The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1905-05-23

w N0Iil .N'H Jun. ~ Co. NIIN II...N
Prominent official of the Department of
Justice talked to "a reporter of The Star
relative to the uoonHgo cases BOO the
south which the department Boo pushing
gorously 4 number of cases are pend
ing boz the southern states, and the
official especially discussed the effect
to the recent decision off the supreme
Court
when the states Of this Union r1u-
fled the thirteenth amendment tU the
Constitution abolishng slavery he
said eft was commonly supposed that
Involuntary seryitude. under any name
could no longer endure i'm this country
1t is true that the majority of the peu-
pie accepted this as an accomplished
fact, which they have religiously OBJ
served, but it hardly could he 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 so readily yield to this coustitu-
tional mandate was according to the
experience of mankind, inevitable. As
a result, a form of Involuntary servitude
commonly called the peonage syseIn,
has grown up i'm some portions Of the
country. This form of slavery is not
a creation Of recent years. 1t was i'm
vogue i'm New Mexico at the time the
United States acquired that territory
i'm 1896 where it had been practiced un-
der various names since the Spanish
conquest.
Its essential elements consist i'm a
debt due from the peon to his master
and the right of the master to make
the peon work out the debt by compul-
SIGN and force. Most of the Indians i'm
that territory were found i'm this condi-
ton of servitude, although the practice
was not confined to any particular
class or color of persons. So great be-
came the evil i'm that territory that con-
gress on Mar 1867 enacted law Conn
monty called the peonage statute). pro-
hibiting the practice of this system
anywhere within the jurisdiction of the
United States. However, notwithstand-
ing the thirteenth amendment and this
law directed specifically against peon-
age, there is practiced today. i'm some
of the states, this form of involuntary
servitude. In many cases the hard
ships suffered by those thus held to
service against their will are sad i'm the
extreme. once i'm the custody of his
master, 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 a trihing
debt.
Aside from the fact that the peon
is not sold i'm the markets by his mas
ter, his condition differs little from that
Of slavery itself. Indeed, it has been
observed that peonage is truly mild
er name for harsher form of invOlun-
tary servitude, for the slave generally
had the comforts of domestic life and
the care and protection Of his master
while the peon, i'm most cases perform
ing a temporary service. can seldom
hope to have any of these, as the only
interest the master has in him is the
securing of the largest amount of work
possible for the debt alleged to be ow-
ing to him.
"A most pit'abIe case of peouage has
come to light recently i'm south Caro-
lima i'm which the poems were white
men UtaliansD These men had been
engaged i'm New York to perform ser
vices for pay i'm South Carolina and
transportation given them to the lat
ter state. When they arrived i'm South
Carolina and they discovered they were
to work in a phosphate mine they re-
fused to do SO, but the master inform