Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-03-30

anthropic disposition and proven business
ability.
supply of water for the camp.
The Greer land is offered with all inn
provements at $4,000 and the Wimberly
land at $500
The Greer place has probably twice as
much good agricultural land suited for
convict labor as the Wimberly place.
The same thing is true as to a number Of
other farms offered to the prison COM
mission.
The parties offering the farms will I'M
derstand this to be true, and so will the
parties familiar with those farms.
If the prison commission is bent upon
buying land with clay and hard timber,
they should have so stated to the men Of
fering land. and should have also stated
this fact in their advertisements. A
number of tracts other than the VIM
berly place contain clay and hard tim
Der and more agricultural land than the
wimberly place, and can be bought at
less cost.
Greer Place Ready Now
1 have compared the Wimberly and
Greer tracts because they were the two
I understood were being especially con-
sidered by the commission. While the
Wimberly tract may be worth to private
individuals, the price asked. the state
could better afford to pay $4,000 for the
Greer place than one-half that sum for
the Wimberly place. WHILE THE
GREER PLACE is OFFERED READY
FOR USE WITH ALL IMPROVE
MENTS FOR $4,000 LESS THAN THE
WIATBERLY PLACE.
with any one of number of the tracts
offered to the commission, everything
needed to feed the convicts, together with
I 1,N HwaA
eral crops for sale, could be successfully
cultivated on over so per cent of the
land.
To sacrifice these considerations is TO
sacrifice the substance for a shadow.
The state should buy land eighty per
cent Of which could be used for agricul-
ture. Sound business judgment as well
as the law providing for the purchase re-
quire this course and compel me to dis
approve the proposed Wimberly purchase.
1 have been greatly interested in the
collection of money with which to I'M
prove the convict system. Options offered
the state will probably expire on April l.
The prison commission should act at
once and select a farm for the white
convicts. We have the money available
with which to pay for it.
for the white boys now being kept and
sent to Milledgeville. We have the
money available with which to pay for II.
With difficulty 1 can realize that the
commission considered the Wimberly
place suitable for a convict farm. L can
not comprehend their inability to find
suitable place in the many other farms
offered to them.
Upon the Greer place, with the i'm
movements, the white convicts could be
placed tomorrow. There are other places
upon which they could be cared for at
| once by using tents. To force them upon
the public roads is calculated to embNr-
rass the handling OF cshvicts in road
work and to render the system which
dispenses with the lease system unpopu-
lar. Surely this cannot be the desire OF
the commission. 1t certainly is not my
desire.
PRISON BOARD GIVES
ITS VIEWS ON FARM
Saturday morning the state prison COM
mission gave out the following statement
| explaining from it's point of view the diff
/ ference of opinion between its members
and Governor Smith in the selection of
prison farm on which to work white con-
victs under the new convict system. This
! difference, thinks the commission, hinges
on a construction of the legislative act
providing for the purchase of farm. The
governor, the statement declares, thinks
the farm should be used for agricultural
/ purposes only, while the commission
! thinks it should embody other activities
manufacturing industries for instance.
The wimberiy place which the governor
| rejected was the commissions only choice,
/ says the statement.
| Therefore, on April 1, white convicts will
be put to work on the roads in the various
counties to which they may be allotted
Fulton county will have something like
4 f,,t Ia tot aI HIM
dred it is to take. The commission states
: that it will again take up the matter Of
| selecting a farm and that it hopes to see
| this feature of the new system carried
/ into execution. The statement follows:
! Commissions Statement
There is no friction of a sensational ma
/ ture between the governor and the COM
mission, so far as the commission knows,
/ in the matter of a selection of a farm
| There is a difference of opinion between
/ the governor and the commission which
! may be irreconciliable. The governor con-
1 strues the law to mean that a tract of
| land should be selected suitable only for
! farming. The commission believes that
/ the law requires a tract suitable for agri-
! culture, but possessing other features
adapted to the employment of convicts in
a other pursuits named I'm the act, so con-
! veniently located as to be the proper place
/ for a central penitentiary. In the opinion
of the commission the Wimberly place
came up more nearly to its conception of
! the law than any other offered. In the
/ opinion of the governor several other
! tracts were preferable.
THE real difference between the COVER
nor and the commission, apparently,
grows out of their different constructions
of the law. If they had agreed upon the
spirit and intent of the law, there would