Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1908-04-30
Southern COnyicts and Good Roads
New York Sum-

N-'o' - - ON'1A'(
The proper disposition of convicts
at the South is an old question 1t
has been threshed over many times,
but always with the same result, or
rather with a limited and inevitable
result. In many States the con-
victs are leased out to private con-
tractors. Here and there they are
kept in the penitentiary. They oper-
ate cotton farms, mines, lumber, rail
road, levee and other enterprises;
but whether engaged in these labors
or confined to the limits of the prison,
the Convicts do not prosper morally
or, excepting in rare instances, ply
sically. The stripes remain on their
clothing, out of doors the iron badges
of penal servitude endure. They are
fed and housed by contractors and
worked to the limit of their endur-
ance COnvictS so treated are seldom
if ever reclaimed. They serve their
sentence, go free for moment, re-
lapse into crime, or at least into
the clutches of the law as admins
tered, and are soon seen in the old
places.
The whole sytem breeds brutality
on the part of the keepers and a stOl-
id and hopeless Indifference on the
part of the convicts. There is no
improvement in either case. Rather
the contrary. The prisoner looks for
ward to brief interval of freedom
which he, of course, abuses-and q
return, sooner or later, to the old
familiar bondage under the old fami-
liar auspices. Of elevation, of final
rescue and restoration, he never even
L. !, ,al,
possibilities exist, and the prison Off
Gals, trained for the most part to a
career of delegated superintendent,
naturally think of nothing but their
vicarious task The whole arrange
ment is depressing, deadening. Meth
er party to it looks for any change,
for the very smallest improvement,
and so it runs along, telling no story
of promise, opening no vistas of am
eliOratiOn or advance, and gradually
hardening all concerned to an equal
ity of dedregatiOn differing only in
name and apparent occupation.
But there is one thing the Southern
States need, and to this cOnsumma-
ton their cOnyicts could be applied
with beneficitl results all around. The
South needs good country roads.
Save in rare instances it has none.
1t is with very rare exceptions an ag-
ricultural region. Long distance s
intervene, and, especially in winter
and early spring the roads are almost
impossible To overcome these con-
ditiOns will be the work of many
years, although all the convicts should
be applied to it. To keep the roads,
once constructed, in good order would
furnish constant occupation for all
the able bodied cOnvicts. Moreover,
there is a great difference between
working for the State and being far
med out to greedy and insistent con-
tractors engaged in private enterpris
es. In the former case the control
would be direct. The cOnvicts need
not be driven to the point of eXhaus-
ton. There would be no premium on
the excessive exploitation of flesh
an d blood, and nothing connected
with the adjustment to lead to collOus
inhumanity on the one hand or de-
spairing surrender on the other. I'm
der such conditions the prisoners
would enjoy open air, wholesome la
Dor without the sting of intermediate
oppression, and the attendant Offic-
ials, exempted from all pressure to-
ward extravaganza of action, would
grow milder, more merciful and more
humane Meanwhile the South would
be Invested of a thousand abominable
scandals. Even organized labor could
not object to the arrangement and
slowly but surely Southern States
would begin to acquire a system of
good country roads, practicable
throughout the year. Rural life would
become more tOlerable, values would
increase and the whole industrial sit
uatiOn be transformed.
Would this elevate the convicts
themselves? We think So Certainly
it would not degrade them. Worked
on the public roads they would at
least be paying the penalty of their
crimes against society. EARNED out
as chattles to strenuous contractors
they lapse to the level of slaves. The
faintest glimmer of ambition and
self-respect dies within them and
they abandon hope. From their
point of view the experiment is we'll
worth trying. From ours there is
and can be no sort of question.