The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-01-01
HIGH OFFICIAL is INVOLVED
.ROOSEVELT'S FRIEND MILHEN-
NY CHARGED WITH PEONAGE.
His Firm Is Said to Hold Thousand
Foreigners in Bondage. Austrian
Government Makes COMPLAINT.

HIS FIRM is SAID to HOIu Thousand
Foreigners in Bondage. Austrian
Government Makes Complaint.
That John Avery McIlhenny, mem
Der of the United States civil service
commission, and special Rough
Rider friend of President Roosevelt,
holds more than 1000 ignorant for
eigners in a state of peonage, and
that brutality and cruelty are prac-
ticed to force these people to remain
on Avery Island, La, where the Me-
Ilhenny interests operate vast oyster
canning and tobacco manufacturing
properties, is the charge brought by
Stephen Jozca, special commissioner
of the Hungarian govern
ment, to which nationality most Of
the alleged poems belong.
The stories of peonage in certain
sections of the south recently were
called to the attention Of the Austro-
Hungarian government, and official
warning was given intending emf
grants of the dangers ahead of them.
They were told of conditions as al
legged, and advised against going to
several points in the southern states.
Mr.. Jozca, who is assistant secre-
tary of the Louisiana state board of
immigration, was sent to Avery Is
land by Emile Hoehn, the Austro-
Hungarian consul in New Orleans,
following complaints made by one
of the immigrants who escaped the
McIlhenny guards, and he charges
that:
Laborers, men and women, are
threatened with drowning or shoot
ing if they attempt to leave the Me-
Ilhenny preserves.
One laborer was told he would be
thrown under a train and ground to
pieces if he tried to elude the guards.
Maintenance of a regular police
system on Avery Island, with COM
pletely equipped jail for imprison-
ing dissatisfied laborers.
Promise of $1.75 per day made by
agents who toured the factory dis
tricts of the north and east. but pay
ment of only % cents day by piece
system in shocking oysters.
Payment made in checks good on
ly at the McIlhenny commissary.
THE poor immigrants are neither
clothed, housed nor fed properly
says Mr. Jozca. Escape is impossi-
BILE. Armed guards keep watch night
and day, and at the first moan of
complaint the dissatisfied immigrants
lis spotted !"
The specific case on which the
charge of peonage is based is that
on Nov. "a a large party of immi-
grants who came from New York at
tempted to escape. Mounted police
men in the employ of the McIlhenny
Canning Company overlook them and
the immigrants were forced to return
at the point of shotguns.
Mr.. Jozca says the whole trouble
was brought about by the immigrants
being allowed to except more than
they received The contract offered
them when they were engaged prom
ised $1.25 to $1.75 day and return
fare to the point from which they
came if dissatisfied when they ar
rived; however, they were shown
new contract which the company de-
clared was the correct one, which
was far different.
when the immigrants arrived at
the island they were put to work
dredging for oysters. Later they
were engaged in opening oysters, for
which service they received cents
for every four pounds of oysters
shucked The best of them under
this piece system could not make
over Is cents a day.
"a little girl in the canning fac
tory who had been there two months
said she could not make over 20
cents a day, while her brother re-
ceived 10 cents, or so cents for the
week work. A system of checks
was used exclusively, and these could
only be cashed at the McIlhenny COM
missary. 1t was impossible for the
immigrants to purchase food, cloth
ing or any other necessity unless they
patrOniZed the McIlhenny stores. The
checks were of no value elsewhere. =
Mr.. Jozca rescued a party Of six
teen, five of them women and three
children, on his visit. These were
carried to New Iberia, railroad sta
ton nearby, and maintained at the
expense of the Hungarian
government Not one had any bag
gage, and the only resemblance of
money in the crowd was four scent