Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-11
IN SOU It'll
Efforts Made to Eradicate the
Practice.
WORSE THAN SLAVERY
PROSECUTION BY THE DEPART
MENT OF JUSTICE.
Effect of the Recent Decision by the
United States Supreme Court
The Laws Sustained.

prominent official of the Department of
Justice talked TO reporter of The Star
relative to the p2onage cases in the south
which the department is pushing vigor-
ously A number of cases are pending in
the southern states, and the official espe-
cially discussed the effect of the recent de-
c.sion of the Supreme Court.
when the states of this Union ratified
the thirteenth amendment to the Constitu-
ton abolishing slavery he said, lit was
commonly supposed that involuntary servi-
tude, under any name, could no longer
endure in this country. 1t is true that the
majority CT the people accepted this as an
accomplished fact, which they have re-
ligiously observed, but it hardly could be
hoped that an evil SO deeply rooted could
be effaced entirely by this act of the
states. That there would be some who
would not readily yield to this conS,itu-
tional mandate. was according to the eN-
perieEce of mankind, inevitable AS a re
suit, form of involuntary Servitude, COM
monty called the peonage system, has
grown up in some portions of the country.
This form of slavery is not creation Of
recent years. 1t was in vogue in New
Mexico at the time the United States ac-
quired that territory IN 1916, where it had
been practiced under various names since
the Spanish conquest.
Peonage Defined
Its essential elements consist in a deot
due from the peon TO his master, and the
right of the master to make the peon work
out the debt by compulson and force. Most
of the Indians in that territory were found
in this condition of servitude, although the
practice was not confined to any particular
class or color of persons So great became
the evil in that territory that Congress- on
March . 1867, enacted a law Commonly
oal cd ha 90
practice of this system anywhere within
the jurisdiction of the United States. How
ever, Notwithstanding the thirteenth
amendment and this law directed specifi-
cally against peonage, there is practfced
today, in some of the states, this form OF
involuntary servitude. In many cases the
hardships suffered by those thus held to
service against their will are sad in the
extreme. Once in the custody of his mas
ter, the peon is forced to obey his will and
to serve him until he has worked out the
debt. AS generally the labor of the peon
is not considered by the master as of much
value he is held for long periods to work
out trifiing debt.
ASIDE from the fact that the peon is not
sold in the markets by his master his con-
dition differs little from that of slavery
itself. Indeed. it has been observed that
peonage is truly a milder name for a harsh
err form of involuntary servitude, for the
slave generally had the comforts of domes-
tic life and the care and protection of his
master, while the peon, in most cases per-
forming a temporary service, can seldom
hope to have any of these. the only in
terest the master has in him is the securing
of the largest amount of work possible for
the debt alleged to be owing to him.
A Pitiable Case.
"a most pitiable case of peonage has come
to light recently in South Carolina in which
the poems were white men Qtalians). These
men had been engaged in New York to
perform services for pay in South Caro-
lima and transportation given them to the
latter state. When they arrived In South
Carolina and they discovered they were to