The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1903-08-17
Enforce the Vagrant Law.

Enforce the Vagrant Law.
The amended vagrant act is now
the law of the state and imposes sol
emn duties upon the constabulary an(
Judiciary of the state, under theil
oaths, and which they ought to per
form with every diligence and impair
TALLY.
The law is plain and easy to under
stand by every peace officer in the
state. 1t defines who are Migrants to
the eye of the careful officer and puts
the burden of proof on the suspect to
satisfy the court that he is not subject
to the law. The law is almost auto
matte in its operative character and
only needs the initiative OF fearless
official to set it in motion.
The manner of the passage of the
law shows that the people of the state
! are dead tired of supporting a mass
of measly Migrants, few or more Of
whom infest every community in the
| commonwealth. And first Of all It
must be understood that this law is
not wholly aimed at the negro loafer
and tramp. 1t was enacted and in
tended to apply to the Migrants of any
race without discrimination. There is
less excuse for the white vagrant than
for the nomadic or parasitical negro.
We rather expect the negro to shirk
work when he can subsist in any 9TH
hi,+ al n
TO have the self-respect OF their r.
and prefer work rather than the COM
mon repute of being drones and dead
beats.
Loafing white men are an excuse
for loaiing negroes and it would be
neither honest nor lawful to wink at
the white vagrant, no matter if he
should be a sort of privileged charac-
ter about town, and put the screws Of
the law to the equally recognized ne
gro roustabout who fetches and car
ries for the white loafers.
In this matter the city and county
officials throughout the state should
knuckle down to their obligations and
get busy. Large enterprises in the
state are crying for labor In the
meantime ablebodied men parasites
are IN every town living from the
wages and home-earnings of wives
and children. Hunt them out and tell
them that the new motto of Georgia
is work or walk" There is a job
for every man in honorable labor If
he refuses TO take it, let the state fur
nish him work at dishonorable labor
and keep him at it until the lazy itch
Is sweated out Of nlm
The Constitution feels that the
time is opportune to urge municipal
and county officers TO vie with each
other in cleaning out the Migrants and
let it go abroad to all the world that
Georgia is not running a loafer's lotus
land. Then the vagabond will hunt |
for and catch up with the Job he has
3 tfanp d9 Mi gga fE9eF m6aleS ard Keep 6
our Georgia grass.
The New York Sun approves OF |
the Calvin vagrancy bill on the
ground that it is "a new method to
make southern negroes work. " 1t
saws of the enforcement Of such a
law:
Incidentally, too. under that situation
the negroes viii be sure OF considerate
treatment as IaDOrers. II they viii work
and give up loafing they viii be Il pecu-
liarlv fortunate laboriug class-very much
better off than are the run Of their race
M the north Usually, too, the south
prcfers negro labor when 1t can get II.
Projects TO promote negro immigration,
on any considera Die scale to Africa or
10 the north are looked on with great
and natural disfavOr at the south. 1t
wants the negroes, but 1t wants them to
work
The sun says. as we have said,
that it will be hard TO supply the
place of the negro as our chief labor
element with any other class from
anywhere. He is the white mans bur
den in the south more than anywhere
else on earth, and The Sun justifies
any just and reasonable methods the
south may adopt to break up his hab-
its Of idleness, crime and self-debauch-
cry and enforce upon him the duties
of labor and self-suppOrt.
The people OF the south have no i'll
will toward the negro They oppose
the potentialities of his bulk in local
government because they know that
he does not know, and but few of his
kind ever can know, the ethics and
import OF a citizens political duties.
But if the negro will labor he will
always find work and wages sufficient
to make him the most Independent
and happiest of the labor classes Of
| the world.