not run away At the trial OF this case il
was developed by the evidence that the ac-
tons Of the defendant were in line with the
usual custom of the country regarding en-
ployes indebted to employers. The DEFEND
ant introduced no evidence in his defense,
and the jury found him guilty. The court
imposed a penalty of four years impTison-
ment in the federal prison, and the defend
ant took a writ Of error TO the Circuit Court
of Appeals for the Fifth circuit. The case
is still pending at this writing, and the de-
cision Of the court Is awaited with interest
by the federal authorities and employers
throughout the South.
Many persons are very bitter toward the
federal authorities for enforcing the law pro-
hibiting peonage, declaring that this Is an
unwarranted interference with their rights.
The Turpentine Operators Association has
raised a fund of several thousand dollars for
the purpose Of testing the peonage statutes
in the courts. Some have said that the
prosecution of Clyatt and others was insu-
gated by the administration for political
purposes. The writer knows that such was
not the case. When the first OF the peonage
prosecutions were instituted in the federal
courts but few lawyers and United States
district attorneys ia the South knew that
such laws existed.
The best people of the South are opposed
10 the peonage system and condemn IL IN
unmeasured terms. Many employers are
lean toward IL in self-defense, the local
courts, as a rule, not protecting the laborer,
and in some instances the officials receiving
compensation from one employer for annoy
ing and harassing other employers.
The writer has seen a whole family OF
white persons, including young children,
forced. at the muzzle of a gun, 10 leave
camp of the fathers former employer. some
miles distant, there to remain until a small
Indebtedness due the employer was worked
out by the father at wages which the en-
ployer arbitrarily fixed. This case is now
pending in a federal court, but IL is not
likely to be tried, as the Employers Asso-
citation has spent money literally TO place
that peonage is only sporadic and temporary
is incorrect; IL is here In the South TO stay
permanently unless a strict enforcement or
the law is had.