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 violati