The laws relating to contracts of employment are to be found on the statute books of six States--Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina. These laws are very similar in their phraseology and in the penalties attached to their violation in all of these States. The Alabama law, which has recently been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States, may serve as an example. It provides, in short, that any person who enters into a contract in writing to perform any service for another and thereby obtains money or other personal property from such person with intent to defraud the person, and who leaves his service without performing the act or refunding the money or goods, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; or, that any person who in writing makes a contract for the rent of land and obtains money or personal property from the landlord with intent to deceive him and leaves without performing the service, refunding the money, or paying for the property, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. The penalty for each of these offenses is a fine not exceeding $300, and in default of payment, imprisonment for a period of not exceeding one year. This Alabama statute was later amended, because it was found that there was difficulty in proving the intent. The statute as amended was to the effect that the failure of any person who enters into such contracts to perform the service, or to cultivate the land, or refund the money, or pay for the goods, shall be prima facie evidence of the intent to injure his employer or landlord, or to defraud him. These contracts are usually entered into under conditions which render it impossible for the employee to overcome what the statute says shall be prima facie evidence. The Supreme Court of Alabama has decided that an accused person shall not be allowed to testify as to his uncommunicated motives, purposes, or intentions, to rebut a statutory presumption. Taking counsel of this decision employers who make contracts with laborers are cautious that there shall be present at the time of making the contract only the employer and the employee. When the contract is made, the employer advances the laborer a sum of money, or goods, or supplies, which become the consideration for the contract, and the laborer agrees to work for such person for a fixed period at a certain sum per month or per year. In a case which went through all the courts, State and Federal, the laborer agreed to work for a year at twelve dollars per month. At the time of entering into the contract he received fifteen dollars in money, and the employer agreed to pay him the sum of ten dollars and seventy-five cents per month, thus deducting a dollar and a quarter each month in payment of the fifteen dollars advanced at the making of the contract. The employee, after having rendered service for more than a month, left his employer. He was afterwards indicted and convicted of failing to perform his contract