The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-05-29
.entins; from them were going t

AGRICULTURAL labor contract law
unconstitutional will unsettle
things and probably inconveni
cncc farmers for awhile, but III
our Judgment it is a blessing III
disguise, it will revolutionize our
labor system and place it upon a
more just and substantial basis;
there will be devised scheme
which will prove more satisfac
tory to both employer and en-
ployee. In the first place the
! landowners have it IN their
power to control the labor stu
alton, they can regulate the
credit system and the wage-rate,
but to do so they must rely upon
a higher law than legislative
enactment, they must rely upon
and stand by the law Of honesty
and common sense. Of course,
if the landowners in a commu-
nifty cannot come together for
their own self-preservation then
they are in hopeless condition,
and the decision Of Judge Braw-
ley, which must appeal to the
common sense Of every intelll-
gent man as being correct, will
have a disastrous effect, but if
they do come together and agree
upon a just and equitable wage
rate basis and a reasonable con-
dition for renting their lands and
honestly stand by it, they will
soon see that Judge Brawley has
rendered this country a great
service in declaring our State
law unconstitutional.
1t has been our opinion for
years that the agricultural labor
contract laws Of this State, even
Iif constitutional. have done much
towards making labor conditions
as bad as they are. and there is
no better proof than to see how
much better the employer and
employee get along when no ag-
ricultural contract has been en-
tered into, except only as to the
ordinary course pursued in the
employment of any other kind Of
labor. We know farmers who
never take an agricultural labor
contract, yet they are never
without a good class of employ
ees. The secret lies in the fact
that the employer and the en-
ployee agree upon q scale OF
wages and the character of labor
to be performed, and both carry
out the agreement: there is no
such thing as promising hand
certain wages and then getting
back rake-off from those wages
in the shape of a discount at a
store where an order has been
traded out, whatever is prom
ised is paid in cash, and the EN-.
ployee is contented with his en-
ployment that he tries to merit
the good will of his employer by
giving him good service.
The comments of the Columbia
State upon Judge Brawley's de-
cision meets our approval and
we herewith reproduce its edlto-
rial:
The decision OF Judge Brawley pro-
nouncing unconstitutional the South
Carolina contract labor law will fall
like bolt from clear sky upon thou
sands of farmers in South Carolina.
The law declaring that those laborers
receiving supplies or advances from
their landlords commit crime if they
cease labor before such advances are
paid, and are liable to imprisonment
for such crime-and that after such
imprisonment are still not freed from
the obligations of the contract-has got
to be considered necessity to the en-
ployers of negro labor. When the de-
cision is first understood, thousands OF
farmers will believe that the ground
has been cut from under them; that
labor, certain, regular, will be impossi-
BILE to secure. The State does not take
that gloomy view.
The opinion of Judge Brawley is
strong and he clearly brings out the
points that he seeks to make. 1t seems
to US that in both law and in morals
that opinion is sound. There is no
question that much of the negro labor
IS triling: that the negro as a race has
little regard for his obligations: that
the promises to pay of the laborine
class are practically valneless: that the
basis of dealing with them without
some legal hold is unsatisfactory. New.
ertheless a study Of the contract labor
law of this State, together with a
knowledge of its operation, must lead
to tie conclusion that to all intents and
purposes it permits Imprisonment for
debt and makes provision for "involun-
tary servitude." Both those proceed
ures are prohibited by the supreme law
of the land: and that law must be re-
spected And that the constitution is
right, is shown by the fact that when
law oversteps its bounds injustice and
hardship follows.
While mary negro laborers are unre-
liable, regardless of moral obligations,
and seem to need the rigid control of
some such law as is now declared un-
constitutional, there is no doubt that
the law in question has been abused,
injustice has been done, and that igno-
rant laborers are victimized by uascru-
pulous persons. In the case brought
before Judge Brawley the same laborer
was put upon the chaingang twice in
two years for the violation of contract
made for one year; and there was no
record that the contract was ever made.
In other cases the State law has had
the effect OF making legal mild sys-
TEN of peonage. 1t may have been so
utilized by comparatively few, but its
provisions are always a temptation to
persons regardless of the common
rights of those unable to protect them
selves.