The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1908-09-04
WHERE DEMOCRATIC RULE
SUPREME.

We are told that Democratic rule
lie the rule OF the people.
Down in Georgia the Democratic
party Is dominent. Election results
there are so unanimous that they are
monotonous, even to the members OF
the organization that controls the des-
tiny Of the state.
The party is controlled by the most
corrupt gang of grafters in the Unit
ed States. The exposes in San Fran
cisco. which startled the world q few
years ago, are as nothing compared
to the practices that r allowed in
Georgia, where the people are said to
rule.
There are SO many abuses, that to
comment on them all would be to
write q volume. One is sufficient.
and for that purpose we will take up
the convict leasing system.
Not in the days when Roman. leg
ions trampled the rights Of other peo-
pie under foot, and enslaved men by
the thousands, or when the white man
bowed to the yoke in europe, was
broken on the rack and worn In the
treadmill, has such a system been per-
mitted in any land as that which pre-
walls and disgraces the state OF Georg-
ia.
The convicts there are leased to un-1
scrupulous contractors, who take the
unfortunates to the dark swamp holes.
where they r guared, men and wom-
en-, by q gang of uneducated, coarse
rutians, many Of whom + worse
than the prisoners. The unfortunates
are chained, one to the other at night,
to prevent escape, and worked to the
point where they drop from sheer ex-
haustion during the day. They are
goaded by the lash, which is applied
with fury by human 1ends.
The conditions that prevail in these
camps is SO Stocking, and the scand-
ais that have drifted out so horrifying,
that the world has been startled by
the details. The great magazines or
the country have devoted pages of
space to the outrages.
But that is not all. The men VINO
bend to the yoke of the prison con-
tractor, who wakes rich over the mis-
fortune Of his fellow men, are valu-
able. The effort is, on the part OF
officers, to add to the convict forces,
and hence the profit OF the contractor,
FOR reasons that are apparent on the
face. So men and women are picked
up and railroaded to jail on manufac-
tured evidence. Strangers In Georgia
had better remain on the cars il they
would keep out Of Jail.
Men who step on the grass in public
who engage in an alteration,
who do anything out OF the usual, II
they are strangers, are promptly clap
ped into Jail and "sent owe the road"
which can to the convict camp,
from which they return broken in
health and spirit, If they are lucky
enough Ia live through the horrors
and cruelties practiced.
In Georgia the people are Democrat
ic and they rule with a vengeance thar
is barbalic.
When we are asked to accept Dem
rule. we are referred to the
prosperous condition of the south, /
and the simple justice Of the people.
If we investigate we dip into this ter !
rible mess, which shocks the mind, (
and causes one to recoil in horror at
the atrocities revealed. And from the
rule of the Democrats as we find them
only can we form any idea Of
what their rule will be like. With
this terrible example before us we
will hardly indorse the method, at
least as practiced in Georgia. IN the
Of this, the governor Of that state
refuses to sign the bill that viii abol-
lsh this outrageous system.
TRADE OF THE JUDITH BASIN.
Great Falls is preparing to send q
- w. 49, 4L 4HHa 49, 81 - = I5u 80 w. - 1