The Savannah morning news., 1904-06-29

Continued from twelfth Page.)
the world around for merciless cor
poral punishment.
IF we may also accept the uncon-
tradicted evidence of the witnesses, it
is true that on the Bib county chain
gang, for no day is the strap wholly
idle and not infrequently it is fiercely
active. one witness who served many
months testified that if the gang does
not work like fighting fire., to use his
expression, the whipping boss runs
down the line striking with apparent
indisCrimination the convicts as they
bend to their tasks.
"Often the whipping is more prolong-
ed and deliberate. At times, according
to another witness, also uncontradict-
ed, the convicts on the gang at the
stockade are called into the dog lot,
all present, the whipping boss selects
his victims in his judgment worthy of
punishment They are called TO the
stable door. made to lie face down.
ward across the sill a strong convict
holds down the head and shoulders
and the boss lays on the lash on the
naked body until he thinks the suf-
ferer has been whipped enough. 1t is
but just to Mr.. Wimbish to record mis-
statement that he knew nothing of
this ceremony.
white Persons Whipped.
1.-The evidence gives us an account
of two white persons who were thus
whipped--one was a boy with but one
arm. For this reason it was not neces-
sary to hold him. He stood and cried
as the boss applied the lash. The 9TH
err, also white boy was compelled TO
place his head between the legs of a
burly negro convict and was thus inn
movably held. The punishment will
mark the lad with infamy in the minds
of his fellows as long as he may live.
The offense of one of these lads was
lettering in the depot.
at cannot be said. however, that
the convicts of the Recorder have had
the rights under the law accorded
felons. One guilty of burglary, arson,
manslaughter or any crime of the cali
endar, however heinous, has been ac-
corded copy of the accusation
against him, trial by a jury, the OPP
portunity to appeal. in short, due pro-
cess of law. Not so with the lad VINO
loiters on the streets or is overcome
by sleep in the depot. Not so with the
licensed barber who turns over MS
chair to brother but unlicensed artist
during his temporary absence from the
shop. To the same branch penitentiary
they may swiftly go.
Authority for City's Course.
"The act of the General Assembly
of Georgia, attempting to bestow the
power on the Recorder of Macon, Is
the only statute to which my atten-
ton has been called by which those
convicted of minor offenses can be
sentenced by police courts to confine-
nent and hard labor on the chain
gang. BY the charter of Atlanta, the
| Police Court may infiict a fine of $500
| thirty DAYS Imprisonment or work OF
the public works. In Augusta The
! maximum fine is $780, and the maxi
mum Imprisonment or labor on th'
| public works, ninety days. In Rome
| Athens and Columbus, labor on thu
| public works is the term used in desig
| mating the punishment
while ii may be true. as insiste,
| in the argument. that the Macon cham
| gang in n1anag cement. discipline anC
punishment is not more than an equiv
| alent for the management of pub
| lie works elsewhere. yet the Trainer
! of the charters mentioned, perhap
/ with laudable regard for the opinion
| of mankind, have blnked the use o
the word.
Indeed it may be with entire accu
| racy declared that the voluminous an
| exhaustive preparation of the city at
/ itorney and the subsequent eXamina
| ton by the court, has evoked no shre'
| of authority, either American or Eng
lish, where a sentence by a polio
| magistrate to a public changing, wit
/ the ignominious accessories Of letters
| the stripes, lash, and of the degrade
! ton of convict life has been sustaine'
| or even paliated. Under the Ameri
\ can system the changing has no pfdc
| i'm the jurisdiction and procedure o
police courts, where trial by jury
! not a right of the accused.
THE aggregations of municipal cor
| porations upon the rights an
| liberties of the citizen, de
! clared by competent observer
! to be at once the most vicious featur
! of our present social condition, an
the most alarming portent of our fu
ture. have thrust a multitude of un
constitutional ordinances before tn
courts of the United States. This ha
| occasioned much shrilling and no lit
| tie objurgation from the local inter
ests from time to time affected, bu
| happily for the people the court
steadily proceed with the exercise o
/ their constitutional powers
No Remedy I'm state Courts.
Judge Speer then takes up the ques
ton Of the right OF appeal TO the stat
courts Such action he characterize
as practically hopeless for the prisoner