Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1907-04-18
WHY ARE YOUPEOPLE so CRUEL

sake of dollar, to villify their
own city, State or section, and who
never fail when an opportunity
offers, to distort and magnify news
items to the prejudice of the Snu;h.
| Atlanta, to its shame be it said, has
more of these ghouls working i'll it
than any other city in the South.
The telegram in question stated
that the convicts In Sumter were
thrown across logs and beat across
the bare backs with trace chains
until their backs were cut into
pieces. Underneath the clipping
the party who sent it TO the Ameri-
Gus man had written: "Why are
you people so cruel?"
While one naturally feels sense
of Indignation at the asking of a
question that seems to hold the
people of this city and of Sumter
county responsible for any cruelties
that may have been inflicted upon
the cOnvicts ON the county chain
gang, the man who asked it is
hardly to be blamed.
He had accepted the dispatch
as partly telling the truth, and
doubtless felt that much worse
conditions existed than were really
allowed to be wired from Georgia.
If convicts were beaten on the
back with trace chains until their
backs were cut to pieces he would |
have been justified in the opinion
that the people of this city and
county were, at least, Indifferent
to the cruelties practiced on help
less prisoners. He could not be
expected to know that the story
was a gross distortion of the facts,
bad enough as they were, that
the correspondent thought of moth
ing but the fifty cents or dollar
that came to him as his reward for
such work.
There was not word to indi-
cate that the people of Sumter
county, as soon as they became a.
ware of improper treatment of
cOnVicts, had taken steps to put an
immediate stop to such practices.
There was not a sentence in the
telegram that would inform the
great northern public that an
investigation had been at once
held and measures instituted to
prevent any repetition of such
offences. The telegram had sim
ply gone out to confirm in the
minds of countless thousands of
men and woman in the national |
capital, and elsewhere, the i'm
preston that the people of Georgia |
are barbarously brutal, to make
them ask the same question that
the man asked of his Americas &C.
quaintance when he wrote on the
margin of the Washington Post: |
"Why are you people so cruelN'
1t is gross outrage that such |
kilograms should be sent broadcast |
with no qualifying statements, |
giving distorted idea of condi-
tions In this section. But in a |
measure we have ourselves to |
blame for it Public opinion is |
not sufficiently on the alert, not |
only to punish correspondents who
have so reckless a disregard for |
the facts and the consequences oil
such publications, but to supervise
the changing system and prevent
the creeping into it of abuses such
as are about to be corrected in
Sumter county. Left to itself,
without vigilant and constant
supervision, changing inevitably
retrogrades into an inferno.
When the public conscience is
quickened, and the eyes of the
people are awake to the conditions
thatpreVail, there is no fear of
abuses creeping into the admins
tration of convict affairs.
The people of Americas and of
Sumter county, with very few
exceptions we believe, are God
fearing people who love Justice
and humanity, and who would
scorn to treat prisoners with
cruelty. The conditions that ex-
listed on the changing, although
by no means so horrible as the At
lanta Annanias represented, ex.
listed simply because the public
was not aware of them Once
brought to the public attention it
was inevitable that theyshould be
| Immediately Stnnned Ontsidn nf