Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-21
MAKING WHITE SLAVES
Labor Contractor Said to Be
Responsible for Peonage.
INVESTIGATION PROPOSED
Willful Deception of Newly Arrived
Immigrants.
DETAINED IN SERVITUDE
Farm Labor Law of South Carolina
Declared Invalid-Mr. Russell's
Work in the South.

Labor agencies in New York and Phila-
delphia that furnish labor for contractors
in the south who practically hold their men
in peonage will soon find the Department of
Justice investigating their methods and
looking into the question whether they can
be prosecuted There are said to be num-
Der of them in the two cities, and others
in Pittsburg, Baltimore and elsewhere. 1t
has been determined that peonage cannot
be exterminated as quickly as the govern
ment desires unless the labor agencies can
be prevented from furnishing the men.
These agencies, it is declared, make the
most wilfu and diabolical misrepresenta-
tions to newly arrived immigrants as to the
prospects, pay and care they will find when
they arrive at the places where work is
open to them. They tell the ignorant for
eigner that a fortune awaits him. that his
work will be easy and lucrative, and that
he will never wish to leave. They paint
glowing picture of the land he is going to-
He finds out differently on arrival. He is
put to work in a turpentine camp, cutting
trees, or in a swamp, building a railroad, or
getting out lumber When he protests ana
tries to leave his contract is brought out
on him, he is told he is heavily in debt and
he is detained against his Will.
Mr.. Russell's Trip.
Charles w. Russell the assistant attorney
general in charge of peonage cases, has re-
turned from a trip through the south, where
he has been engaged for a long time in
prosecuting offenders against the peonage
laws. He has had some success, but not so
much as he desired. He is confronted with
much prejudice and many difficulties. One
southern paper remarked: Attorney Cen
eral Russell has a genius for making
trouble and he has been turned loose on
the south. Every time he sees a negro at
-prly no acriI hot hn iS N
sending him to investigate peonage cond-
tons the Attorney General made the fol-
lowing announcement, which was widely
published:
HE was-seected by the Attorney General
for this work because he is from the south
and a democrat, and familiar with affairs
there"
Judge Brawley' Decision.
But progress is being made in spite Of
efforts to mislead as to the issue and mis-
represent the motives of the prosecutions.
Judge William II. Brawley, federal judge
in South Carolina, has recently declared
the farm labor law of that state, under
which peonage is maintained unconstitu-
tional, as in violation of the thirteenth
and fourteenth amendments to the Federal
Constitution, the fourteenth because it is
class legislation and denies the equal pro-
lection of the laws. 1t is stated no more
important decision affecting peonage has
been rendered for long time
Judge Brawley is one-armed ex-Con-
federate appointed by President Cleveland
and the governor of Florida, stalwart
democrat, is in favor of the suppression of
peonage and doing all he can, through state
agencies, to discourage it. The old slave
holders are said to be as much opposed
as any one to this. practice for it bears no
resemblance to the inherited and legal sys-
TEN of ante-bellum days.
There was recently argued and submitted
to the circuit court of appeals a case in
voving another important question, name
ly, whether 1t is necessary to prove that
Indebtedness exists is claimed to exist
on the part of the peon to the master. 1t
was a case brought under a section of the
Revised Statutes Furnishing a conspiracy
to deprive citizen of any right secured
States, the right alleged being the right
case was appealed from Missouri, where the
jury convicted the defendants.
Two convictions were recently obtained in
victions and numerous indictments by local
lieve that no peonage exists. A number
West Virginia and some in South Caro-
lima. In North Carolina a jury after a long
struggle managed to squeeze in a reason
abe doubt" not as to the brutal peonage
proven, but to the defendant being the
man responsible for it. Judge Boyd, in re-
ceiving the verdict, made some severe COM
ments upon the brutality shown to have
been practiced upon the poems.