[80]--

"We have two ways of handling our plantations. We rent small sections of
forty acres each, and with these go a plough and the mule. In addition,
I have about 450 hands who work on wages. These men are paid nine
dollars a month, in addition to a fixed rate of food, which amounts to
four pounds of meat a week, a certain percentage of vegetables, tobacco,
sugar, flour, and some other commodities.

"These negroes live on the plantation, are given a roof over their
heads, have garden patches, and several other more or less valuable
privileges. They invariably come to me for small advances of money.

"These advances of money and rations and clothing, although there is not
much of the latter, are frequently sufficient to put the negro in debt
to us. The minute he finds he is in debt he naturally conceives it to be
easier to go to work somewhere else and begin all over again, instead of
paying his debts.

"Now, when a negro runs away and violates his contract, leaving us in
the lurch, not only short of his labor, but short of the advances we
have made to him in money and goods, what would happen if we depended
simply and solely on our right to sue? In the first place, with 450
hands we would have 450 suits before the season is out, and if we won
them all we would not be able to collect forty-five cents.

"The result is, that in Georgia and Alabama, and I believe in other
states, the law recognizes the right of the planter to reclaim the
laborer who has left in violation of his contract, whether he be
actually in debt or not.

"Whether Judge Jones has declared this law constitutional or not, the
planters in the black belt will have to maintain their right to claim
their contract labor, or else they will have to go out of the business.
Under any other system you would find it impossible to get in your
cotton, because the negroes at the critical time would simply sit down
and refuse to work. When they are well, we compel laborers to go to the
field by force. This is the truth, and there is no use lying about it."

This reasoning is entirely logical from the business standpoint. If
production of wealth is the standard, contracts must be fulfilled and
debts must be paid. Otherwise capital will not embark in business. But
the reasoning does not stop with the negro. Once established, the
practice spreads to other races. Instances are cited of white men held
in peonage, negroes holding other negroes, and Italians forced