The Savannah morning news., 1902-10-24

prosecutions and to impose heavy
| fines. and exact exorbitant costs IT
| trivial cases would be removed, and
there would be no ground TO charge
that any county court is run in the in
terest of the proprietors of private
chaingangs.
Payment of Rewards.
Always hitherto rewards for the ap
prehension of fugitives from justice
have been paid out of the contingen
fund, but in recent years the drafts
upon this fund for this purpose and fol
the payment of arbitrators in railroad
tax cases have been so heavy that bu
little has been left for ordinary con
| tingent expenses. The expenses in
Cured by the state in the apprehen
sion of fugitives are part of the cos
of enforcing the criminal law and pun
| ishing crime, and are a Legitimate
charge on the fund arising from the
| hire of convicts.
I therefore advise the enactment o.
a statute authorizing the Governor t
pay all rewards earned in the appre'
hension of fugitives from justice ou
| of the hire of convicts and not ou
of the contingent fund.
Union Passenger Station.
I transmit herewith the report of tht
Joint Committee appointed under au
| thoritY of an act passed at the last
session of the General Assembly to pro
| vide for the erection of a new unior
passenger station on the site of thC
| present union station in the city of At
lanta, and 1 regret that this report re-
veals the fact that no progress has
| been made toward the accomplishment
| - vnrlx
The law under which your commit
| tee acted appropriated money to build
| a station, but provided that no work
| should be done and no money expend-
| ed until all the railroads entering the
city had entered into a contract to be-
come tenants in the new structure I'M
til the expiration of the pres
ent lease of the Western and Atlantic
Railroad. 1t soon appeared during the
progress of the negotiations between
the chief executive officers of the roads
and the states representatives that
some of the roads did not desire TO
enter into such a contract, but in
| tended as soon as they could secure
| titles to certain grounds for which
their agents were quietly negotiating,
to build a station of their own and
were merely temporizing with the
state to gain time in which to perfect
servered and tried in every way DOS
sible to remove the objections made TO
the states proposition. but to no eff
feet When one objection was met an
other was raised, and nothing was left
for them to do but report the facts to
the General Assembly.
This failure of some of the roads to
agree to the proposition of the state,
which was substantially the propo-
L. ~ - a.
two years ago, is to be greatly regret
ted, since the removal of the union
station from the present site on the
states property takes away from the
state road much, perhaps one half, of
its value.
To avert so great loss two sugges-
lions have been made. one to so amend
the act of the last Legislature as to
authorize the committee to build with
out any contract with the roads as to
the occupancy of the new structure
the other that the state extend her
road now apparently at the mercy of
other roads, to Savannah or Bruins
wick Which of these alternatives, if
either. the state should adopt. is
question for the representatives of the
people to answer. To suffer her road
to remain bottled up will destroy its
value and greatly cripple the schools
of the state, which are so largely sup
ported out of the rental of the road.
Inebriate Asylum and Reform
school
Georgia has. been foremost state
III providing for her unfortunate citi-
zens. Her institution for the care of
the insane is unsurpassed by any 9TH
err institution of it's character in the
country, and it is amply supported out
of the state treasury at an annual cost
of more than twice the cost of the en-
tire civil establishment Ample pro-
vision has also been made for the ed
ucation of the deaf and the blind, but
for two classes of our unfortunates,
the inebriate and the juvenile Offend
er. no sufficient provision has been
made. BY the establishment of an in
ebriate asylum the state Sanitarium
would be relieved of a large number
of unfortunates who are now crowded
into it, for whose treatment the insti-
tuition is not prepared and was never
intended It is cruel and wrong to
confine these patients with lunatics,
when by the establishment, on mod
crate scale at first, of an institution in
which they could receive proper treat
ment, most of them could be restored
to happiness and usefulness.
The want of a reform school for ju-
venile offenders, in which they can be
not only educated but reformed, is
equally urgent To manacle with
chains, or confine within prison walls,
in hourly contact with the basest GRIM
inals, the boy of IL or IA years, the
child perhaps of widowed mother, or
an invalid father, unable physically to
look properly after him and exercise
that parental control necessary with all
children, is a crime against humanity,
and to suffer it longer will be a re-
proach to the state. In the reform
school such a child could, and in most
cases would, be reformed and educated
for useful citizenship, but if confined
in the changing or even at the state
farm along with felons he most fire.
quently comes out not reformed, but
hardened in criminality.
I earnestly recommend the estab-
Hshment at once, on a moderate scale,
of these two institutions. to be sup
ported partly or wholly by the state
and governed as the State Sanitarium
is now governed, by board of trus-
tees appointed by the Governor. Pro-
vision should be made for the recep-
ton of pay as we'll as pauper appli-
cants. In this way the expense of sup
porting these institutions would be
largely met by the families and friends
of pay inmates, and the remainder by
Sanitarium and the state farm. from
which the patients in the inebriate
asylum and the pupils in the reform
school will be largely drawn.
Constitutional Convention