Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-12-17
|Governor Donaghey Issues Sweeping Pardon Order as
 Blow to Lease System.
AFFECTS THIS COUNTY
E,u of Them on Niyen's Convict Farm
 at Tucker Are Freed-His Reasons.

1it,le Rock, Dec. 16.-Late Monday I,ternoon Governor Donaghey issued nroclamat on granting full and free mrdon of 316 state and A county ,onyicts. It is the most sweeping re- |hnke ever .Tonounced by the gover- ,or of any sta.e against system de- Iponnced as barbarous and pernicious the convict lease system. He as Tsigns as his principal reason for dis Itharglng so large number at this lime ".s fer the purpose of forever Meaking up the convict lease system in this state
 Ever since he has been in office he [has been fighting the convict lease Usterrl, and the county farms. About dfty of those pardoned are on the Etbree, county farms lef, in the state, Eh M ssissippi, Desha and Jefferson
 punties. He pardoned everyone on These farms whose names he could set. except those convicted of carry ing pistols and selling whiskey. His mrpose was to blot these farm out of eristence. There were 800 convicis l in the penitentiary proper, not count ng those that are be ng worked on county roads in Pulaski and a few #aher counties under act of 1911. l Gov. Donaghey has consistently fought the convict lease system ever since he has been in office. In every tuublic speech he has denounced it.
 N member of the Penitentiary Board he has opposed it. Many times Ihe has pleaded with the legislature 10 fabolish ithe system, but despite all fthls, no relief has been gien.
 aThe AsuBjcct has been grossly |aeglected by the General Assembly v ' says Gov. Donaghey in message to / the Legislature which he made pub Elc las. night, partly due to con iusion of .deas as to what plan best to adopt, and partly due to disposl- l ton by some to let the matter remain Eas it is, wi.hs the statement that the penitentiary was not designed for a ESunday School'
 To this the governs retorts, nor EEas it designed for revengeful hell. &Of course no one intends for It to h such, but in a measure that IS .Eha. it and the county farms of the Estate have resolved themselves into. The abuse of power shown by few hdivlduals acting as Justices ot the Peace in some of the towns and cities fof the state, as is made plain by the record, is enough to stagger into amazement those who have given the natter no attention
 The governors wholesale pardon vassnot the result of an impulse,e put #da deliberate purpose dating back Ryeral years when he frs, began itudying the subject. For months he bas been at work securing com plete data of all the convicts in the
 tnitentiary, and has sent speclai agents 10 the county farms to secure data there, securing reports that are indeed startling in the extreme. Ana but for the record in the case,' says he they could scarcely be accepted as truth gotten from official docu- nents and personal statements among civilized people, and but for the necessity which compels me to or fcially transmit an account of all to make known, in a manner for the out side world to know it, the statements obta' ned"
 N The governor cites ten specific
 instances, of the most outrageous sehtsnces inflicted, often fer the mos'