Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/359

Rh or county ordinance knows nothing of letting the negro go, but simply compels him to find an employer. Finally, it is ordained “that it shall be the duty of every citizen to act as a police officer for the detection of offenses and the apprehension of offenders, who shall be immediately handed over to the proper captain or chief of patrol.”

It is true, an “organization of free labor” upon this plan would not be exactly the reëstablishment of slavery in its old form, but as for the practical working of the system with regard to the welfare of the freedman, the difference would only be for the worse. The negro is not only not permitted to be idle, but he is positively prohibited from working or carrying on a business for himself; he is compelled to be in the “regular service” of a white man, and if he has no employer he is compelled to find one. It requires only a simple understanding among the employers, and the negro is just as much bound to his employer “for better and for worse” as he was when slavery existed in the old form. If he should attempt to leave his employer on account of non-payment of wages or bad treatment he is compelled to find another one; and if no other will take him he will be compelled to return to him from whom he wanted to escape. The employers, under such circumstances, are naturally at liberty to arrange the matter of compensation according to their tastes, for the negro will be compelled to be in the regular service of an employer, whether he receives wages or not. The negro may be permitted by his employer “to hire his own time,” for in the spirit and intent of the ordinance his time never properly belongs to him. But even the old system of slavery was more liberal in this respect, for such “permission to hire his own time” “shall never extend over seven days at any one time.” (Section 4.) The sections providing for the “summary” enforcement of the penalties and placing