The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1907-05-01
THE STATE LIEN LAW.

Decision in Contract Labor Case
waited With Interest = May
Change Farm Methods.
There is feeling among those who
heard the arguments in the case be-
fore judge Brawley in the federal
court at Charleston recently when the
contract labor law was attacked in
the interest Of two negroes on the
ground that it is form Of peonage,
that the State will lose in the case.
And if this act is declared unconsti-
tutional, it is predicted that the new
act passed by the legislature this year
making failure on the part of farm
tenant to carry out lease contract
punishable on the criminal side Of the
court, will be even more easily knock
ed out. If both of these acts are thus
rendered imperative there will be
practically nothing left for the South
Carolina lien law to rest upon, and
the annual fight which has been
waged against it in the legislature for
the past thirty years will in all prob
ability succeed next February. If the
lien law, which is sustained each year
by a narrow majority, goes, farming
methods will have to go through a
revolution throughout the State.
This new act as to tenants, in the
opinion Of good lawyers, has the ef-
the realty, transferable along with the
lease from one owner to another dur
ing the life Of the lease, which may
run many years, like stump, a rock
Or a tree, creating a sort Of surface as
under the English law Gin days Of old
when knights were bold and barons
held their sway Attorney General
Lyon, who argued for the constitu-
tionality of the act attacked in Char
lesion, has not yet rendered an cpin-
ion on the new act, but those who
have applied to his Office for infor-
nation have oeen advised to consult
their attorneys before attempting to
enforce it's provisions on the criminal
side of the court The new act was
designed to deal not only with ne
groes, but with others who Jump"
farm leases to go to the railroads or
to the mills after being advanced
supplies.
A. serious present aspect OF the.
situation has to do with the predica-
ment the farmers will find themselves
in with the crops just coming on for
cultivation, with no big stick to hold
over the heads Of the irresponsible
negro farm hands. who are growing
more unreliable and untrustworthy
each year. With these two laws
Knocked out there will be no way Of
holding that large class Of negro Ia
borers who are already deeply in
debt to landowners for supplies, nor
by any means compelling that other
large class who have rented lands
and are in debt to merchants for sup
plies with the coming crop as collat-
eral.
OF course if the cases are appealed,
which will in all probability be done,
the final decision will be long way
off. but this Will help matters very
little, in view of the uncertainty OF
the law being finally sustained and
by reason of the fact that habeas cor
pus proceedings will be open to any
one against whom attempt is made to
enforce the law.
There are many others, however,
who take a cheeful view of the mat
ter. who hope that both laws will be
declared unconstitutional, in order
that the ruinous credit system which
has been impoverishing the farming
interests for the past half century
through exhorbitant prices to time
merchants, will be forever broken
down. Those who look for this cor
rection also think that the negroes
can be better handled by being forced
to work by the day for cash under
competent white overseers. They
think that lands will be steadily i'm
proved, will become more productive
and will enhance in value.-Charles-
ton Post.