The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1879-10-08

world.
The Employment OF COnTIets as Labor.
ers on Works OF Internal Improve.
ment.
On the 9th Of March last our West Vir-
ginia Legislature passed an act aath riz-
ing the Board Of Public Works to arrange
for the employment Of convicts in the
Penitentiary on works OF internal i'm
provement. This act was passed for sew
eral reasons: First, because 1t wAs in
keeping with the old Virginia system;
Second, because Of the outcry in regard to
competition Of indoor convict labor with
the honest labor Of the country; and,
third, because there was considerable of
q pressure brought to bear on the lcsisla-
ture from the parties who are building
railroad from Hinton, on the Chesapeake
& Ohio railroad in this State, to Dublin
Station on the Virginia &!Tennessee road
Ia road that is to open up important ore
fields to the enterprise OF manufacturrrs)
and that is being built from its Virginia
end by Virginia convict labor.
We favored the passage of this acl, and
as ii provides against the abuse or mis-
treatment Of conVlcts, under penalty of
forfeiture Of the contract, we see nothing
to regret in its passage. It's last clause
provides that upon proof that such con.
victs areimproperly fed, clothed, or cruel
ly treated, the Board OF Public Works may
cancel any contract made under this act
and recall the conyicts."
Up TO this time none Of our West vir-
ginia convicts have been let out TO service
on any works Of public improvement, for
the reason, as we are informed, that prior
contracts have employed all the convicts
at indoor labor in the Penitentiary. Per-
haps, in view OF the reports that have
reached usas. to the workings Of the out
door contraCtsystem in Georgia and South
Carolina, it is well enough that we have
not had occasion TO test itin our own ex-
perience. In Georgia the outdoor system
was adopted because the Penitentiary in
that State was burned in 1869. The $50
convicts on hand, nearly all colored, were
leasedto company for two years, and the
lease was 80 loosely drawn that gross in
humanity ensued. The lessees were
absolute r masters Of the convicts,
and "a report made January, 1870,
showed that they were worked from
dawn till ten o'clock at night, Sundays and
all days; men and women were chained
together night and day; number were
killed in trying TO escape and runaways
were hunted with blood hounds. The
lease was renewed, however, in 1871 and
the system was recently continued for
twenty years, though in the interval the
grossest outrages were found to have been
connected with It, which practically made
the ehain'gang a drove Of slaves in some
Instances, The mortality in certain camps
has been Jfrightiul, white convicts have
bhbed the lessees to let them escape, and
the present Legislature has discovered that
the keeper Of the penitentiary, Nelms,
has made apretty speculation transferring
the conVicts from the penitentiary 10 the
camps. The system has been vigorously
denounced throughout the State, notably
BY 0oI Alst6n, who was killed by Cox,
and each succeeding Legislature witnesses
a fresh attack upon it. State Senator
Boyd Aid the other day from his place in
the Senate chamber that two-thirds Of
their negro, eopviets (and most Of their
Eeonyicts are negroes) went to the peniten-
Gary for stealing bread to feed their
children; in one case negro was sent up
Eve years for stealing q mackerel. The
Augusta Chronicle say that the sooner the
system can be abolished and a proper
penitentiary regulation consummated, the
better for the State at large, II not torsome
individuals.
This leasing OF conyicts has worked nc
better in other States, Texas has had the
same inhumanity and practical negro
slavery in her camps, and South oarolins
is now having similar trouble. The Col
unbia correspondent Of the Charleston
Nns and Courier, reliable Democratic au
thorityI- Whites that the mortality amonl
the conviets in that State is fearful, ant
! that they are oyerworked and cruell!
:. treated. scaryy had killed many, in
j duced BY an improper diet Of salt mea
!. and corn bread, and the Iessees repor
!. men dead without assigning any cause
d which Is suspicious, atleast. Some Of tn
oopyicts are returned 10 the penitentiar
Y Y from the camps because no longer att
d work. and on their ankles are hornbl
]. sores eaten into the 'assh by their mani