The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-24
PEONAGE
 INDICTMENTS Federal Grand Jury Files
 Its Report, FOUND S6 TRUE BILLS Significant Statement as to Dallas County Eynching. Crime of Holding Persons in servitude Not Conaned to Racial Lines.
 United states Grand
 Jury Discharged.

sixteen men from various counties of Alabama were reported yesterday i as indicted for peonage by the United States Grand Jury for the Middle pls- ! trict of Alabama in its final report 60 | Judge Thomas c. Jones. white men are indicted for holding white men in peonage. Negroes are I indicted for holding negroes in peon- age. In some cases white men are in dicted for holding negroes in peonage. Three indictments for whitecapping were returned and ten indictments for
 Among the peonage indictments were John Bowdoin, Coffee County. hold ing Raymond Rhoda in peonage. Both men are white.
 Justice of the Peace R. F. Parks of Coffee County, causing Robert Brooks, negro, to be held.
 John H. Giles, a Pike County negro, holding Ben Jelks, negro. in peonage. J. B. McElvaine, Geneva County, holding Thomas Berry, white.
 George Garner, Dallas County, hold ing a negro.
 oscar Hall, Pike County. holding a negro.
 Jefr Ham, Coffee County, holding a negro.
 The OLHeE pNOHukG tiku1CtAAChbo WNAO withheld until arrests are made.
 Hester ts Indicted.
 Eugene Hester, the railway mall clerk, accused of robbing the mails, on his own car. between Montgomery and Showdown, was also indicted. Hester is under s2,o0o bond.
 A feature of the report was a lengthy explanation to the court of the failure of the grand jury to find bill against "A kafr fszr,s the hands of the State law. officers and put him to death. The grand jury says that 1t was unable to find bill. the important witnesses having been spirited away.
 From the wording of the report, it Is evident that the lynching of the negro Bell, near Selma, was the case which the jury investigated.
 William T. O'Connor, a young white man, charged with violating the postal laws, who was bound over to the grand jury by a United States Commissioner, was not indicted by the jury.
 Jesse D. Holman, ]. M. CrumpIer, Jackson Poison. Bill Goodson, Robert W. Phelps. James Phelps and John Henry Giles. whose alleged violation of the peonaWe statutes the jury inves- tlgateds were not indicted. ~ Jury Report ia FuIl Tho report In full was as follows: Hon. Thomas c. Jones, Judge of the United States Court for the Middle and Northern Districts of Alabama: 1:
 ''siir--The grand jury empaneIled for the term report that 23s cases have been investigated In eighty-one cases eighty-six true bills are herewith pre- scented. In 143 cases the jury declined to find true bills and nine cases have been continued.
 ''The cases investigated show IT cases for Illicit distilling. 56 cases for retailing liquor without license, eleven cases for violation of postal laws, one case for impersonating a revenue of- hcer one case for resisting an officer, seven case for perjury, two cases for violation of the bankrupt law, three cases for larceny of Government prop erty, two cases for trespass on public lands, ten cases of conspiracy, sixteen l cases for peonage, two cases for pass ing counterfeit coins, two cases for violation of the navigationN laws, one case for the crime of lynching, one case for violation of the civil service law, one case for the violation of the pen- | sion law,
 ''of the cases investigated twenty five are from Randolph County, seven | are from Lee County, four are from | Chambers County, two are from Russell County. three from Tallapoosa County, l fourteen are from Chiffon County, seven are from Fillmore County. three are from Autauga County. sixteen are from Montgomery County, | two are from Lowndes County. two are from Dallas County. twenty-four are from Covington County. twenty two are from Geneva County, fourteen are from Houston County. three are from Butler County, forty-six are from Coffee County. sixteen are from DaI. County, fourteen are from Pike Coun- ty, two are from Crenshaw County, five are from Henry County, two are from Barbour County.
 eve append hereto a list showins. the cases in which no true bills were found and the files presented to us have been returned to the clerk of the ! Court.
 l Crime Has Decreased.
 Our investigations cover a period of one year or two terms of the court. the May term for 1904 not having been lu