The Dallas express. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1893-1970, 1921-04-30


merit sentence of one year in the
penitentiary (Which was the lightest
sentence which could be imposed
would inquire if there was a farmer
present who would pay the costs of
he court and take the culprit for a
year, so that he would thus be free
to m,ngle with his fellows at nights
nd on Sundays. Some farmer would
come forward and the prisoner was
sold and warned that if he tried to
escape ne would be forced to spen
his days in the penitentiary. The
culprit, of course, gladly accepted
the offer, and his relatives and friends
were. made happy with the thought
that he had escaped the horrors of
the penitentiary, which were depicted
by the returned convicts, who told of
cruel beatinss for the most trivial
offenses and the denial of all rights
and privileges of human beings
The vagrancy laws are instruments
that send only Colored men to peon-
age No strange Colored man is al
lowed to run at large more than ten
days unless he has applied for a JOB
and IT matters not how much money
he has upon his person. In fact,
if he has a good sum it initiates
against him, as he is sure to be sus-
pected as q thief and get a longer
sentence to bondage, and there is
no chance of his paying fine and
escaping sentence. No white man
is considered vagrant if he remains
idle for months or years, so that he
refrains from committing any other
oifense.
Another cause of peonage is the
| landlord and tenant acts If that Sec
ton and the fact that most of the
farm laborers are troopers. This
means that they work for certain
part of the crop, and not for wages
The landowner furnishes the horse
power tools and other things needed
and sees to it that the cropper il
furnished provisions from his com
missary or grocer of his selection
The price of supplies is exhorbitant
so that at the end of the year thu
laborer finds himself in debt, ever
after he has received his share o
the crop.
He finds he cannot leave his EN-
lployer while in his debt. though h,
receives brutal treatment and If h
does his employer will post notice
forbidding any one to barber or hir
said persor and in some instance
will have him arrested and returne,
to the farm. Should the laborer die
his wife and children cannot NOV
i, laway until the debt is cancelled, an
in this manner many are held il
bondage from year to year.
. The exodus of the Colored laborer
from the south during the world wa
and the increase in lawlessness i
the North are largely a result c
, these conditions, as this element, tina
had never known what freedoI
| meant, could not be restrained whe
! they found they were masters of thei
own will and in their ignorance CON
; mitted the most inconceivable acts.
/ have gone fully into this matte
/ that those who read may know Iha
, Williams was right when he said this
he might be technically puilty, blu
If so, most of the farmers of Geol
+ gia were in the same predjcamen
? and I add that a great majority {
the farmers in the southern state
! mentioned are guilty of peonage. bl
E not of the horrible murders of whic
5 The has been convicted.
!, I trust this case may be the caus
2 Of stamping out the entire evil. fC
: It is better that a criminals be col
S fined in the state prison than tina
!. we have this diabolical practice diI
: grace our fair land.
: I am a southern man and write I
e facts that I know and have witnesse
e NJ. N. CORRECT,