Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-02-21

|, 6OOb.
Humanity is not only frail. but helpless.
\ AS I say, even in the great state of
4 New York there has not only been a
| lXnching, but a lynching of the most
extreme and barbaric character, one in
/ which the person lynched was burned
at the stake. But further than that. Mr..
president, there would be ten lynchings
in New York to where there ever has
been one if it were not that New York
is thickly populated state, and most
of the provocations to lynchings occur
in large communities where there is am
pie police protection to protect the in
tended victim from the mob.
" AVyears SIR never passes but that the
/ New York papers tell us of several, if
not many, efforts to lynch people even
lin the city OF New York; efforts which
would be successful but for the fact that
! there lis an army of policemen to prevent
them, whereas inrsthe south. with innu-
amerably more occasions for those occur
rences which stir men to these lawless
Iredress, the communities are thinly pop
kulated and there isl no opportunity for orr
ganized police to protect them against
! iSuchipgs. ~ eSL trN
| Mr.. President / could go somewhat
further on tliaf subject. / shall not.
however, do So. but 1 think I have spg-
gested al sufhcieney Of answer in that re-
gard
/ / want to say to the senator from New
York In regard to peonage, that there
never was a grosser Islander against a
people than that, which Is contain
ed In the charges made and often In
the prosecutions which are found in
/ the south on that subject We know
what peonage 0is sewe know the country
from which sdt comes and the system
which there prevails, where there Is
practically a slavery, lifelong slavery;
and not only a iife-iong slavery, but a
slavery from generation to generation
under the bondagesof debt.
There is, .novsueh thing in the south,
and the pretenses Of, peonage in the
south are based upon those things which
are hardly worth 1whilA being called Of
Efenses. They grow out of a condition of
affairs where honest men, honorable men,
lawabiding men, have to advance money
as monthly wages to people under con-
tract. that they will do work for a GER
tain period. generally very short period,
and where those who have thus; CONTRACTS
/ ed seek to- evade their obligation, and
where 1t isasssmpy an EFFORT to make
them carry out the contract, not of peon-
age but the contract for ordinary labor
for which they have been paid in adj
vance. That Is about the sum and sub
stance Of every charge of peonage that
comes up from the south. 1t is in almost
l-eVery instance the effort TO enforce the
performance. of contract of a few
lmonthsss where. they wages have been in
good faith paid In advance by the en-
pleyer for the advantage and conven-
ienoe or the laborer 1t Is a gross Islander
Noon btfr people, too often countenanced
by the courts, to represent that as peon-
age ISL Az% ET@f
/ ~ have no douiEt, Mr. President, that
III the, facts could be known, II the east
siae aof New YORK could be investigated,
there would be found very much greater
violations of personal liberty, very much
greater yiolations of tbeAlaw which pro-
hibits that, one man or one woman or
one child shall be deprived of liberty
| by another. than IS ever found in any
| so-calIed peonage at the south,
But. Mr., President that is not the
question to which I addressed my In
quiry to the senator from New York, and
did not understand that those things
were In the. mind of the senator when
he was. delivering his powerful speech.
for such it was. 1 thought the senator
had in mind-and / still think so-those
things which related directly to the mat
ter. which is before us for consideration
and determination. thought he had in
mind the question which, arises out of
the amendment offered by the senator
from -Utah-rthe Sutherland amendment
whether, in case we adopt the con-
stitutional amendment giving to the peo-
pie the right to, elect senators by direct
vote, the question as to the. manner Of
that election shall be determined by the
states or whether,,it shall be determined
by the federal government.
Although he did not then say so,
understood the senator, in the remark
which have challenged, to have refer
enee only to the question of suffrage. In
the discussion of that particular ques-
ton, he said that there were happenings
in the south from time to time-if rec
ollect Alright. those were his words, not
once but from time to time"-which
ought not to be permitted to happen,
and which, If they were allowed by the
states to continue to happen, the nation
al government must put its hand out
and prevent their happening under
stood him to mean exactly what he al
luded to, or substantially what he allud-
ed to-. in the latter part Of his remarks
with reference to the suffrage features
of the law in some of the southern
states. For that reason 1 wanted to ask
him to state plainly II he meant that
il the constitution shall be so changed
as to provide for the election of sena-
tors by direct vote of the people, in his
opinion, the Sutherland amendment was
needed in order that If, according TO
the opinion of congress, the laws Of the
southern states with reference to the
suffrage were not such as accorded vita
the view of congress as to the rights OF
the people under the several amendments
of the constitution to cast their votes In
the election. it would then be the duty.
and power. of congress by law to see to
It that the laws of the southern states
in those particulars we're abrogated and
annulled and that those elections for
senators should be governed by laws
which would emanate from congress and
not from the states? Am I correct in
that, / will ask the senator?
Mr.. Root Perfectly. Mr.. President. My
proposition is that If the members of the
senate are to be elected at popular cleo
tions the government of the United