The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-03-09

transportation $500, from New York.
The evidence clearly showed that on
the way from Savannah to the COM
pany's settlement, a number attempted
to escape. and We're physically de-
tanned and brought to the place of
work. There was also much evidence
to show that physical punishment il
escape were attempted, was inspired
among the foreign laborers at the tur-
pentine and logging camps of the COM
pany, by whipping those who attempt
ed to leave the company's employ be-
fore working out their debt to the
company. The testimony was specific
and detailed in cases of attempted es-
cape of such Iaborers showing their
pursuit. capture, terrorism by display
| of revolvers and, in one or more in
stances, actual whippings.
The first indictments charged against
Harlan and others a conspiracy to ar
rest and return to peonage and service
one Rudolph Lanninger. Lanninger
was one of those who attempted to
escape on his way to the camp from
Savannah. He was captured and car
ried to the camp. II was his second
attempt to escape and his capture that
formed the basis of the indictment on
which Mr.. Harlan was convicted.
Mr.. Harlan's counsel and his earnest
advocates and friends urge that the
evidence does not connect him with
the pursuit of Lanninger, his capture
or his compulsory return to service. or
with any system of terrorism, and they
deny his knowledge of responsibility
for them, ard affirm his complete in
nocence.
Disaerees With That View.
I am sorry to disagree entirely with
this view. The men who actually
pursued, terrorized, arrested and re-
turned to service Lanninger and the
others were in the employ of the COM
pany doing it's business. Harlan was
general superintendent, and the men
who acted were his subordinates. 1t
| is true that the company's business
was divided into a mill plant, a tur-
pentine camp, and logging camp four
or five miles apart, and that Mr.. Har-
| lan's Office was at the mill, and that
the escapes and whippings were at the
/ camps or in the woods; but it is very
clear that Mr.. Harlan arranged for
| bringing these foreigners, that he was
actively interested in arranging for
their work, that he directed by teIe-
gram the arrest of two foreigners who
were reported to him to have escaped.
that he instigated four or five illegal
and unfounded criminal prosecutions
| in a justice court against employees in
order to compel them to return to the
company's employ and resume work
under contract.
| Letter to The Pensacola Journal.
Finally, he wrote letter to a news
paper in which he denied charges IF
cruelty and mistreatment of men by
his subordinates. but in which he ia
| effect admitted that men had attempt
ed to escape from his employ and that
where they were under contract, they
were constrained to remain.
After reading all the evidence in
the case in which Mr.. Harlan was con-
victed, 1 am convinced beyond reason
able doubt that the pursuit, capture,
return to service, and forcible reten-
| ton of Lanninger was only one act of
a number of similar acts which were
/ in pursuance of a well understood and
approved plan authorized by Mr.. Har-
| Ian to secure and retain needed labor
of this imported kind for his business.
| 1t is utterly immaterial that he may
never have known nor heard of Ian
ninger, or of the particular subordi-
mates who pursued and arrested him,
| if, as was the face it was all done in
pursuance of a system or plan he ap-
proved.
| Complaint is made of the conduct of
the trial by the district judge. can
| not find that the defendant was preju-
diced by the judges course.
| Upon the suggestion that Mr.. Har-
Ian had not made as complete a de-
Tense in the first case when he was
convicted, as in the second case, in
which he was acquitted, I have read
the second case through, and my con-
viction that Mr.. Harlan was privy TO
the whole peonage plan has been
strengthened.
Fines Are Not Effective.
The government of the United States
has been at great pains and cost 20
suppress peonage. 1t is much more
likely to be maintained successfully
where, as in these cases, the labore-s
are foreigners and do not speak Eng
lish and hardly know their rights. tt
is a kind of offense that is regarded
Tightly in some communities. If per-
mitted to live at ALL it viii spread
rapidly its demoralizing influence.
/ xxrl,1, man Of Hi0h h41af-