Rev. Snyder Helping Young Men in Trouble With Law, Jan. 4, 1921

Two cotton mill operatives “swung” a train at Chester, intending to “drop off” at the mill, a short distance down the line, where they were employed. The train, however, happened to be a through freight, and instead of making the customary stop at the mill village, came on to Monroe without so much as slowing down. Unfortunately for the two young men, the local officers were unusually vigilant that day, and they espied them as the train came to a halt. They spent the night in jail. In the Recorder’s court the next morning they, to all appearances, told a “straight” story, and the Recorder saw fit to suspend judgment upon the payment of costs. The Recorder may have thought he was very lenient towards the defendants. The “cost” amounted to buy $4.80; but even a dollar is a large sum to two penniless men in a strange community. They faced a road sentence unless the “cost” bill was paid; but fortunately for them, sympathetic spectators in the court-room paid them “out” and sent them homeward. But the sympathetic spectators are not present at all sessions of the Recorder’s court, and more than one youth afflicted with the wanderlust would be serving a road sentence if it were not for Rev. E.C. Snyder, a Union county Baptist minister. Whenever a youth without some refinement, or possessed with an honest face, happens to be caught in the police drag-net, Rev. Mr. Snyder is notified. Without making investigation of the lad’s case he trust to the innate sense of honesty of the defendant, and proceeds to “pay” him out. If the young man lives not far-away, Rev. Mr. Snyder sends him home; and invariably he received a check compensating him for what money he expended in court costs and railroad fare. Others he sends out into the country, where they work until they earn money sufficient to discharge their obligation to their benefactor, and a little surplus to supply them with warmth and food until they secure steady work. The Monroe minister is doing a great work. Owing to the distress of the country, thousands and thousands of men are thrown out of work, and they roam over the railroads, seeking for work; and the number who are daily picked up by the officers increases daily. The indications are, unless the police and Recorder’s court are more lenient with the floating laborers, that the most of Rev. Mr. Snyder’s time will be occupied in this work. From the front page of The Monroe Journal, Jan. 4, 1921