The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
BARBER TELLS OF
 PEONAGE CASES
Corrects Reports About Ala bama's s Labor Contract Laws
PEoNAGE NOT RAMPANT
Refuses to Discuss the Merits of the Alon1o Bailey Case But Ex- plains some of the Legal
 Points

Attorney General Alex M. Garber re- Washington where he has been engaged in the case of Alonso Bailey, a negro, who is contesting the Alabama contract labor laws. It will be remembered that MT. Garber created quite a sensation all over the country by his condemnation of the tactics of the United States legal de- partment before the United States su- preme court, when he defended the state and the states fair name against the 'libelous imputation that peonage is rampant in Alabama" Mri Garber won out in his contention that the district attorney had no right to introduce as evidence against Alabama's laws the re- ports of agents who sought to connect them with conditions in Louisiana and South Carolina.
 =sThe case has been submitted on briefs by myself and Assistant Attorney Gen. eral T. " Martin, for the state, E. S., Watts of Montgomery Assistant Attor- ney General of the United States Harr, Fred S. Ball and Dan W. Troy, for the plaintiff in error"
 While Mir Garber refused to go into the merits of the case, he said; Some of the reports sent out from Washington have been misleading in respect to the Alabama law. In the first place the Alabama statute involved in the Bailey case is similar to a like statute of Geor- sia, but unlike the statutes of South Car olina and Louisiana.
 "The basal purpose of the Alabama statute is the intent to defraud which in every cause must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt before a conviction can be secured. The statute provides in short that any person who with intent to in iure or defraud his employer enters into written contract for the performance of any act or service and thereby obtains money from such employer and with like intent and without just cause and with out refunding money refuses or fails to perform such act or service, is subject to punishment under the statute.
 Tt will thus be observed that the es- sential ingredient of the statute is an in- tent by the employe to injure or defraud the employer Judge Thomas G. Jones held this statute in it's original form to be constitutional in the peonage cases reported in 12S Federal Reporter. In 1903 the legislature amended the original statute by adding what is termed prima facie rule of evidence, to the effect that the refusal or failure of the employe to perform the act or service without just cause constitutes prima facie evidence of the intent to injure
 l.. f0,. oial attack, as aepriving the employe of due process of law under the fourteenth amendment. Another special ground for attack by the plaintiff in error was that the law provides imprisonment for debt, and is, therefore, in violation of the thir- teenth amendment, but the state contends | that intent to defraud is criminal.
 "The position taken by the state that the legislature was authorized to estab- fish the rule of evidence is sustained by many decisions both in state and federal courts The difference between the Ala bama statute and the Louisiana and South | Carolina statutes is that in the Alabama statute the proof of a fraudulent intent is necessary, whereas the statutes of | the other states attempt to punish as a crime the mere willful breach of con tract The rule is not conclusive, as il | only casts on the defendant the burden of proof and leaves with the jury the question of his guilt.
 'In my judgment there are only isolat- l ed cases of the abuse of this statute and the charge that the usual condition of the great masses of laboring men of Alabama is practically one of peonage Is a great injustice to the state. As long {, as there exist evil and harsh-minded men there will be found instances of the abuse not only of this statute, but of many misdemeanors of the same grade of pun l lshment."
 | MT Garber while in Washington heard the name of Mir Justice White mentioned | in connection with the chief justiceship of the United States, and considers that
 1t would be a happy one acceptable both to the south and to all sections of the country He also brings new reports of | democratic victory in New York |
 l NEWS OF EgFAULA