When the Martinique negro claims he does not know conditions as they exist at Panama, or other points on the Central American coast, he is lying, as they are all of them more or less familiar with the entire coast from personal visits to it or information acquired from friends who have been on the coast.
I know nothing from personal observation of the Peonage system in the Southern States but I do know that the contract labor system is the only way to handle labor in Panama, for you cannot get them without the advance of money and if you do not protect yourself by the contract, the chances are 9 out of 10 that your man will never show up to work it out.
A gang of those negroes numbering 500 or 600 are not easily handled by any means, and force must be used at times, or at least a strong display of it made or discipline would not be maintained twenty-four hours. Conditions are altogether different from anything existing here and matters must be judged differently. Existing conditions must dictate the line of action to be pursued in any given case and from my knowledge of the character of the men and the conditions, I do not see how the authorities could have acted otherwise than in using force, if necessary, to persuade these negroes to disembark. You certainly would not consider it just that these negroes take the contractors money, spend it, have their fare paid on the steamer to Colon and then on arrival deliberately say they would not land and work out what they had already been paid, but were going to return home. There would be no justice in such a course and if the employer had to use force to obtain what was coming to him, the man’s labor in exchange for his money which the man had already spent, it seems to me he was entirely within his rights. These laborers owed this money to the employer just as much as a man owes money that he has borrowed from another and given his note for, and, just as much as the borrower should expect to pay his note, just so much should this laborer expect to give his services in payment of the money advanced to him. As I have stated before, the laws of these countries recognize this condition of the field of labor and uphold the employer just as our laws recognize a man’s liability when he signs a note agreeing to repay money advanced to him. When the laborer has repaid by his services the money advanced to him he can no longer be held to his contract, but just so long as the laborer demands the advance of money before doing any work, just so long must he expect to be forced, if necessary, to carry out his agreement, and his services as laborer being his only asset he must give those services.
In those countries you only have your laborer as long as you keep him in your debt, for as soon as he gets a month’s wages in his pocket, he is ready to loaf and get drunk.
I think if you were thoroughly acquainted with conditions there, as I am, you would take a different view of the matter. I have been a constant reader of your Magazine since the first issue and enjoy it very much, but felt I must give you my views on this question.
John C. Sanner, Redding, Cal.
“Who Are The Rabble?”
It is de rigeur nowadays for a “genteel” personage travelling along a country road in a buggy or automobile to address any casually met pedestrian as “my man” when seeking local information. This seems boorish to my old fashioned notions. We are evidently becoming very aristocratic along with our tremendous increase in national wealth. It is a very great exhibition of gall for a large employer to so bespeak an humble subordinate.
I will present to the editor of the Tom Watson’s Magazine, if he can find space, an article addressed mainly to the uneducated and unthoughtful hard working men and voters of our United States. The writer is an uneducated man and a life-long hard toiler and acquainted with grief, sorrow and adversity and has lived over three score and ten years. My mother being left a widow with four little dependent children, she was forced to hire me at seven years old for bread and hence I feel interested in millions of men, women and children that are dependent and in grief and sorrow, that if they had equal rights and justice in this government, they would be a prosperous and happy people, and a just principle that presides in my heart prompts me to write an article addressed to that dependent, unthinking army of men in this government. Though I am forced to write from the hand of an uneducated man or from the language of my mother’s tongue, I hope my position will be understood.