Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1895-06-01

IT, aud remember that these uniOrtu-
mates as brothers blood, cries out from
the earth and appeals to God whose
blightiDg curse must be upon the con-
Vict lease system wherever IL exists"
FEARFUL DEATH-RAIE-
Before the convict lease system in
Texas was abolished thousands perish
ed. During 1S7S-'SO more than half
the cOnvicts at work in the wood cut
ting camps died. During the four years
previous TO 1888 seventy one were shot
to death by guards Sin the discharge of
their duty" Many of the convicts dur
ing those years were incarcerated not
because they had been convicted Of
crime but because the state had not pro-
vided places of refuge for the poor and
infrm.
The discipline which were all In the
hands of the leesers were "hard labor"
the dungeon, the lash and the stacks,
all literally used" Although the State
has resumed control of it's cOnvicts hun.
dreds OF thousands of dollars are coined
out of their fish blood.
During the Southern Baptist Convfn-
ton held in this city last week, DR..
Hawthorne said he could not at all see
into the future ofthe color question, that
elf the white people Of the South do not
save the Negroes they will destroy all
around them 18th their natural tenden-
cv TO relapse into barbarism." Said he,
We shall be driven to barbarous
methods to save Oursalves and l would
sooner see the whole Southern dOmin-
ion sunk one hundred miles beneath
the waters of thu gulf than before
such reign OF barbarism come upon
US.
WHERE TO BEGIN.
I would suggest to DIR. Hawthorne
that he begin his missionary work right
at home, Atlanta, Ga. Let him use his
il fiaence to stop the manufacturing of
criminals out of eel red boys aud pirls.
The Committee on PeDitentiary report
that one hundred and twenty Eve chill
dren, eyes ranging from eight to sixteen
had the two ears previous, been con-
flOed in the "vast school of crime" the
convict camps, comp lied to live 6Hy
land night with criminals of every sort
aud where they learn TO commit 'scrimes
which cannot be named or written With
out revulsion of feeling amounting to
horror"
Gambling and namelese crimes must
exist, as the report says, under the lease
system, and the victim of misfortune
becomes a moral leper." Many are in
generated for a simple act of indiscre.
ton aud as pious chaplain SAYS. (iI
chaplain he may be called) they are like
untamed brutes when they go out into
the world but far more dangerous.
\ ne hundred and ninety-nine out of q
thousand times a boy once in prison
will be returned until he gets life sen.
tcnce or is hanged"
STATISTICS ON CRIMINALS.
The PeDitentiary report for 1893
shows that the number of convicts was
then 210S, a net increase for the year OF
22S; the colored race contributing over
nine tenths OF the convict population.
Only one hundred and twenty-six had
lived to see forty years when convicted.
Fifty are serving sentences Of twenty
years and upwards for burglary, in
Guiding boy Of thirteen who is serving
term OF forty-one years and two for
life. Twenty-Five are serving life sen.
tences for arson; and seven are serving
p life sentences for riot; eleven are serving
twenty-years for attempted rape, includ
ing one boy thirteen years old.
A boy Of fifteen is serving q life sen
= tence for mahem; another is serving a
twenty years sentence for simple lar.
lceny. These are but samples. From
the q fferent reports 1 found that very
few, If any, survive fifteen years of chain
gang slavery in Georgia. Its history
such "a might be written in blood and
II written would almost put Siberian
horrors in the shade.
. NcoNcEIvABLE INIQUITY.
Women have been outraged, men hav,
q been whipped to death by whipping
! bosses, ESQ it has been proved) convict
have been starved, tor tured. shot dowI
y in cold blood, and all this merely Il
y have those who hold shares in this in
= famous business reap the golden harVes
= of their labor.
Z Certain members of the Georgia I.eQis
y lature have made themselves immense
- y wealthy out OF convict labor. n.
e more iDhuman cruelties have been en-
y dured by coDvicts than have been endur
a ed by female convicts on State Senate
n Smiths convict farm. All steps takel
toward breaking up the system hav
le been opposed on the ground of econom,
y and that most of the convicts are onl,
n ''niggers."
\ EVERYTHING THE SAME.
IT The convict lease system is the sam
N everywhere and always. The count
convict farms of Arkansas are declare,
by State officials to be ''inquisitions @
torture, where poor unfortunates ar
lg treated worse than beasts of burden
III nduklllluR, DIubdiLtnk ntliB on earth.
y. The victims have been guilty @
ct trifiing offenses, some OF none Rhateve
d. but the ring wants their labor.
n Under the present system nothing
bh done TO bring out and develop what
re left of the divine image in the convict
but on the contrary everything tha
b, curses, kicks, starvation, that "bruts
IN instrument of torture" the strap, wiz
re chester and blood hounds can do to q,
j. base him is done and he soon become
a ten times more the child of hell tina
W ever before. The convict lease system
ly not approved of by the better class ,
ps people in the South, but politics col
n trolls the whole concern.
he Legislators have a mOnied interest
nd the convict. The mine owner SAYS I
nd his employees, "YOu come to my tern
hs or l W i'll employ the convict force.
10 LABOR MUST ANTAGoNIzE THE EVIL.
Mt One of the evils of the system is tn,
Der convict labor comes in competition vii
tn free labor which increases crime and ps
perism as a result. / have endeaVorl
to point out a few of the evils resuEtiI
from the system. More than seven yea
ri I have been carefully investigating {
go treatment of convicts in the differe
tbs leasing States and all that have CIV
nd said and written have given bat a fai
OK. glimpse of the utter miserips of this ne
'as est and most revolving form OF hum