The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-07-01
Are Agitating the Subject OF
Building a State Railroad
BY CONVICT LABOR.
State and Municipal Ownership
Notions Are Said
To Be Making Remarkable
Progress in Georgia Cities.

successful, will carry into effect the
principles of their platform without
waiting on the slow movement of ma
tional politics. They propose to begin
by putting the penitentiary convicts to
work on a state railroad from Atlanta
to the sea. The state already owns the
Western & Atlantic railroad from At
nooga and it is proposed TO put the
whole of Georgia in touch with the At
lantic ocean and the river navigation
of the Mississippi valley.
Rates to the interior towns and cities
of Georgia are relatively high, rising in
proportiG. to distance from water
With great state railroad traverslng
the state diagonally from Chattanooga
to Savannah, the Populists think that
rates would be readjusted on lower
level. Other lines connecting other cen
ters with the Atlantic the waters of the
Gulf of Mexico or the watershed of the
Mississippi valley would follow as elab-
orations of the same general plan
To follow these is the construction by
convicts of telegraph and telephone sys-
TENS between the cities and principal
towns of Georgia.
Coupled with this progra NINE of
state socialism is another of municipal
socialism, by which the Populists hope
to capture the towns and cities or
Georgia and make them permanent
seat of power for this party. The own
ership by cities and towns of street
railways, telephones and gas, water and
electric light works, and of all business
touching the public in the same way,
is proposed, and the city of Glasgow is
the model.
This bold scheme of socialism is ser
iously proposed by Judge James K.
Hines, who was the Populist nominee
for governor in 1894. By official count
he came within "a, 900 votes of an cleo
ton only two years after Governor Nor
then had rolled up Democratic major
ity of 10000. The Populists claim that
Hines was elected, but was counted out.
There is no denial that heavy fraud
ulent vote was polled in Richmond
county.
Judge Hines is a lawyer and a man of
affairs. For years he was on the bench
of the supreme court in Middle Georgia,
and was looked up to as a man of char
acter and ability. He had been life
long Democrat when he Joined the Pop
ulistS in 1892. He resigned the judge
ship to accept the nomination for gov
ernor in 1894 and since that campaign
he has been practicing law in Atlanta.
He is a firm believer in government
ownership of railroads and telegraphs
and in state and municipal SOCIALISM,
generally. Speaking on the condition
of the Georgia Populists and their plans
for the future, Judge Hines says:
I'VE are laying plans for the cam
paigns of 1898 and 1900 and are gaining
ground You would be surprised to
know how many people in the cities are
coming to our planks on the govern
| ment ownership of railroads, gas works.
electric light works, etc. The people of
a $3.50 poll tax. The city owns the
street railways. telephones, wa terworks,
gas works, baths and electric light
works and makes enough in them to
rates charged are low, and still they
make enough to run the city. Ten
years from today Atlanta will be run in
the same way. I shall offer for the
next POpuliSt platform a plank proVid-
ing for working the conVictS on a state
railroad from Atlanta to Savannah.
I h a.
the cost of the rail, which is 81, 800 per
mile. The convicts would grade the
road, cut the cross ties from the forest
and lay the track. The state would
have to bond for only about $4,000 per
mile for rails and spikes and stumpage
on cross ties"
Wouldn't it cost great deal to feed
and clothe the convicts while they do
this work?'' Judge Hines was asked
Il can put one-third of the convicts
on farms and make them raise enough
to support the other two-thirdS and
themselves" he answered. They would
raise corn, wheat, provender, vegeta-
bles, hogs, sheep and cattle; the factor
les would weave the cotton and wool for
toll and the women convicts would
make the cloth into clothes. The state
would incur little or no expense for the
maintenance of the convicts, and a the
end of a few years it would have a
magnificent railway system, which
would forever make the people indie
pendent of railway combina TONS Low
rates and good service locally, and dis
tant markets would be secured for
Georgia products. At the same time a
large revenue would come into the
state treasury.
In Atlanta, within the past few weeks
Mayor Collier, who is a lifelong Dem
ocrat, spoke favorably of city owner
ship of street railways, gas works, and
electric light works. This grew out of
contest between the city council and
the Consolidated Street Railway COM
pany over an ordinance requiring that
concern to put on transfers at Broad
and Marietta crossing where all the ra-
dial car lines converge. The consolida-
ted company resisted and the ma tier
is in litigation. Mayor Collier is an adj
nlirer of Governor Pingree of Michigan
and seems disposed to adopt Pingree's
attitude toward street railways.
The POpuliStS have been watching
Mayor Golfers movements with great
! interest and he thinks that sentiment
for municipal socialism is rapidly TAX
ing root in Atlanta.
Other Georgia cities follow Atlanta
largely and the Fopulist statesmen see
in this an opportunity to put their prin-
cipleS into practice.
The scheme for working convicts on
a state railroad is of especial interest
because the twenty-year convict lease
expires in 1898 and the legislature will
have to make some disposition of the
2.40o felons al this fall session or at an
adjourned session early in 1898. The
sentiment against any lease system is
strong and the public faVors working
| convicts on public roads as far as prac-
| ticable. A combination of this with
! convict farming seems to be considered
| possible. Within the past 20 years the
lessees have built about 1000 miles of
| railway track in Georgia, and the Pop
uliStS cite this a. a conclusive answer
| to arguments against the practicability
| of the scheme.
| The Monarch of Patent Medicines.