The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-20
Mr.. Anderson's Reply

| ATLANTA, Ca, April 10, 1918.
''Hon. r. r. Lovelady, President Board
OF Revenue, Jefferson County, Birming-
| ham, Ala.
| Dear Sir: I beg leave to acknowledge
receipt of your favor of the 14th instant,
and it gives me pleasure to reply imme-
diately.
| II have not worked out the actual cost
! to the county of Fulton in operating its
convicts on the road work in this county
| for a year or two and it is possible, OF
course, that the Increased cost of food
stuffs may have slightly increased the
| cost per diem per capita of the convicts
since the last calculation was made. but
about two years ago | personally had
| the matter calculated and at that time
| the cost per capita per convict, includ-
| ing every convict under the control of
the county-that is to say, the disabled
as well as the able bodied-was approx
inately 60 cents per capita per diem.
This included every cost connected
with the maintenance of the convicts and
the use of them on the public roads
that is to say, it included, among other
| things. the cost of feeding them, cloth
! ing them. guarding them, housing them,
| medical attention. the cost of all free
! labor employed in connection with the
road work. such as engineers, wagon
| drivers, guards. foremen, superintendent,
1 assistant SuDcT1UtPuuents, lnuecu, cNtTN
| expense of every kind and character which
| the county of Fulton is put to in con-
nection with the use of the convicts on
| the roads, except the cost of machinery
and all road material that is to say, 1t
| does not include the initial cost of ma
| chinery purchased from time to time to
meet the needs of the county, nor the
! cost of purchasing such road material
as the county is not able to supply from
a.. ..,~,t1n G.tol. oGra1ao ind
ers, etc 1t does, however. include de-
Or eciation on the investment in machinery
| at the rate of 10 per cent per annum
| and the interest on the investment In
ma chinery at the rate of per cent per
! aEnum.
"The figures above given you l am
sure are approximately correct today, since
upon an average, l think, it is safe to
| say that there has not been any appre-
ciable increase In the cost of supplies
such as food, clothing. stock feed, etc.
nor in the wages of the free employees.
during the past two years.
Road Work Very Satisfactory
"The use of convicts upon the roads
OF Fulton county has been very salts
fectory, indeed. This county has been
using convicts in that way for some
thing like 80 years, using only the mis-
demeanor convicts, however, until some
tuic GO VI AOui ycoAS -5N' - 49,
o. the legislature the felony convicts were
distributed amongst the counties for road
work. With the convicts Fulton county
builds every class of road and street
including asphalt pavements, bitulithic
pavements, bituminous macadams, ordi-
nary macadam. etc. With these con
victs it also builds concrete culverts and
bridges, concrete trunk sewers, besides
Of course, heavy grading OF every kind
4 Fulton county EMPLOYS its convicts very
largely for the benefit of the city of At
laEta, having built many of Atlanta's
best streets and having built many miles
OF trunk sewers in connection with the
! sewage system Of the city, and the char
acter Of work done. according to the en-
1 gineers who have inspected the same. Is
/ equal to or better than that done by free
labor. siUeIy