St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1908-06-20
PEONAGE QUESTION
Investigation by Assist
ant Atty General Rus
sell of Washington.
The Reason for the Idea
That It Exists i'm the
Southern States.


has this from Washington:
/ Assistant Attorney General Chas.
| w. Russell is of the opinion that "pre-
| tended philanthropic promoters OF
colonizing schemes" in New York and
labor agents in that city are in great
measure responsible for the peonage
that has has been shown to exist in
many of the Southern States. In the
last Supplement of his official report
to the Attorney General, which has
| just been completed, he devotes sever
al pages to the work of these labor
agents and ''philanthropists," show
ing in what manner they have con-
nected themselves with the detention
of laborers in all parts of the country,
Mr.. Russell says:
Until we began our work in Octo-
ber, 1906, the chief supply of poems
came from the slums, the foreign
quarters of New York and Ellis Island,
through the operations of licensed Ia
Dor agents of New York. These
were reaping a rich harvest from the
price per head for laborers supplied
to employers at a distance, and the
temptations to fill all orders and outdo
rival agents by total disregard of
truth and honesty in dealing with both
laborer and employer were too great
| for number of these brokers.
The representatives of the depart
ment, and chiefly Mrs. Quackenbos,
have succeeded in procuring from the
License Commissioner the revocation
of several licenses, and the knowledge
that the Department intends to con-
tinue similar policy is believed to
have had verg good effect.
These agents know that the Southern
people are slow to learn, that these
supposedly ignorant and insignificant
foreigners fill American newspapers
printed in their own language and the
mails for Europe and consulates and
embassies with accounts of any mis-
treatment they receive : accounts
which, according to the usual way
with human nature, are not confined
to plain statement of the facts, but
are adorned with high coloring, hear
say reports and expressions of intense
feeling.
Under the labor agents license law
of New York printed slip must be
given to each workman sent to dis
tant employer, on which must be
written in a language he can read, a
few simble things for his guidance
and protection.
All manner of frauds were resorted
to in order to circumvent the object
of this law. For EXAMPLE, in one case
with which / am familiar the slips
were not given to the men until they
were on board the boat on which they
left New York; in another instance
they were delivered just as a crowd
of men were being piled into van to
go to the boat. Then, when the state
ment was delivered in due season and
called for pay at $1.25 a day, the
strangers were told in one case that
this wage was for the first week only,
would be increased to So and soon tc
So.
AS for the place of destination, the
strangers were told that it was Sc
many days or hours by boat and Sc
many by train, when it was twice
or three times as far. A man bound
as he supposed, for Pittsburg, woulc
some times find himself in Georgia.
Many of them cannot read in any
language, and by the time theil
statements are explained to then
by their companions they have al
been hurried to the boat or train
and, once on it, all are too ignoran
of the geography of the country, O.
the language, the laws and thei
legal rights, in fact, of everything
about them, to know what to do
Many people in the South have won
dered that white men" need car'
and protection, instead of protecting
themselves. If those who so wonde
were suddenly set down in the mid
; die of Russia, without money O
friends, they would be almost a
helpless.
In discussing the chief support o
peonage, Mr.. Russell says:
81 have no doubt from my investi
cations and experiences that tn
chief support of peonage is tn,
peculiar system of State laws in tn
South, intended evidently to compe
service on the part of the workin,
man.
From the usual conditions of tn
great mass of laboring men Wher
, these laws are in force to peonage i
but a step at most. 4 In fact, it i
difficult to draw a distinction be
tween the conditions of a man VIII
; remains in service against his will
J because the State has passed cer
! tain law under which he can be al
rested and returned to work, and tn
condition of man on nearby farr
7 who is actually made to stay at wor
D by arrest and actual threats of fore
under the same law. The actus
spoken threat of an individual en-
5 ployer who makes his laborer sta
E at work against his will by fear g
$ the chain gang, and the threat of tn
S State to send him to the chain gan
r whenever his employer chooses t
: have him arrested, are but the sam
n in result, and do not seem to me yer
ifferent in any other way.