The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1908-08-12
LEGISLATIVE
COMMITTEE
now BUSY
Graft and Crime Follow Hand
IN Hand
WARDEN ACQUIRES FORTUNE
WARDEN ACQUIRES FORTUNE
THOUSANDS OF INDIGNANT cITl-
zENs GATHER AND ADOPT EN-
PHATlc RESOLUTIONS, DE-
HANDING A5RoGATloN OF
CONVICT LEASE SYSTEM.

Atlanta, Aug. IA horror sick
committee Of the legislature is sitting
here day after day listening to stories
of convicts torn, crippled and killed
under the lash, wearing anklets with
spikes three inches long to trip them
up If they try to escape, tortured by
broken arms untreated by physicians,
and other things of which men who
hear the stories refuse to speak.
With the committee are men paid
by the state to care for its prisoners,
but who have amassed fortunes by
trafhcking in human labor with con-
vict lessees.
Graft and atrocity have aroused
Georgia citizens from their lethargy
of thirty five years. and shown them
how their penal system Is being con-
Quoted No feature Of the investiga-
tion has been able to show a clean
bill Of health.
Inquiry Started.
The inquiry came because legisla-
tive inspection of the convict camps
had disclosed irregularities and pres
ent convict leases were about to ex
pire.
It had been discovered for the first
time that the wardens employed by
the state were regularly receiving pay
from the lessees, and that the state
warden, Jake Moore, in direct employ
of the state warden commission, had
acquired q fortune of some 10000
within a few years, on a salary of
Sl40 a month--which il has been dis
covered came from trafFicking In con-
victs and acting as go- between with
the lessees.
These facts were reported to Gov
ernor Smith at the beginning Of the
present year: he communicated them
to the prison commission.
The commission then permitted
Moore to resign, and issued an order
prohibiting wardens In the future
from accepting any money or gifts
from the lessees. That the order has
been disobeyed, in many instances. the
testimony has abundantly shown.
Public indignant.
TWO thousand flve hundred people
gathered recently in the operahouse in
Atlanta. and adopted emphatic reso-
lutions demanding the immediate ab
rogation of the convict lease system.
similar meetings were held in other
ture has been overwhelmed with pro-
tests against its apparent purpose to
continue the system for another per-
iod.
AS q result IL is a safe prediction
now that it win eliminate the lease
system at the expiration OF the pres
ent contracts
r. A. Keith, formerly convict, now
pardoned, white man who had been
sentenced for Staying the despoiler Of
his home, told the committee-and
his statement was corroborated by
other witnesses-the story of how a
16-year old white boy had been whip
ped to death by a warden Of the camp
OF the Durham Coal a. Coke Co. in
northwest Georgia.
Given a year in the penitentiary for
stealing two cans of potted ham, the
boy one day spilled some hot coffee
on pig belonging to the warden.
Keith says he was held down by two
men while the warden struck him So
lashes with q heavy strap.
The boy had to be carried to the
hospital and in q week he died. The
death certificate gave consumption as
the cause.
This was one of the stories that in
stigated the Atlanta mass meeting;
the other was that of a 16-year- old
negro boy named Daniel Long, who
had been brutalIy whipped In the
Worth county camp, it is said. for re-
fusal TO work. The boy came before
the committee accompanied by his
mother and exhibited his back. AL
though healed 1t gave evidence of ter
rible decoration from the lash IN the
neighborhood OF the kidneys; the
and right foot while his right side was
partially paralyzed.