Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-11

work in a phosphate mine they refused to
do so. but the master Informed them that
they could not abandon their work, as they
owed for their transportation and must
work out their debt. Guards were sta
toned over them and in the face of weapons
they were compelled to work out this al
legged debt And but for the fact that
of these men escaped and made known the
terrible condition of his comrades they
might now be held in that service. This is
only one of the cases which have come re-
Gently to the surface, but 1t is sufficient to
show the abject condition to which the
poems are generally reduced.
But there Is another and more danger
Gus result to be feared as a consequence of
the practice of this system than the indi-
vidual harm which may be suffered by those
who are held to such service, and that is
its effect on free labor. Experience has
shown that free labor is at a discount when
confronted with any form of slave system.
That free labor cannot compete with the
peonage system any more than it can with
the Chinese coolie system is not open to
dispute.
THAT free people would not let go IN
whipped of justice those who thus seek to
violate the universal rule of freedom which
they have established who would doubt?
Wherever such violations come to light,
the punishment that the law supplies is row
being used to wipe out the evil and to pro-
tect free labor against the fatal results OF
its practice.
The Prosecution of Clyatt.
The efforts which the national govern
ment IS thus making to eradicate the evil
through the courts and the determined
stand which the Attorney-Generalh has taken
to push the prosecution of those who vio-
late these laws, in view of the recent de-
cision of the Supreme Court in the case of
Clyatt against the United States, must
prove productive of wholesome results. This
case was argued by Mr.. Moody in person.
In her 10 CT nd wit hat &c
shown by the decision of that court. In
this case it appeared that one Clyatt, man
ager of the firm of Clyatt & Tiff. manufac-
turers of turpentne in Georgia had gone
into Florida and BY force taken into his
custody two negroes named Gordon and
Ridley and brought them back to Georgia
to work out debt which he claimed the
negroes owed him. The evidence adduced
which the negroes owed Clayatt were
about $40 for one and SIS for the other; that
these amounts the person in whose employ
the negroes were found by Clayatt offered
to pay him, which he refused on the
ground that he wished to take them back
to Georgia and make an example of them.
Clayatt was convicted in the United States
court for northern Georgia of the crime of
having returned these negroes to a condi-
ton of peonage in violation of section 552G
of the Revised Statutes Of the United
States and sentenced to confinement at
hard labor for a period of four years in
the federal penitentiary at Atlanta, Ga
He took an appeal to the United States
circuit court of appeals for the NTH cir
cult which court certified to the Supreme
Court for it's instruction the questions of
law presented by the arguments, where the
case. as before stated, was presented TO the
court by the Attorney General personally.
The opinion of the court lin this case is
of great moment With the possible eX-
ception of one or two cases, no case de-
cided by that court within recent years
involved graver considerations than were
presented by the questions certified by the
court below And although the court re-
manded the case for further proceedings
because, in its opinion there was not suf-
ficient evidence to show that the maltreat-
ed negroes had been In condition or peon-
age prior to the time that they were al
legged to have been returned thereto land
therefore the charge of returning them
could not be sustained. yet the great
principles for which the Attorney General
SO ably contended have been upheld.
Anti-Peonage Laws Sustained.
1.-THE Interpretation, scope and effect OF
the thirteenth amendment, well as the
constitutionaity of the laws passed by Con-
gress in pursuance of that amendment, for
the first time were drawn directly before
the court for judicial construction The
court held that the thirteenth amendment
which declares that neither slavery nor in
voluntary servitude, except as a punish
ment for crime whereof the party shall
have been duly convicted, shall exist with
in the United States, or any place subject
to their Jurisdiction. and that Congress
shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation forbids everywhere
within the United States all servitude which
Is rendered unwillingly, no matter what the
origin OF the servitude may have been,
whether voluntary involuntary; that for
the full accomplishment of this prohibition
TO give complete effect to this rule of uni
versal freedom, this amendment unlike the