The record-union., 1897-10-25

ness as we'll as cheapness, and put aside
all matters of home claims because the
claimants were English, in order to get
the best to the best advantage.
We can understand what terrific
roaring there would be in any one Of
our great cities, if the promoters of
great industrial or transportation
scheIne should award to English or
French engineers and constructors and
supply firms the necessary contracts fo-
the work How the lurid press would
foam at the mouth, appeal to local pre-
judices and work up a fine frenzy
against the owners Of the proposed sys-
TEN for not giving the contracts to
home people regardless of business, ef-
feetive and economic considerations.
In the instance in hand, of course,
British pride is hurt, and CALLING to
British manufacturers is the award to
the Yankees But go manifest and
strong were the advantages of an
award to the American bidders, that
the corporation could not make one
to any others without practically pay
ing heavy bonus to home people, sim
ply because they are British. How
ever, American firms have been before
successful in bidding for railway con-
structicn in England, but not before
has the fact of such successful COM
petition with English firms been
brought so prominently into notice.
They have in the State Of Georgia a
convict rental system-they hire out
their convicts, as they claim; in fact,
they sell them absolutely for the term
fer which they are sentenced. A master
could not more absolutely own flesh
and blood than these convict purchas
ers own the slave convict. 1t puts the
prisoner in the complete control of the
buyer, and there is rarely any interfer-
ence to prevent abuse of the human
being. More than that, crimes are
punished by commitment to the State
Prison or convict camp in Georgia that
ct4 Z Ill tllOSl OAll01 oldlCS lCCOSlA1ZGQ a.
misdemeanors only The infamy of
the Georgia system has long been the
theme of essayists, and the text of hu-
name appeals to that State to at least
modify her system, so that its results
will be less cruel. Recently Governor
Atkinson pardoned Kyder Hillard. He
was convicted of arson, and his SEN
tence was to life servitude as a convict.
Yet when Kyder Hillard, the negro,
was tried and convicted he was the
desperate, hardened, God-forsaken,
dangerous criminal of 8 years of age.
Upon this poor fellow, the evidence be-
fore the Governor showed, was prac-
ticed the utmost cruelty. He had been
eighteen years a convict. He was sold
to coal company, which placed him in
one of its mines from which at no time
did he emerge. Henever saw the sunlight
for the whole eighteen years of his SER
vice His clothing barely covered his
nakedness, and his food was of
the coarsest and least nourishing
kind He was beaten. knocked
down and dragged out; was lashed
with cat o. nine tails and snitten with
the paddle. He came out under par
don at the age of 81, bent. gray, aged,
and apparently a man of 80. Yet this
is but a single instance of cruelty and
inhumanity under the Georgia system.
AS the "Oregonian" well says:
To say that it reveals a condition re-
plete with every possibility of cruelty
and a state of affairs that is a disgrace,
first to the State Of Georgia and then
to the enlightened nation of which it
forms a part, is to state mildly shud-
dering fact. Christian generosity GER
| tainly far overshoots the mark when 1T
contributes hundreds of thousands of
dollars annually for the support of the
missionary cause in foreign lands, while
conditions so inhuman, not to say un-
Christian, exist at our very doors and
within the limits of our national house
| hold.
''El Tempo" Of Madrid publishes the