The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-01-29
A CASH NEXUS
 FOR CRIME
How Alabama Farms. Out Her Convicts-State Con- victs Hamper Successful St1.ikes-Sheriffs Paid for Each Arrest.
By Shelby M. Harrison Service The Survey Pres
 Bureau.)


 fE4xc1nsive Service The Survey Press
 Bureau.)
 A boy in Anniston, Alabama, tres
 passed upon the railroad tracks. lie
 was arrested: sentenced to 50 days hard labor; and leased out to a coal oDerator He was totally inexperlehc- ed in coal mining, unusueo to us oaiI S
 gers and was at work only a few
 days when he met with an accioeIis s
 which resulted in the amputatlon or
 one of his legs. He will noopI aEouho Iese o
 the rest of his life on one es-a
 cripple for life for trespass1ng thlns
 that hundreds of people do from year
 to year unmolesteoi ..
 Last April Sth, 12S Negro conVlcts
 working in the Banner mine operated
 at the time by the Pratt Consolioa1l 1[
 ed Coal Co.,, were instantly kilieu DS
 an explosion. Sventy-tWo or the coi-
 victs were from Jefferson county. III
 which Birmingham is located, ana q
 out of the 72, or 30 percent were GoH-
 victed of offenses so minor tnaI tlSti '
 sentences aside from cost, did not e4-
 ceed 20 days.
 Coal mining is one of the two most
 hazardous occupations that today eH-
 rolls any very large number Of work'
 CTS And coal mining where the dah-
 ger of inexperienced workers 1n1uFlhs
 themselves is exceedingly great where
 the opportunities for those Wno a17 ready are murderers to injure or Kill their fellow workers is also e1ceso- inglv great-coal mining an occupa-
 tion ranking among the TWO hnoee dIaot deadly even where free labor IS e1a- ployed-that is the occupation Io which Alabama hires out fifty percent
 of. her state and county conVacts' cs | ants or criminals of the lowest oroer- The Alabama convict labor system l embraces state. conVicts. county :o con, l victs and county prisoners DuFliIs s | inc last five years the number or | state convicts has averaged about z,~ 1 BOO per year and of county conVlcts | and county convicts who are able to | must work and their labor brings m m l to Alabama State Treasury above | S4OO GOO annually and into the county | treasuries nearly $100,OO
 | Except for several hundred eonVicts | in the pentitentiary at Wetumpka ana | at the State Farm ana factory o+Ie | Speigner the labor of convicts both state and county is contracted out. l The men go not only to the coal mines l but to saw mills, private farms. | Onlv- the most able bodied are sent l to tffe mines. In round numbers 1.9oo l convict miners are divided among live l operating companies. e | For the non-performance Of tasks; | except under good excuse. corporal | punishment may be inflicted III I9e | +o lie down and fifteen lashes over a | hack covered with but one garment | may be. and usually are, administer l ed Many stories are told about the 8irnoingham district, where at least
 baIf of all the convicts work. For | example, Pig Ford, a half-witted negro. is alleged to have been whip o- | DeH and kicked to death several years | ago by a warden of county conVlcts. l ri developed at the trial of the war. 1 den. that Ford was a cocaine nGIie hie l and that the habit had destroyed ms 1 mind. a condition which the heaEy- | handed penal machinery of the state | had not been delft enough to discover. l The man should have been sent 70 an institution for detectives. The state was as blind in it's punishment as the deputy who beat him.
 1 AJ am convinced. however, that 1ia- 1 grant abuse is the exception rather | fhau the rule in prison camps. But | those exceptions show the serious pos abilities of the flogging system. The The ] great a strain on human nature to vest brutal power over other men s 1 bodies in any group of officials
 l More questionable perhaps than the | r,ethods employed to force unpaid | men to do a days work, is the effect | of the system upon outside free Ia | this completely controlled labor sup nlv. With the coming in of machine 1 mining. the old time skill of the pick
 miner is no longer essential @ @,,otn Tn cae the l appreciably affect the wages of 2o'ooo | free men. | miners interest in another way. h l has been great factor in preventing l unionism among the miners. Convict 1 laborers cannot strike for if they do l they are beaten for it. If free labor l has a grievance which it would make 1 emphatic by quitting work, the con | vict miners keep grinding out enough 1 coal to take the edge off the protest. | Tn the big strike of 1908 which broke | the back of uniOnism in the coal mines l of the district, convict labor turned
 out it's daily quota of coal right | through the period.
 But viewed from a still more inn | portant angle, the Alabama convict | system has failure written @cross it. l Public opinion is coming to sanction ! the imprisonment of men in free so- | ciety on two grounds; Firsts. self pro- | lection and second, rehabilitation. A l school which turns out illiterates, or a l hospital which sends back patients in 1 tested with contagion. is to be com l pared to a prison system which turns I out men embittered. with weakened vii | taIity, without vocational training, l with new vices and with the stigma | If crime upon them to batten them l down into the ranks of maurauders. r. Three hundred and sixty convtcts | loose in the darkness of the mines