The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-08-21
CAUSES TROUBLE.
The Farmers Need and Must Have
Some Relief.

Some Effective Law Must Be Passed
by the Legislature to Enforce La
Dor Contracts.
The labor question is being dis
cussed from one end of the State to
the other, and the recent occurrences
over in the Fork near Norway are
figuring extensively in the discussion.
The following letter from Columbia
to the Augusta Chronicle will give
some idea of how the question is re-
garded in all parts Of the State:
Federal Judge Brawley's decision
knocking out the South Carolina Ia
Dor contract law continues to cause
trouble in the rural distrints with
that large class of negroes with whom
the big stick of Jail sentence has to
be used to inspire proper regard for
contractual obligations. And though
it is confidently hoped that the far
mers will pull through the present
season without violence between the
races, and that legislature will next
spring enact some effective relief
measure, there is constant danger in
various parts of the state of very
serious clashes over conditions that
the decision has brought about. The
killing of Constable Valentine in Or
angeburg county a few weeks ago,
followed by the narrow escape from
lynching the negro had with all but
rior occurring among several far
mers gathered at the inquest in a
general quarrel about farmers en-.
couraging negroes to jump their con-
tracts since the decision; and half
dozen other killings of negroes by
white men in widely separated sec.
tions of the state, are but nantes
tations of how the danger spots are
showing up.
The effect of the decision has
spread with amazing rapidity even
among the most ignorant negroes
The scramble Of unprincipled farmers
for help has perhaps played a more
important part in getting the negroes
informed than the publication in the
newspapers. The result is that the
mean negroe has become Infinitely
more insolent, and since he has got
| ten it into his head that Uncle Sam
has espoused his cause his proneness
to violence has become more marked
There is no danger for the present
of calling into service the dreaded
Ku-Klux-Klan, but farmers are free
ly talking of taking matters into thell
own hands by means of community
bands, to stop negroes whom they
have kept from want for food anc
clothing through the winter from IN
solently refusing to carry out tnell
contracts to work out their debts anc
and spending the time getting drum
and raising rows. Of course there
has been abuse of the law on the par
of some farmers, who have cheated
the negro and kept him IN long ser
vitude after he had fairly discharged
his debt; but these are rare Instances
The great mass of South Carolln;
farmers have no disposition to op
press the negro, but they are insist
ent. some of them to the extent o
taking the law in their own hands
that he shall have the same respec
| for his written contract as others ar
renuired to have. When the Orange
hurg farmers chose a spokesman II
tell the crowd in very emphatic ian
guage that they did not propose Il
stand for the acts of certain Wnll'
men in encouraging negroes to ]uml
their contracts or tolerate such con
duct on the part of the blacks, law o
no law, they gave expression to
| feeling prevailing u many coun1le
in the State. Your correspondent
gathered his impressions not onl.
from visitors to Columbia, but iron
personal interviews with farmers II
half a dozen counties recently.
We've got to have relief, an(
promptly, or we are coming before
the next legislature in mass and de
mand it," said Penitentiary Director
y. O. Wingo, an extensive farmer anc
former member of the house iron
Greenyille county. There is goln&
to he serious trouble if we don't ge
it, it. - '0N0
| Just what sort of law should bt
enacted that will stand the test ha:
not so far been definitely outlined
The question will be treated a
length in Governor Ansel's message
next spring, though just what he VII
recommend, he himself does not seen
to have determined as yet. One :ns'
eestion is that thorough and efec'
| tive rural police system be estao'
lished for the purpose not only OF
Kidding the rural districts Of the ne
gro criminal but of driving the ldle
to the chain gangs as well. Some TAR
mers advocate hiring these conVlcts
to farmers and others, as was form
erly done with penitentiary conVlcts;
but these sort OF contracts were mucn
abused, and it is not likely that the
legislature will ever again go back 10
this system.
One very hopeful sign in the pre-
sent situation is the healthy growth
of public sentiment against abuse or
the negro. Thesuperstition that 1t
is DANGEROUS to punish a white man
for brutal disregard OF negro S
rights is rapidly passing.
Caused Him to Faint.
It is getting quite common to con-
vict white men of murder in South
Carolina these days. Last week Jas.