The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-03
Will Always Be So Under the
 Fee System
WHOLE COUNTY IS GUILTY
For the Awful Conditions Disclosed at the Jefferson County JalI-He Urges Pastors Union to
 Get Busy.

subject of much discussion, directed prin-
 cipally to the outside of the building, for public sentiment has been diverted for the moment from the real inherent vice of present conditions to the minor building. No one can fail to sympathize
 with Dr. stagg and others concerned in
 their efforts to remove the jail from it's present site, but as I have property which
 would be affected favorably by the re- moval, I have declined to take part in
 this discussion. for to me the subject opens larger field for discussion, which
 we may all discuss; and, as I view it. we all should discuss if we would maintain our civilization and our claims for white supremacy.
 No white man, not wholly lost to a sense of shame can read Dr. Bragg's re- ] port and not blush for shame at the con- dition of the county jail. We may pre- termit all feeling for the unfortunate vlc- tims of present conditions. We may shut our eyes to the refinement of cruelty practiced, so far as the sufferers are concerned, but we cannot shut our con- sciences to the fact that we, the white people of Alabama, are wholly respon- sible for existing conditions.
 I venture the assertion that the eondi- ton of the jail, such as Dr. Bragg dis closes, does not exist In any civilized country on earth and every word of that report is an indictment of the white peo- pie of Alabama, to which we are bound to plead guilty, and cannot even ask the mercy of the court of public opinion much less the mercy of God.
 In absolute control of every branch of government how can the white people of Alabama plead excuse or Justification for condition of affairs that would shock
 the world if it existed elsewhere-even in Russia?
 We are maintaining a jail here which Dr. Bragg says is unfit for animals. and for what To suppress crime? No. To reform the criminal class? No but for | the almost avowed purpose of making
 money.
 To the unfortunates confined within the jail walls, which Dr. Bragg has already l informed us Is more than twice the safe l capacity of the buildings, the present sheriff-if the newspaper reports are to be credited-adds about thirty a week, and
 for what offenses?
 Think of It. The terrible crimes of l crap shooting by a lot of ignorant ne- groes, who seek that as their only form of diversion and vagrancy, under the
 provisions of the recent law on that sub ject, which is not describable within the the terms of decency.
 And why all these arrests? For every one of these unfortunate creatures the sheriff receives $1 for the privilege of locking him up; s1 for turning him out, and 30 cents for each day he is detained.
 How can we hope for or expect any change for the better when by our laws
 we place cupidity on the one hand and
 humanity or a sense of public duty on
 the other? The result is now, as 1t has always been, that cupidity wins.
 Five years ago in the columns of The Age-Herald attempted to show what the fee system meant for Alabama, and how 1t was bound in the end to bring us to l shame. If any more cogent proof of the 1 soundness of the views I then expressed are needed than the present jail condi-
 tions here offered. I am sure I cannot un- l derstand what it could be.
 l I only appeal to preserve our civillza-
 tion. I only appeal for righteousness and | mercy to the unfortunate and afflicted.
 l only appeal to the white people of this | county not to remove the county jail, but 1 to combine to remove a reproach and blot
 which rests upon us as people. You
 may remove the jail. You may build an
 other large enough to accommodate five 1 times the number now confined in the
 present pest hole, but so long as you make it a source of private gain to indi- vdua1s to keep it full of persons charged with, but not convicted of crime. and
 we have the poor with us, you will keep
 1t filled to it's capacity If the purpose be
 to remove the reproach, to put an end 1 to criminal brutality. remove the cause
 and 1t will be a simple problem.
 I had hoped that the guardians of our
 morals, the disciples of the great teacher | of benevolence and love and charity,
 would have taken up this question and | by their influence and eloquence brought
 home to our people the enormity of the sins we are committing in the name of l law.
 | I was in hope that the Pastors union would for the moment turn aside from
 the subjects to which it has of late been
 devotng it's attentions, and give some at- 1 tention to this, our greatest crime. | I trust I may be pardoned, in this con- | nection, for suggesting the words of the
 Master: ''I was in prison, and ye came l unto Me" and ask my reverend friends | if any more opportune occasion than the
 present could be offered to fulfill this
 most benevolent duty so clearly implied.
 Perhaps there is some reason for the existing apathy, and 1 do not wish to as- sume to prejudge from appearances, but
 simply to suggest to the reverend gentle
 men of the Pastors union that they will 1 find in this an unlimited field for their ac- 1 tivities, where neither their motives or 1 conduct can lay them open to any charge | of meddling in politics. for 1t Is work of | pure benevolence. ALEX T. LONDON. 1 Birmingham, May ?, 1907.