Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-06-06
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~, in the u,Iarries. and the remainder as
cotton pickers. coke-over workers. cotton
mill hands. laborers in turpentine
camps and phosphate mines. farm
hands. fruit orchard hands. truck garden
hands. cattle feeders. cuear-cane cutters.
furnace men. boilermakers. car leaders.
carpenters, blacksmiths, oyster dredgers.
etc
was employed by Mr.. Henry NJ. F'laeler
upon the railroad he is building along the
keys to Key West. and there has been
number Of complaints concerning their
treatment by his foremen and superin-
tendents. These cases have been investi-
gated by several people. and every I'M
prejudiced person who has taken the
trouble to inquire into the facts has ac-
quilted Mr. Flagler and his subordinates
of any wrongdoing. Every Gnprejudiced
person who has visited the construction
camps along the East Florida railway.
and they number hundreds. agrees that
the laborers are we'll fed. comfortably
housed and kindly treated in every re-
spect. Free medical attention is furnished
them. hospitals are maintained for the
sick and injured. and every employee on
that road who behaves himself and earns
his wages is perfectly content with his
treatment. But many were disconnected
Among several thousand labOrers VINO
We're recruited in the employment agencies
in New York and other northern cities
were certain percentage OF loafers and
healthseekerS and trampS who wanted to
escape the cold weather of the north and
secure d trip to Florida at Mr.. Flagler' 9
expense.
No Evidence Of Peonage.
The construction work on that road is in
charge of a group Of able. energetic. in
telligent young men. nearly all of them
graduates of the Agricultural College at
Ames, Iowa: and II is unnecessary to
say that they would not have counte-
nanced or permitted peonage among the
men under their direction. Peonage is
compulsory labor without compensation.
and that crime has not been committed
upon the East Florida railway system.
A: the same time. these Iowa young men
and their assistants have exercised a
wholesome discipline among the loafers
and shirkers who got free rides to Flori-
da and endeavored to get their board and
lodging through the winter at Mr.. Flag
ler's expense. They were given the choice
between working and starving. No man
who refused to work was fed or given
shelter. and many who were driven out of
the camps by those measures of disci-
pline found opportunities to tell tales of
hardships and cruel treatment to sympa-
thetic ears. Some of them found their
way to the Office of the district attorney.
who had Mr.. Flagler indicted for peonage.
But none Of the indictments has ever
been tried and none ever will be, be-
cause there Is no evidence to sustain
compelled to work without wages in the
Flagler construction camps. There is
plenty of evidence that many loafers were
kicked out of those camps because they
would not work after having had their ex-
penses paid from New York, but that Is
not an indictable Offense.
Detention for Debt.
Another form Of peonage which prevails
in isolated cases throughout Georgia and
the entire south is due to law which
authorizes an employer to dctain in his
service an employe who owes him money
This applies to thousands of negro share
troopers and plantation hands who are
permitted and often encouraged to over
draw their wages and accounts in order
that the landowner and employer may de-
tain them upon the plantation as long as
he pleaSes. This system has prevailed
ever since the war. 1t Is customary for
a planter to furnish his tenants and labor
ers with hogs and hominy." with cloth
ing, seed. fodder and implements, and
take the pay out Of their wages or out
of their share of the crop. The latter
have no means of keeping account of
are entitled to. The planter who en-
ploys them has every advantage. They
are entirely at his mercy, and, under the
law, are not permitted to leave him until
they have settled in full, which, of course,
Is impossible for them to do until the
planter is willing to have them do SO,
and therefore they are held In practical
slavery until the planter is willing to re-
lease them Unfortunately many negroes
have acquired restless. migratory habits
Therefore when they attempt to leave an
employer after overdrawing their wages
he detains them with force and makes
himself their master just as much as he
was before emancipation
There is no cure for that sort of peOn-
age until the law which authorizes II Is
repealed and the negro labOrers of the
south are released from legal obligations
which are equivalent to slavery. Then the
planter will be very careful that his farm
hands and tenants do not overdraw their
wages. and the latter will be taught 10
live within their means
Law Pronounced Unconstitutional.
Judge Brawley of the United States
district court for the district of South
Carolina has held that this law is un-
constitutional and it cannot be enforced
in that state. The criminal code of South
Carolina provides that a laborer. work
ing land for wages or for share of
the crops, who, after receiving advances
either in money or supplies. shall refuse
or fail to work, shall be liable to prose-
cution. and. Oh conviction. punishment.
Under this law two negroes, brothers.
having been convicted in a state court.
appealed to Judge Brawley. The South
Carolina law was defended at the trial
on the ground that such restrictions are
necessary because the great body of
Iaborers I'm that state are irresponsible
morally mentally and financially, and
cannot be reached by the ordinary RENE
dies for breach of contract. Therefore,
T. is necessary for the state to exercise
it's police powers to compel them to per-
form labor which they had agreed to
do and for which they have been pad.
Judge Brawley. however. ruled that this
law exceeded the authority of the state
under the thirteenth and fourteenth
amendments to the federal Constitution
AMI the act of Congress forbidding peon-
age. aae held, also. that the law Is UNI
constitutional because 1t provides for
the collection of debts incurred by one
class of persons only. and because the
collection of debts does not lie within the
police powers of a state.
This decision applies to all OF the south
ern states, but the victims of plantation
peonage are very seldom within reach of
courts of justice. They have no money
to pay lawyers, and few white lawyers
of any standing would ever take such a
case.
Railroad Conductor Regains Identity