The Donaldsonville chief., 1914-04-11
REPREHEAsIBLE CONDUCT.
Action of Sugar Planters Who Great
ed Disturbance in Local Depot
Condemned - Laborer's Riuhts
Should be Respected.

/ oHoulo pe Respected.
Commenting On the episode which
transplred at the passenger depot
IN this city the night Of March %,
| When party of seven or eight arm
Cd sugar planters from lower Assump,
tlon stampeded a crowd OF thirty-odd
negroes who were awaiting to en-
bark on the West-bound passenger
train, the Thihodaux Commercial
Journal says editorialIy in it's issue
OF the first instant:
! Il any one should tell us repre-
sentative, respectable people would
| deliberately drive up the main street
OF our town and with arms. guns ana
reVoiYers SO conduct themselves as to
clean out the store of any of our
meehants, no one would believe it.
! lhat honorable, laW-aDiuing and we'll
| meaning citizens would with revoly-
ers, guns and bowie knives attempt
to dlsperse a crowd gathered to or
ganlze an association for their mu-
tual benefit and protection, would
De decried. Yet In this twentieth
century, on the evening of March
20 at the head Of a paved street
IN the civilized and Wide-aWake city
OF DonaldsonFille, so-called law abid-
ing and prominent planters from the
nelghboring parish of Assumption de-
| Eberately rode in automobiles, mod
ern means of locomotion, and with
force and arms dispersed a crowd OF
local colored folk, doing nothing
wrong but needing the tempting Of
Ter OF a labor agent, working open
and above board.
This act is a crying shame, one
of the biggest knocks any civilized
community could stand Acts and
depredations such as this hold back
the progress due US. What right
| has Mr.. Sugar Planter or any one else
10 take the law into his own hands,
and seek by b1uffing and bu1dozing to
interfere with or intimidate any one
try ing to better his condition, be
that individual white or black?
It is a God-giVen right, a constitu-
rional guarantee, that the right Of
movement shall be free to all; where
fore this open and diabolical viola
ton of law?
..The despatch says the crowd,
| ready to take a Texas and Pacific
train for st. Joseph, La, was dis
persed by the appearance Of this
armed band. The labor agent, prais-
FL be his unfaltering courage, would
not be thus intimidated, was not
coward, and, collecting his wits,
gathered his charges and with the
exception of two heads of families,
carried out his intention and took
itb him his II,oseass promised
fields.
mot satisfied with advertising
our lands to the world as good for
nothing else but sugar, not satisfied
with working people at the lowest
possible living wage and lower, not
satisfied with aging diversified.
ton, determined to rule or ruin,
certain class of people believe when
ever labor seeks to assert the free
mans right, seeks to better itself,
seeks to crawl out Of mere exist
ence, seeks to do the same in hon
orable and legitimate ways, that, for
sooth, they are permitted to take
the law unto themselves.
3sWe say that, no matter who these
individuals are, and evidently they
possessed sufficient influence to
have their names withheld from pub
lie print: they should be arrested and
given the full limit Of the law. The
laborer is worthy of his hire. He
is the bone and sinew of this coun-
try Of ours, he is human, he has
rights that must be respected. To
those who will not respect the rights
of the poor and doWntrodden, the
full and extreme penalty of the law
should be applied.
"There is a way of retaining labor,
by giving them what they earn, glF-
ing them reasonable hours, giving
item comforts, giving them some
thing worth while living for, making
life easier and making of them bet
ter citizens. No industry has 3
monopoly on labor, no industry can
expect to build, rehabilitate or es-
tablish itself unjustly and by grind
ing down the oppressed. Human ma
ture will not stand it. Poverty
is a misfortune, deprivation suf-
fering, and the worm will turn.
There is way, the right way,
and the sooner this is realized the
better. We sadly deplore conduct
such as that reported from Donald
sonvilIe, and condemn such acts, re-
gardless of who the perpetrators
might be-"