repayment may be declared a sufficient cause to go to the jury for their judgment, all without in any way infringing the thirteenth amendment or the statutes of the United States.” The importance of this dissenting opinion is enhanced by the reflection that if all the vacancies in the court had been filled at the time there might have been four concurring in the dissenting opinion rather than two, and even as it is, the opinion being that of a divided court is a basis for the fear that at some future when the same question may be presented to the court, constituted differently from what it now is, the constitutionality of these statutes may be upheld.

Another form in which peonage is practiced is by the passage of acts making it unlawful to entice laborers to leave their employers or landlords, or to employ persons who have left their employers without fulfilling their contracts. Such laws are found in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. It will be observed that all of these States are former slave-holding States.

A third law under which peonage is practiced, and which probably is the most fruitful legal source is to be found in Alabama alone. It provides that when any person who has been convicted of a misdemeanor, signs a written contract in open court approved by the judge of the court in consideration of another person becoming his surety on a confession of judgment for the fine and costs, agrees to perform any service for such person and afterwards fails or refuses to perform the service, on conviction will be fined not less than the amount of damages which the party contracting with him has suffered, and not more than five hundred dollars. The statute provides that these contracts with sureties may be filed for record in the office of the judge of probate in the county in which the confession of judgment was had. There is an additional section which provides for similar punishment in the cases of persons convicted of a misdemeanor or violation of a city ordinance, who makes similar contracts before a recorder or mayor.

The laws of vagrancy are also used as a means of reducing persons to a condition of peonage. In many of the Southern States the vagrancy laws are exceedingly drastic, and under their enforcement by the courts almost any person may be convicted as a vagrant, and being unable to pay his fine or to give surety for his future good conduct may enter into a contract, with one who does pay his fine or become his surety, to work for him, and if he does not perform the labor may be prosecuted for violating this contract, and for the second offense may enter into a contract for additional service for an extended period, and thus the restraint of his liberty may be almost interminable.

The law relating to immigrant agents makes it necessary to obtain a license in each county of the State in which the calling is carried on. This license is made so high as to be practically prohibitive. Carrying on the occupation of immigrant agent without a license is a misdemeanor, the penalty for which is a fine from five hundred to five thousand dollars, and imprisonment for a period of not exceeding one year. Laws relating to immigrant agents are found in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

In addition to these, other laws, perfectly proper on their face, are perverted to reduce persons to a condition of peonage, among which are false pretense or false promise laws, absconding debtor laws, board-bill laws, and in fact every ordinance, regulation, or statute defining a misdemeanor or crime. It can readily be seen that if the States may by legislative enactment define any act to be a crime the thirteenth amendment may become in time a mere nullity.

In a report by Hon. Charles W. Russell, Assistant Attorney General, to the Attorney General, in 1908, appears