The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-09-02
LYNCH|NGS, CONNECTS AND
 PEONAGE ARE DISCUSSED
Change in Method of Working Grim inals Greatly Increases Revenue. Only One Lynching During Year.
 pecnage is Notorious.

The following Is the full text or the special message conveyed by the governor to the legislature today:
 Gentlemen of the Legislature:
 Since you left us in the spring the Giver of all Good has been exceedingly gracious to the state. No pestilence has visited it and no financial storms have disturbed it's people. Unusual disorders have not come upon us; peace and it's white wings shadowing us.
 Our people have prospered, the grain harvest has been and is the most abund- ant in years, and other crops bespeak winter of unusual plenty.
 The state government has had smooth sea and no unfavoring winds. l congrat- ulate you and the whole citizenship on the peace, good health and plenty which abundantly prevails and enjoin you not to forget from whence come these mani- fold blessings.
 A Tremendous Work.
 At the threshold you confronted with an immense work. You have only twenty-two legislative days in which to digest and pass a great number of com prehensive statutes. You would not have been able to finish the work at all ex cept for the recess which you have taken allowing you, during the summer. to ln- dividually consider important matters and putting it in your power the more easily to arrive at wise solutions of them Your duties will crowd upon you at the first and grow in intensity as the few and fleeting days go by. The whole work can. probably, be done in the time allotted you, but lest there should be some doubt of it. l assume you will address yourself more immediately and particularly to sev- eral matters which cannot at all wait on another session. This will require some unity of purpose but I dare say your wisdom and patriotism will determine how it may be evoked and furnish way through all the difficulties
 The States Finances.
 At the beginning of the first part of the present session of your bodies, you appropriated and I officially approved bills calling for something like $5O0,00o additional to the usual disbursements, for the four years which must intervene be- fore you are to meet again. These appro- priatlons, together with the amounts call ed for in bills not yet approved and other amounts provided in bills now on the call endars of your respective houses, aggre- gate more than one million dollars, and this in excess of the ordinary requlre- ments of the state government, as pre- viously administered. When these figures are taken together with the reduction of the ad valorem tax aggregating In round figures a loss in four years of nearly twelve hundred thousand dollars and the reduction in the fertilizer tax of $160000 in the same time you are warned that, unless you are careful. a burden Is likely to fall upon the treasury which 1t can not bear. More than one million dollars in four years, increased disbursement, and more than thirteen hundred thousand dollars reduction in possible receipts on a basis of largest previous assessment; or a sum of money against the state as compared to past years of more than $600,- GOO for each year. This in face Of the fact that in the winter of 1901. the treasury balance ran down as low as s50,000, though it is fair to say it did not run below s3OO,- 900 last winter. A deficit for a single year would embarrass the administration. Ac cumulating through each of four years would make the situation very disagree able to every citizen of Alabama. The figures submitted will furnish excuse for my attitude towards some of the bills which have not received my ofhcial--ap- proval and some others on your calen- dars The most hopeful person can hard ly conceive how the treasury may sup port the full burden of recently passed and proposed appropriations in face of the tax reductions. The figures given are not minute but they are hardly over drawn.
 It is true that there is now and will be larger returns from the convict de- partment than in past years. There will be increased assessments on which to levy an ad valorem tax, although l would call your attention to the fact that that tax will amount to only two and a half mills above the specials for schools and soldiers. We may expect to save a good sum of money from the present interest charge. however, that may not be effect i've in two years. Without hope from these sources we could hardly hear bur dens equal to those of the past.
 Your wisdom must determine whether the possibilities for increased income and savings from these items will Justify you in meeting the wishes of special interests by favoring other appropriations merito- rious or otherwise
 Convict Department.
 During the first part of this session I gave you notice of change in the meth- cd of working such of the convicts as were physically able to go Into the mines. At that time I believed the net income would double the income from the same source before. For the first six months, under the new contract the states net receipts were about one hundred thousand dollars from the mines alone. Its income from the labor of these same convict miners under the old arrangement had. perhaps never been over forty thousand dollars in six months, so the present con- tract Is worth not less than one hundred and twenty thousand dollars year over the one based on the method of hiring which I caused to be abandoned. The convict department will pay into the state treasury this calendar year as much as s20O GOO net from it's operations in all of it's departments. The net receipts for the fiscal year will be less than for the calen- dar year. owing to the fact that the pres ent method for the hire of convict min CTS did not go into effect until four months after the beginning of the present fiscal year.
 The added income to the state growing out of this method of employing the 600 people is not its greatest blessing. These unfortunates are now under the direct care and supervision of the state and their confinement made humane as possible. I hope when you are in ses- sion again to be able to report to you that every felony convict in Alabama is in daily contact with and under the constant care of the states own viglant agents.
 The Convict Properties.
 Speigners. It cannot be successfully managed by the state. Its operation can only prove a loss.
 I advise the sale of all the states lands around Speigners. There are a few acres of good land there but for the most part