THE PEONAGE CHARGES.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17115, 9 April 1921, Page 9

THE PEONAGE CHARGES.

STATEMENT BY ACCUSED. (By Cable—Press Association—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cabla Association.) NEW YORK, April 7., "Williams, testifying at his trial on his own. behalf, denied any knowledge of how the negroes were killed. He said the' Federal agents who investigated the peonage charges told him that they had found nothing wrong, but' that he was technically liable for working the negroes he had bailed out of gaol. Williams said he then told the negroes to leave, and never saw them again.' Accused declared that Manning was angry because Williams refused to uphold the lie lie told the agents, the negro threatening to do something. [An earlier message stated: Oyde Manning, a negro, testifying at the trial of Williams, at Covington, Georgia, told gruesome details of how three negroes were murdered a week after Government agents questioned them- regarding alleged peonage existing on Williams's estate. Manning swore that, at AYilliams's order, he and another negro tied two men together with heavy chains, the victims begging for mercy.- Williams ordered them, to be thrown into the river, and Manning and his helper then threw them over a bridge. Later, the negro who helped Mannings-was' himself weighted , with chains and drowned, to prevent him from talking.")