edges of assistance for the negro officer,
then making an effort to prevent the exodus. Being under the
impression that the ignorant members of their race were being imposed
upon by agents from without, many of these leading negroes pledged
themselves to assist in the suppression of it.[77]

In Jacksonville, where the labor agents flourished, the City Council
passed an ordinance requiring that migration agents should pay $1,000
license to recruit labor sent out of the State under penalty of $600
fine and 60 days in jail. Several police detectives were assigned the
task of arresting those who were said to be spreading false reports
among negroes there to the effect that special trains were ready on
various specified dates to take them to points in the North. When,
therefore, large crowds of negroes gathered near the Union Depot in
Jacksonville, awaiting the so-called special train, they were handled
rather roughly by the police when it was shown that they had
not purchased tickets and there was no one to vouch for their
transportation.

The same condition with respect to the apparent necessity for
prohibitive measures obtained in Georgia. The local governments early
took action to prevent the drain of the labor population to northern
States through the operation of labor agents. It was soon observed,
however, that these agents worked out their schemes so clandestinely
that it was impossible to check the movement by such measures. Fearing
that the general unrest among the negroes of the city and the efforts
that were being put forth on the part of the authorities to keep them
from being transported from Macon to the North, might result in a riot
with which the city authorities would not be able to cope, Chief of
Police George S. Riley recommended to the civil service commission
that forty magazine rifles be purchased for the police department.[78]
At that time the police had only their pistols and clubs. It was
said that surliness then existed among certain negroes and the police
wanted to be able to cope with any situation that might arise. The
City Council, thereafter, raised the license fee for labor agents to
$25,000, requiring also that such an agent be recommended by ten local
ministers, ten manufacturers and twenty-five business men. The police
of Macon were very active in running down labor agents violating this
law.

Americus was honeycombed and carefully watched and searched for
persons inducing negroes to m