Contracts of employment, enticement of laborers to quit their employers,
violation of a contract with a surety by one convicted of a misdemeanor,
the laws of vagrancy, and the laws relating to immigrant agents.

The laws relating to contracts of employment are to be found on the
statute books of six States--Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North
Carolina, and South Carolina. These laws are very similar in their
phraseology and in the penalties attached to their violation in all of
these States. The Alabama law, which has recently been declared
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States, may serve as
an example. It provides, in short, that any person who enters into a
contract in writing to perform any service for another and thereby obtains
money or other personal property from such person with intent to defraud
the person, and who leaves his service without performing the act or
refunding the money or goods, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; or, that
any person who in writing makes a contract for the rent of land and
obtains money or personal property from the landlord with intent to
deceive him and leaves without performing the service, refunding the
money, or paying for the property, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. The
penalty for each of these offenses is a fine not exceeding $300, and in
default of payment, imprisonment for a period of not exceeding one year.
This Alabama statute was later amended, because it was found that there
was difficulty in proving the intent. The statute as amended was to the
effect that the failure of any person who enters into such contracts to
perform the service, or to cultivate the land, or refund the money, or pay
for the goods, shall be prima facie evidence of the intent to injure his
employer or landlord, or to defraud him. These contracts are usually
entered into under conditions which render it impossible for the employee
to overcome what the statute says shall be prima facie evidence. The
Supreme Court of Alabama has decided that an accused person shall not be
allowed to testify as to his uncommunicated motives, purposes, or
intentions, to rebut a statutory presumption. Taking counsel of this
decision employers who make contracts with laborers are cautious that
there shall be present at the time of making the contract only the
employer and the employee. When the contract is made, the employer
advances the laborer a sum of money, or goods, or supplies, which