The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-02-15
How to Utilize COnyicts.

| l1ON W Cll1iLC NUutlClcs
10 the Editor Of the Ncws and Courier
Occurrences in Tennessee and elsewhere
have forcibly directed attention to the
question of convict labor, and the meth
DDS by which it is sought to relieve the
State of the burden of its maintenance,
as direct charge upon the treasury,
through employment in some form of
productive industry. The ao-called
"coutract system" under which large
numbers, often the entire number of con-
victs, sre let or hired out, at a stipulated
figure, to perform various kinds ofservice,
is the method which has been most gen.
orally resorted to, and is that to which
the strongest and greatest number of ex.
ceptions have been taken, frequently
manifested in personal violence to the
contractors, and open and armed opposi.
ton to the authorities of the law.
In some States Convict farms" have
been established, the products of which
go to balance the expense of the prison
system; but although this method has
engepdered less antagonism than the for
mer it can readily be seen that the same
logical objections obtain in both cases,
and that the absence of opposition results
rather from the indirectness OF the COM
petition with free labor in the latter as
compared with the former method than
from the existence of any real distinction.
In both instances the product of convict
labor is brought with greater or less
directness into competition with that of
free labor; it is only that its effect is
more promptly and sensibly felt by the
wage working than the farming classes,
which goes to account for the more pro-
nounced opposition manifested against
the employment of convict labor in COM
petition with free labor by the former
than the latter element of industrial
society.
What then is to be done with our con-
victs? They should not be permitted to
live life of idleness and thus become
dead lead upon the taxpayers of the
State Certainly there is no reason why
they should in this State; and it has
been matter of surprise that this large
force has not been employed in the sys'
tematic accomplishment of sor,e great
public work outside of the financial pos
sibilities of taxation, the results of which
would, indirectly if not directly, reim-
burse the State for the expense of main
tanning the convict system as it must
necessarily exist, through the enhance
ment of values and the increased tax
return from property benefited and devel.
oped by such work. In this way no
legitimate industry would be endangered,
neither would free labor be discredited
through competition with convict labor.
But the question may well te asked
what is the nature of the public work the
execution of which would compass such
desirable results? Are there not thous'
ands of acres of the most fertile lands in
the State lying between the foot hills and
the sea /? Lands which if drained would
re-establish the prestige of the planter
and yield rich prosperity to the people
of the whole State. know of my own
observation of lands lying idle and valued
at from one to FIVE dollars an acre, which
if drained would yield readily thirty
bushels of corn and fifteen bushels of
peas as one jc.nt crop per acre, and that,
too, with an amount of labo. which
would not suffice to cultivate one half an
acre in some of the States to the North
and West of Us from which such CON-
modities are annually purchased which
are grown on lands that produce no more,
if as much, and which are taxed at from
fifteen to twenty-five dollars per acre.
Much of these lands would also yield
from ten to twenty bushels Of wheat and
from twenty to thirty bushels of oats.
say this tecause I have seen just such
crops growing upon small patches OF
ground which had been drained know
that it is the current belief that cotton,
the great summum bonum of the knights
of the zone gallus and the wool hat"
will not "fruit" upon these lands. My
slight opportunities of observation lead
me to doubt this theory, at least so far as
some of the lands go, and it is my impress
sion that doubt would ripeu into demon
strable refutstion under proper drainage,
as have seen full bale of four hundred
and sixty pounds of cotton gathered from
one acre of these lands, upon which no
phosphate had been used. | am we'll
aware of the fact that the above state
mena are exceptions and not the rule
upon these lands, and it is that very fact
which it is Intended to illustrate. Why
are they exceptions? Because it isl prac
tically impossible for any one person to
drain all or even most of his land. There
is nothing into which to turn the water.
Now, if a certain district possessing the
conditions above cited we're taken in
charge, a proper survey made of it with
view to drainage and suitable and
sufficient canals or drains cut upon
comprehensive plan, these lands could
easily be drained and reclaimed, and the
ague, the custodian of many OF these flats,
would necessarily be routed and driven
from bis stronghold, and, in lieu of the
present abomination of desolation, pro
ductive farms would be created to the
great profit of the State and our people.
Certainly in this way the convict may
work out his term. If not his salvation,
unenvied by his free brother. All of the
lands of which speak are susceptible
of drainage, being above the level OF
streams which pass through or environ