The age-herald., 1898-12-13
WILL PROBABLY BE PASSED
Strong Effort Mil be Made to Put It Through the House.
PRISONERS WITH SHORT TERMS
Will be Disposed Of by the Counties h. stead of Being Leased to Mine Owners Competition With
 Free Labor Unjust.

Montgomery, December 12.-(Special.)- In discussing his convict bill today Sena- tor Cunningham declared that the conpeti- ton of convicts with free labor was unfair and unjust to the coal miners of Ala bama.
 It is expected that the bill will reach vote in the senate tomorrow. It was on the calendar for this morning and proved the feature of discussion throughout the day.
 Senator Cunningham is confident that his bill will pass the senate and a strong ef- fort will be then be made to have it pass the house.
 As amended by the committee the bill recommends that only 50 per cent. of the states convicts above felonies be employed in the mines. This will force the counties to dispose of large number of their short term prisoners in some other way. The bill also provides that 50 per cent. of the gross proceeds from convict hire be turned into the educational fund and the other half into the state treasury.
 When the author of the bill was asked what he proposed to do with the convicts that could not be employed in the mines under the provisions of the measure he re- piled that this end of it was none of his business; that the state could lease them to plantations or dispose of them in some other profitable manner.
 Senator Cunningham spoke at some length on the bill today. explaining its purposes in detail. He showed that under the present ' convict system there was very little chance of moral reformation; no classification and separation of the grades of criminality; tol- erable humanity in the treatment of con- victs as to food, clothing, etc., and imper- feet classification in assignment to work: little attention paid to intellectual improve ment.
 Senator Cunningham admitted that the opportunities for industrial reformation were splendid, perhaps the best in the United States, with fair opportunity after discharge. He described the financial con ditions as being good in the aggregate, but deficient in many particulars.
 Competition With Free Labor
 In speaking of convicts coming in com petition with free labor the senator de- eiared that such conditions were unjust unfair, without equity and oppressive to the coal miners of Alabama and to the indus trial, agricultural, business and profession al interests of one county out of the sixty six counties in the state.
 President Cunningham held that the pur- pose of the law should be to harmonze as nearly as possible the difference between what is and what ought to be upon this great question. It will be observed, he continued, that the convict system of Ala bama is at variance with the following es- sent'al particulars:
 First-Convicts of all degrees of crime, time, age and conditions are imprisoned and worked together
 Second-There is no systematic, rational, logical effort at moral or intellectual im- provement.
 Third-There is no regular, systematic system of assignment to work according to their physical, mental and individual adapt ton and capacity.
 Fourth-There is a failure to pay costs of conviction in certain classes of convicts, and a failure to provide for state jail costs, commonly known as the fine and forfeiture fund.
 Senator Cunningham claims that his bill will remedy all of these alleged evils. He laid down its provisions to the senate in the following concise terms:
 First-The separation of feons from mis- demeanors by sentencing the former to hard labor for the state, the latter to the county
 Second-To provide for the payment of costs in all felony cases from the same fund, namely the state convict fund. It does this simply by making them all state convicts, thus compensating for the short age III the earnings Ol llle SHOfl ieIIH lSlOHy cases by the net earnings of the long time cases-the earnings of all going into com mon fund.- every dollar of which Is liable for costs to the extent of $150 in each case.
 Third-It provides for the fine and for feiture fund of the counties by distributing 50 per cent of the net earnings among the counties prorated according to the num- Der of felony convicts in each county. ! Fourth-It prohibits misdemeanants from working in mines, and gradually reduces the number of felony convicts in miles to a more just and equitable relation to free miners.
 FIfth-It provides for the inspection of jails.
 During the course of his argument, the senator gave some interesting figures Ac- cording to his figures there 951 state convicts working in the mines and 613 county convicts, making a total of 156i. This gives per centage of 6.21 working in the mines. The per capita earnings of the state convicts employed by the Tennessee Coal Iron and Railroad Company is $9 50; by the Sloss Iron and Steel Company, $S.2t, making an average per capita of s9.H The per capita average of county conviots is given at s564 showing a difference of S3.53. He explained that if county felonies earned as much as the state felonies then they would earn S17,o2S per annum more than they do now.
 SEWELL HAGGARD.
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