The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1912-12-19
SHOULD SEPARATE
THE WHITE AND
NEGRO CONV|CTS
PUNISHMENT MUST LEAD TO RE.
PENTANT SPIRIT OR JAIL
SENTENCE is USELESS.
1t is Up to the People Of Georgia to
Change What They Think 10
Wrong.

bad men worse. Surely the bad man
must be shown; all had men are from
Missouri, but the punishment which
does not lead to a repentant spirit 10
useless. That is the sort of punish
ment we want in Georgia, and 1t
ought to be administered in the same
spirit as a parent administers
punishment to his child-not for ven
geance, but correction. The same
principles which guide the natural
father in whipping his hayward boy
ought to actuate ard control this
common parent of us all-the good
and the bad.
1t is time we people were bestir-
ring ourselves. None of us would
willingly degrade still further the man
who has lost out in life's battle. We
believe in bringing the criminal to
his senses, and if term in the con
vict camp will do this the state is do
ing the right thing not only by so
ciety, which needs protection, but
also by the criminal. The interests
Of society and the criminal are pretty
much the same. This does not mean
that society should give him his free
dom. That would amount to Ii
eense to commit further depradations.
But what is best for the man is best
for society. We want to bring him
to his senses, to show that 1t is much
easier to do right than it is to do
wrong, to help him in his battle to re
gain his self-respeet and, when pun
ishment is necessary, to infiict that
punishment, not for the sake Of vim
dicating the majesty of the law, for
that is tommyrot, but for the purpose
of helping the fellow who has gone
wrong to realize his responsibilities
towards his fellow-man.
There is nothing prejudged in this
article. 1t is up to the people of
Georgia to change what they think
is wrong. In setting forth the fol
lowing facts and incidents no one is
criticized. If the reader thinks con-
ditions ought to be changed, let him
blame himself because they have not
been changed already. This is writ
ten not in criticism, but in absolute
confidence in the rank and file, in
their good judgment and common
sense.
Now look around you. You put a
man in the convict camp to serve a
term at hard labor. This is to pun
ish that man for a crime. You dress
him up in stripes. For the most part
you him in chains to hinder
his freedom in getting about.
At night you lock him up
in little wagon, bound about
in iron, with as many as fifteen OF
his fellow-prisoners. You work him
from dawn till dark You stand a
man with a gun over hir.. I'D you
call this punishment and hope that
when his sentence is done he will
not give any more trouble.
In most of the convict camps the
negroes and whites work side by side.
in every camp the man who has com.
mitted only small offense is in the
! constant association with the man
who is in open rebellion against law
and order. In one of our counties,
not long ago, there was an open mu
tiny, led by an old fellow, fifty-odd
years old, a man-killer of the worst
type. He had induced two young
boys to join him who before he had
come in their midst had determined
on better life. In another county
white man and a negro got into
fight. The white man knocked the
negro down with his shovel. Both
men were whipped, the white man
and the negro. One of the men who
is thinking along this line once work
ed in a convict camp. The prisoners
did not know but that he was one
of their fellows, doing two-yeaF sen
/ tence. Neither did the guards know
but that he was prisoner. He work
ed in the same trench with the ne
groes. The negroes called him by
his first name, and yelled at him by
that name when they wanted him to
bring them water He started to re
sent it, but a fellow prisoner, doing q
4 life sentence, warned him not to, be
cause he would be whipped.
| Now, isn't this true? Under ccndi
tons Of this kind, the best will fall
to the level Of the worst, and the pun
ishment which you intend to make
bad men better does exactly whai
you don't want it to do. Ought moi
/ prisoners Of the better type be sent
to one county, and those of worse
type sent to another county? Ought
not the white men be everywhere
separated from the negro prisoners
/ Co cut to your convict camp and see
Tor yourself You are running thai
camp Is it being rim SO as to make
the bad man good7