The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1909-02-26
A TYPICAL TALE-BEARER
OF SOUTHERN CONDITIONS
Mobile Register.


The New York Globe sent special
correspondent into the south to make
Tul investigation Of convict condt-
ions ana systems, and in the course
OF his travels he came TO Mobile and
sought the opinion of The Register.
The opinion was given, IN line with
what this paper has been publishing
on the subject for the past four years
Inc Registers position is that the
Alabama system of leasing out con
Vlcts 10 private contractors is basicaI-
ly wrong; that it should not be within
the power of corporations or private
individuals 10 make profit from con-
Wet labor and to bring 1t into COM
peuuon with free labor; hat the sys-
tenn does not safeguard society. In
mat the percentage Of escapes is very
large; and that in many instances II
bTutaliZes and degrades COnvicts to
the point where reforming influences
can obtain no hold.
The Register did not give infOTma-
ton to the New York Globe repre-
sentative Of the kind sought by the
sensational newspapers and magazines
tEat have made much OF the brutal
aspect Of convict leasing. All that was
pointed out supported the contentious
OF The best newspapers in the state,
opposed to the convict system for the
reasons given. The Globes represent
ative has decided that we are all
wrong, that convict camps are the
state pride" that "Alabama's penal
system is a school of instruction that
IS showing good results and turning
out wage learners" This is very sur
pTIsing to the people of Alabama who
have been here 4 long time and who
nave been reading IN the newspapers
wet establishments OF murderers and
other felOns occupying positions as
TRUSTEES and who know that abuses
OF The system were at one time almost
weekly occurrences, that men have
been beaten TO death for not perform
ing their allotted tasks in the mines, |
that minor offenders committed for
are more harshly treat !
ed III the lumber and turpentine camps
tan confirmed criminals, that these |
camps and the convict-w orking mines |
are hotbeds of tuberculosis, that Mo |
bile county cancelled a contract with |
a mining company because of the ILL |
treatment of cOnvicts b. its task
masters. The subject could be con
tinued in detail and the details would /
make horrifying reading.
Against this knowledge of the peO-
pie OF Alabama who nave been OBJ |
serving the evils OF the system for |
years, the New York Globe represent |
ative places the observations of less |
than one week in one lumber camp. |
He came here on Mallory Line /
steamer from New York. made local |
in half a day and spent /
at a convIct-Ieasing lumber /
mill north OF Mobile. l. is evident /
from the account he has written for 1
his upWSOappT that he obtained all /
Of his information and figures there.
The camp is an ideal convict estab-
ishment and the convicts are entire
~ content with their treatment, ac-
cOrding 10 the Globes account, but /
he facts remains which were evident
" not told to the correspondent, that
TWO murderers committed from Mo-
bile escaped from the place in one /
year, one being still at large and the
)tleT having given himself up after
roaming the world for three years;
and that a negro murderer who got |
away from the camp last year, stole
arms and ammunition before
ne left, outraged a white woman in a
nearby settlement, escaped from a
mob bent upon lynching him and is
still at large as far as known.
There is a whole lot OF information
IN the subject that the Globe man did /
lot get and mis- account Of the condi-
ions in this state is therefore not of
much value. He says that those who |
complain OF the system are limited
o opponents of the present state ad-
This IS not a fact. The
ight on the convict-leasing system be-
.an long before the present admin
stration, but the last legislature up
leId the system and thus is partly
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