The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-01-06

to sell crushed stone to the counties
within the State at cost rather than
drive her market gardeners out of the
/ vegetable industry? Verify so, for the
vegetables, like grass, are green today.
tomorrow they are cast into the oven;''
while macadamized rosdways are pub
lie property which can be transmittde
TO future generations.
The State of Mississippi leases and
operates thirteen cotton farms, and her
public highways lie neglected through
out all her borders, inpassa bic barriers
against free INSTRUMENTATION among
her people.
The convict lease system, or its equiv
aient, with its many Objectionable
features, still obtains in many of the
States of the Union. 1t is a crime
against humanity to allow the blood OF
convicts to be coined into private gain;
it IS crime against the intelligence of
the nineteenth century that the con-
Wet labor of the country is not en-
ploycd upon the public highways. thus
promoting the value of lands. enhanc-
ing taxable values, and facilitating
ira importation among the people, in
stead of directing it in the channels OF
private industry, where the brow of
free labor has to sweat in competition
with ton the farm, in the coal mines,
and in the workshop.
Let Tennessee take her convict labor
out of coal mines and away from the
farm, and place it upon the public high
ways, where it belongs and where every
dollar spent viii add to the transports
ton facilities of the State and advance
her general prosperity.
In this day of abundant private CAPT
tai there is no need OF State aid in build
ing railways; but the State should lend
its aid to the upbuildlng of its public
highways, which experience shows add
enormously to the prosperity and gen
eral welfare of the people. New York
State has only recently begun the plan
of using its convicts upon the highways.
1t is estimated that it will take fifty
years to complete and improve all the
public roads in that State with it's con.
Wet labor. New York is not very much
larger in area than the State of Tenncs-
see. 1t has more than three times as
many State convicts.
1t is safe to safe that If Tennessee
should employ all of its able bodied
convict labor except the usual per
centage which, from necessity. should
labor within the prison--in making road
material and improving the public
roads, these convicts could be profitabIy
employed for the next fifty years to
come.
1t is shown by expert testimony that
for every mile of permanent roadway
built 900 acres of land receive some
cOmpenSating advantages; and on this
bash, the tax per acre, even il paid by
the people, would only be twenty-one
cents per acre. or three cents per acre
if spread through the usual period of
seven years. /
Imagination fails to conceive, nor can
words describe, the great benefits which
would accrue to the people of Tennes-
sec if her lawmakers will but enact
legislation, resulting in the up
building of her public highways by the
use of convict labor.
Let Good Roads Department he
to bring this matter before
the people: let the public be educated
upon the all-importaut subject of good
roads, and in due course of time Ten
nessee will have throughout every part
of her domain a system OF public high
ways which will not only reflect credit
upon her State government, but will be
great factors in developing her valuable
thus adding permanently to
her wealth and population.