Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-12-30
THE COUNTY WORK-HoUsE.
Shall it be Leased.

observe some suggestions as to change
in the present management of the work
house system. The change proposed by
those who have written about it, presenting
divers views, does not commend itself to
reason or experience.
The plan of leasing the work house, after
the manner of that abomination, the lease
of the penitentiary, is utterly unworthy of
consideration.
1t is scheme to favor jobbers, in its re-
suits. 1t is believed that under the pre-
text of saving money to the State (and only
that), the penltentiary is let to men who
have and are amassing sums of money by
their contract, to make them
MONEY KINGS
In this country of boasted equality of
rights and privileges.
To lease the work house would give some
jobbers a like chance, with similar, but
smaller results
This popular prejudice of saving money
to the State, upon which demagogues and
small politicians get into the treasury, is
string upon which
FIDDLERs
much skill.
There are many objections to the lease of
the work-house, other than that above men
toned.
l. 1t favors the men of property, to the
seclusion of the poor man. No man can
lease the work house unless he can give
good bond for the rental
2. The rent, when received, is so diff
fused as to be hard to trace to its fnality.
The county treasury is a very distributive
institution, and very few get their fingers
in for appreciable sums
8, Convicts are American citizens. Their
personal liberty is restrained because of
crimes, many of which are very small Of
fenses, compared with si4e Illainies prac-
ticed with impuLity tia rsn impunity
bought by the overs-~Iaxi; la5lence of
their wealth.
The loss is not vindictive, but conserva-
tive and reformatory. Its sentence is
confinement" and labor" Isolated from
society, to prevent the repetition of of
tense, and superinduce reflection and better
habits of thought and conduct, and labor to
give healthful employment to the physical
man, and aid in the expense of his necesi-
ties
Upon what principle of law or right,
sell the labor of such
CITIZEN
to speculator or jobber? Upon none other
even in theory-than that of master and
his slave, and thus slavery is established,
for the time, not only over the black man,
Just emancipated from that state of servi-
tude, in which he, probably, learned to
commit his crime, but over the free born
white man, his parents and himself Ameri-
can cit Zens.
By this degradation of the citizen, to the
condition of slave, in market overt, his
nobler impulses are more paralyzed than
the confinement and labor in prison. The
purchaser of his labor employs him in
private enterprises, and instead
of that solitude which would
give opportunity for reflection, he may be
under the daily influence of examples and
associations unfavorable to reform. Thus
the most benevolent design of the law is
ffrUuYsstrated, fU to feed the greed of hungry
4th. Pecuniary profit would be the I'M
pulse of the speculator and jobber of the
contract of lease. He must allow the con-
victs their nominal wages to iquidate their
fines; he must feed and clothe them. Has
the State or county any right to place these
poor Ilen and women in situation to sUf-
fer by the cupidity, cruelty or negligence
of this money seeker? He must be one of
thousand, if he either feed or clohte them
comfortably, or work them reasonably.
Other points might be made against this
scheme of lore. The appointment of COM
missioners to superintend the work house,
ETC., is subject to objection.
First it is useless to pay three men to do
the work of one. These commissioners
must be appointed by the County Court,
(which now appoints the overseer," and it
is always easier to control the conduct of
one man than three.
Mr.. Editor, the present plan is the best
under the law as it stands. AS the work
house belongs to all the people of the
county its revenues should be appropriated
to the use of the county, and there is no
more practicable or profitable use to be
made of >such revenues than
the construction of our pub
| Lie roads, I say construction, for many of
them need to be made over again.
| The objection that all the roads cannot
be made at once is puerile. Every citizen
might claim, as well, that he should enjoy
all public benefits in full, and present pos
! session, as every other citizen, which is
simply impossible.
The true doctrine is, the greatest good
to greatest numbers possible. The road
most frequently travelled should be first in
time and right.
At another time may suggest scheme
for the amend nent of the road law, in con-
nectiOn with the work house. U.S..