The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-15

The recent investigation of Georgia's convict lease system and inspection Of the convict camps have brought to 1 light a state of affairs that has shock ed that commonwealth to its very cen ter, and attracted country wide at tention. The best element of its eiti- zenry has called for an extra session of the Legislature to take steps to re- l peal the law which allows the sale Of | convict labor to the highest bidder Tn | open market and take measures to | protect the helpless criminals that are presumably under State care. With the repeal of the law will come dim finishing of State revenue and les | sening of the income for schools and | roads, but this loss progressive Geor- gians are willing to sustain in the tn- terest of humanity.
 Georgia is one of the five States that still hold to the lease system as the best means of making their convicts pay for themselves and at the same l time add to the public funds. In most | States convicts are dead expense. | While some are employed in manufac- turing. or on State roads and public | works, or on farms. over S6,000 in all being in productive occupations, there | is a large percentage that Is perpetually | idle. Alabama. Florida, Mississippi. | Virginia. Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, | North Carolina and South Carolina | make profit from their convicts. The l latest reports from the Bureau of La- bor of the United States Department of 1 Commerce and Labor shows that Tn | penal institutions where inmates are | worked the years value of labor on | farm products was $i.600,000, in the manufacture of boots and shoes. $l.b5o'- | 900. The labor value on highways and roads was sl,o4i,o00: in the manufac- | ture of clothing, $S55, 5,000; in coal min- | ing over $500. .000, and in furniture making, $775,000. The average mar ket value of goods per convict was s670, the average value of his labor $233, or $I2,o00,000 In all. The aver age net appropriation for the main tenance of penal institutions Tn tnls country is about SPA per convict. So' fin the long run. each convict more than | pays for his keep.
 I Less than century ago those con | fined in penal institutions were kept in an likeness that boded no good for | their moral and physical being. and that offered little opportunity Tor re- formation. Any work assigned was purely of a punitive nature-the turn ing of cranks, the working of tread | mills, the pacing to and fro fin given space, the doing over and over Of use less things. Then came the awaken ing, and the past half century mas witnessed an attempt to make indus | a the convict of today. Since 1t Is the law of society that every man be in- dependent in his support of himself. so if seemed reasonable that an offender against society should be made self supporting rather than be drag on that society against which ne had or tended. Manufacturing was first put in the penal institutions, and still ob- tains to a great extent.
 Tn the South when the war had left little else than ruin. the freed slaves, unused to so much personal lio- erty soon made a large prison popu- lation. There was no money to build Institutions or hire guards SD the States adopted the Idea of leasing out the long-term eonvicts to farmers, or letting them by contract to manufac- turers or farmers As the South grew more prosperous and as 1t recognized the evils of the leasing system, abolished 1t State by state Tn 1899 ten Southern States and three west ern--New Mexico. Nebraska and Wash ington--were stilf using the lease sys- tenn. Today there are only Alabama, Georgia Virginia. Florida and Wyom- ing All these except Wyoming mo It a profitable venture, but the price the cornmonweaIths pay in increased im- morality, in degradation of citizenry and in lack of general progress Is not to he measured In 1885 20 per cent of the convicts' in this, country were leased; now only about per cent are in this modern slavery.
 (Alabama does not lease, but hires out some of her convicts. The great hulk are not leased or hired but work under State direction and supervision Ed. Advertiser.)
 Since the nation awakened to the need of the convicts supporting theIn- selves there have been six systems de- | oT | vices.
 First-The lease system, used by Ave states, is that wherein the State leases the convicts to some party or parties who agreed to teed, clothe' guard and furnish medical aid to them' | the State making certain rules In re- 1 gard to them. and reserving the right | to inspect the camps or institutions at | will. For these men and women the | lessors pay so much per head. The state shifts all responsibility, apparent Iy, and the helpless felons are at the mercy of their purchasers for given time. and under the surveillance or auestionably competent guards
 Second-The contract system, used by 1 twenty-seyen States. gives the prisoner | A better chance at life and health. By | this the State clothes. feeds. houses and guards the convfcts and let's them at | SO much per head to contractors who | furnish the raw material and market the goods for their own profit.
 Third-The price piece. found in sev- enteen States, is the same as the con tract system, with the exception that work Is paid for by the piece.
 Fourth-By the public accounts sys- tenn. applied in forty States, the State enters the manufacturing field for it. self. This system has met with strong 1 objection because 1t Is regarded as antaFonistic to free labor and has heen found to demoralize the markets at times. Yet this can be made inimi- cal to free labor by the manufacture | of articles that do not bring them into | such strong competition with the out side manufacturers.
 Fifth. The State Use System prac- ticed in forty-six States and two Unit ed States prisons, Is applied to the | manufacture of such goods as the State itself can use, and that are not nut inopen markets in competition with free labor.
 Sixth. In thirty-eight States the Public Works and Ways System is found. This system uses the convicts in the construction of public works such as public buildings, roadways, marks and breakwateFs. Each system has its advocates and its opponents. Indiana, for example, condemns the Public Works System which has pro- duct value to Georgia of S4s1.7Se. to North Carolina of s47S.705, to south Carolina of $325, 6SS, and to the United