The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-20
PRAISES ALABAMA
 CONVICT SYSTEM New York Globe Prints Ex-
 tended Article LUMBER CAMPS HAPPY Writer Says When Sentences Are Complete convicts Are We'll Equipped To Make Their
 Own Living.

New York, February 19.-(Special.) .)-The Globe and Commercial Advertiser prints an extended article on the convict sys- tenn of Alabama. The article praises the wisdom of Alabama methods. It is sent from Mobile, and is in part as follows:
 Have you ever visited a lumber camp in this state famous for it's yellow pine, whose convicts labor day after day until they have paid the penalty for crime2
 Don't shudder and turn pale and say you know all about Alabama's convict lease system because you have read some of the magazines, or know man who IS the friend of a former convict, or have some political acquaintances in Alabama who are not friendly with the present administration. If your knowledge of the system is limited to these three active sources of transformation you have no true conception of the conditions. You, with thousands of other persons in the north, have been the victim of scandal mongers or individuals with axes to grind
 You like to roll the word "peonage" off your tongue in the same breath with Alabama It sounds interesting at least, and as many of your friends don't know what peonage means, your sense of su- perior knowledge is pleasing. When you launch into a tirade against all convict camps and paint lurid pictures of horrible brutality your listening friends may call you a well-informed fellow, but if you should chance to have in your audience a man who had been on the ground and knew the facts, he would put you in the Ananias club and challenge you to prove you didn't belong there.
 Large business interests of Alabama that are working industriously to increase the prestige of the state in the markets of the world believe it is time to call a halt on the forces at work to cast shadow over their enterprise and integ- rty. The heads of reputable concerns vigorously resent the imputation that they are slave drivers who wield instruments of torture-savages masquerading as men. They court the most thorough investiga- ton; in fact, they beg for 1t in the in terest of justice. They don't care when or where or how the work is done, be- cause they say there is nothing to conceal.
 Proud of the System.
 These men have been sorely tried by the wave of misrepresentation that has swept north and poisoned the minds of thousands against them. They are proud of their states system of handling it's convicts and don't care who knows 1t. All theV ask iSt a square. deal.
 To go into all the details of the con- vict system of Alabama would require pages of space in this newspaper, so only it's main features and the results of thorough investigation made in one camp can be set down within the limits of this article. It is a most interesting subject when viewed at close range, for it would appear that Alabama has worked out it's convict problem so that the suggestion Of restraint is reduced to a minimum with out endangering the public safety by any laxity in guarding men who have been denied by the courts the privileges Of freedom. The state has virtually made. of it's penal system a great school of in structon that equips many men who were practically useless in the community be- fore their confinement with those things both mental and physical-that lift them to the honorable plane of wage earners.
 On the state plantations in the cotton mills, the lumber and turpentine camps and in the foundry the convicts learn the kind of work that is in constant demand throughout the state, and, becoming free men once again, they have an asset that prevents nine-tenths of them from slip- ping back into the old life that had crime for it's climax, and incidentally opened the way for the dawning of a new morning The report of the convict bureau for January 1. 19o9 shows that 2347 convicts are working under It's supervision-S1 in the mines. 233 in the turpentine camps, 548 in the lumber camps, 118 in farm work, 76 in stove works, PIP on the state plantation at Wetumpka, 253 on the state plantation at Speigner, and 66 on the state farm.
 Convict Labor Leased.
 In addition to this state supervision over convicts sentenced for crimes ''in- volving moral turpitude," and either put to work directly by the state on its own lands or leased at so much per capita to private concerns, each county handles it's prisoners sentenced for crime mot in volving moral turptude' and receives an income by leasing them to private parties.
 The state system, which will be dealt with in this article showed gross re- cefpts of s1.0O0,000 for convict labor last