The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1883-04-05

on the other side OF TINS queeuun tlht y
convict can be supported, fed guarded anu
clothed at t0l per annum. DO not snow
now tina. result "a reached. II seems
a. me h Ia NOT correct. / confess that
/ cannot support buggy'horse on
that amount of money, ~ IN
assuredly q mistake, and all their calcutta
tons based upon ~, and upon ike wiid es.
Inmates. are not 10 be reliedon. IL VIII cost
at least 800 year TO support CONVICT
Remember, It is not simply the support
of man, clothing him, feeding MN, put
ting shoes upon him, but IT'S also suaTaihs
hlm furnishing guards ana TAKING al tne
nrecautions I'm order that he don't escape;
therefore. | say it can't be done for less
than 500 year, and when you make your
calculations upon the basis OF an average
In round numbers 5000 convicts, you
will have an expense OF 100000 a year Tor
the maintenance, care, feed, clothing ana
guarding of these 1900 prisoners Sooo,VVo,
where, Ia all their calculations IS lound
one single word or hgure 10 sho"
where the state is TO- De REM rem,
see out of the labor OF these men that the
state can hope to realize that amount,
though every one of them be placed on
sugar farms. / don't see where they are
going to get that amount. Now, are you
going to find anybody who Will say the
state can manage and control as ecohom-
icaly as the lessees The lessees are, or
they ought to be, men Of unlimited credit.
They have the privilege OF going INTO the
New York and st. Louis markets, or else
where, and buying everything required OF
their business at the lowest prices, ana IN
quantities desired, and they have this right
also, to turn around and discount their pa
per- They have the right to take the most
profitable contracts for building rallroaos,
10 work farms, and to CONTRACT tnls lapor III
many ways upon infinitely more advanta
geous terms than the state can do. Ihey
can make their purchases and arrange
their business with such securi-
ties that their shrewdness, skill
and good management Will result
in making largely more money out
OF contract labor, than any state o.
ilcer would be permitted to make OF H.
The state officer who would go into the
into, would bring about his ears the denun-
Citations of the people. He would be i'm
peached, or you would demand his re-
moval from office in less than twenty
four hours. A state officer can't engage
IN these transactions. These laws and rules
OF business open to the lessees are not open
to the agents of the state with limited
powers, are as well established and as
strongly in force as if written upon your
your statute books, and we must recog-
nize the difference they make betweeen
the state acting through salarled offlcer
and an individual managing his own al
fairs. What legislature ID going to place to
the penitentiary board 100000 to carry
on the, penittentiary? WIN TINS Ieglsia.
ture do it? Was there ever
a legislature assembled that would do it !?
Ii it is to be carried on, on state account, it
must be done by warrants and vouchers,
approval of accounts, red-tape and clrcum-
locutlon, all This delaying settlements and
payments, and resulting in the state paying
two or three prices for everything thai is re-
quirsd. You will have superintendent
with horde of followers, leeches and sap
suckers iattenlng upon the state, every
thing passing through their hands must
SUCK, and all the profits of the labor OF the
convicts fall to the hungry crowd as crumbs
from the public table. The experience in
past years of the state OF Texas IN mana
ging the penitentiaries ought to warn sena-
tors against this delusion at resumption.
But sir, this lease is denounced as a most
damnable iniquity. How can any man
who has read the law under which the
lease was made and who has read the lease
Itself, contend that it turns The whole mat.
ter over to the lVssees. 1t has been said
that 800 men can be brought down here by
the lessees and turned upon THIS comhu-
nifty to run out the mechanics and iaborlng
men engaged III honest industry. How
absurd the proposition. 1t Is provided by
the lease and the laws under which II was
made, that the penientiary board shall still
retain control and direction of the labor OF
the convicts. The law contains in SO many
words the express provision that the con-
tract OF this labor shall never pass from the
hands of the state. The state has the SUI
preme control and under that power the
lessses use the labor, under this
law which governs the contract laws
NAV hereafter be passed to control and di-
rect the labor, or add TO or diminish the
control OF the lessees or the state board, as
the case may be. Then what is the neces-
sity of all this pretense, this demagogueryi
about bringing convlcts down upon this
city or any other city to stifle tree labor?
Ii is said this lease is to be the death
knell, that the support of it is to be the |
death-knell of the political hopes OF some
senators. do not believe there Is man |
in the senate who would go before the peo-
pie of Texas and place this question
squarely before them, including all its
damnable features, and then submit to
them the plan OF resumption and its conse-
Quences, but that would be Endorsed in
every town, county, city and precinct in
the state. There is not a precinct in the
district of the senator from Dallas but
would unanimously sustain the lease sys-
tenn. Another reason for sustaining the
lease is this: The democratic party has,
for many years, in fact ever since it has
been in power, looked to the confinement |
of the convicts within the walls ofthe neni- !
Tertiary. This, as state policy, is wise |
and correct. First, II is wise and just be- |
cause the sentence OF the court is, that
the defendant be taken TO the penitentiary |
at hard labor for the period of his sentence |
IL makes no provision for combining and |
working convicts on sugar farms or on rail- |
roads. Now, IL is the universal sentiment, |
educated into the people not only by their |
own ideas, but at Infinite pains OF senators /
who are opposing this lease, educated up TO |
it. IL can't be gainsaid that il is wise
policy that these men should be confined
within the walls Of the penitenharies. j
dare say that when those constituents OF
the senator from Dallas, who are said
10 be prepared to rise up and
overthrow these convict camps and
To- shoot down guards and turn the coDyicts
loose upon the community-when these
OF the senator have seen that
clause in the lease and IL is shown to them,
which makes the confinement OF large
number of the convicts within the walls
necessary, they viii say 70 him: "1su are
A GOOD senator and we like you, but when
Won 20 back, never make any such mistake
a moi 20 pass that lease" IL provides that
any time during the continuance the
lease the legislature may MAKE provision
for the Increase OF the number within the
walls, or even for the confinement OF all
within the walls, thus carrying out that
-tate policy we have all 90 long preached
about and talked about 10
provides further that the num-
Der Of couvicts I'm the walls shall be in
creased until Il IL Sufficient 10 Gil the pris-
ous. / 900 at the end Of the first three years.
such has been the policy Of the party, such
4 the demand o. the people Of Texas, and
whenever you say II is not this the people
want, but that they want resumption, you
.re betravfng the people and the party.
since this question has been before TIE
.enats, have. In passing through the lob
BIZ and elsewhere, met citiEens reading
about and listening % this discussion,
iarmers, stock-raisers and citizens inter