The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1913-11-03
SENATOR Y. B. ATKINS. OF
DALLAS HAS SOLUTION
FOR CONVICT PROBLEM
Suggests Consolidating Convict Board and Highway Commits
Means of Saving Money to State and Keeping
Labor at Home, Where it is Badly Needed the Farm

pie, and thereby create within him a
| desire to make a law-abding citizen
over 50 per cent of the convicts from
this section of Alabama are negroes;
nevertheless they are human beings,
and great part of the responsibility
! for his moral uplift rests with us, the
superior race. We can not dodge this
responsibility. 1t Is ours by Inheritance
and we must face 1t. The question then
arises: What hast thou done with they
brother Abel?' Can we reply: Am [
my brothers keeper" Without meeting
a Just and deserved condemnation, we
cannot dodge the responsibility of the
guardianship of this people. They are
to great extent like little children i'm
our hands. We must strive to lift them
| up or they will continue to decline in
the moral scale until it will be, Woe,
woe unto us" and then we will truly
suffer for our neglect. The average me-
gro convict returning home from the
mines or public works is found abso-
lutely worthless, corrupt and degraded
lie VIII fit In no channel of labor open
for him, therefore he becomes again n
Vioiator of the law and is arrested and
the state Is put to the expense of con-
J Vlctlng him again, or his own peopl,
tindlng him worthless win run him
| off. -
The present convict system operates
both morally ana financially against
| that great body of our citizenship who
are the bone and sinew of this lard
who feed and clothe us, who furnish
the oil and grease the commercial and
industrial machine that help to make
Alabama great-the Alabama farmer
and the landowner. His crops are now
self worked. the cotton fields, even
with a short crop are now loaded with
the Whlte staple, that they cannot get
picked because of the lack of sufficient
labor. thousands of acres of land in
l Alabama are today lying idle and goin e
to waste that should be adding to our
wealth. because of the short supply of
iahor and good labor to cultivate it,
| The government census report for 1910
shows that the population of the city of
Selma, In the county of Dallas, had in
creased over the last census over so per
cent. but the population of the county
or Dallas as a whole had decreased over
10 per cent, so it can be seen what a
Dram has been made upon our farms
and the farming Interests This condi-
ton does not only prevail in the county
of Dallas, but all over the central and
south Alabama
We should, of course, consider the
financial end of this question as to the
state government, and how 1t can get
along without the revenue. 1t should not
be our desire to financially embarra &C
been made that 1t would bankrunt the
state. Let's see what this great sum of
money is that will bankrupt this great
state government. One of the states ex-
aminers of accounts some time during 1919
made special report that was copied In
the press, and stated that the net reve-
nue. from the convict department would
not exceed $4,000 One of the dis
unguished candidates for governor in a
recent letter issued to the voters Of Ala
pama gave as his opinion that the net
revenue of the convict department would
not exceed S2S6,000, but one of the mem.
pers OIL the convict board in recent
newspaper controversity, stated that il
the convicts We're taken from the mines
ana public works, the state would lose
ABOUT $2,oOO,ooO, and the people would have
TO be taxed to make it up. I cannot see
now they arrived at these figures. II the
conVicts We're all turned loose without
? any revenue at all from them, and the
convict board be continued in service
Alapama cannot be out anything excepi
the cost of maintaining the board, which
admit looks. pretty heavy to some OF
us. submit copy of the treasurer's
report for 1912, viz:
Gross receipts from convict
department ............,.........$10S 5 S54 e
GROSS expenses of department Gao SS1 4
|
Leaving net receipts for 1912. s435 e7o p
| And | am reliably informed that ther
are other expenses that should be de
Quoted from this, and which is no
char"ed, which will AGGREGATE in tota
500 o0O00 leaving a net balance of s335
97259 out of which sum there has alread,
been appropriated to the highways O
the state s154,000, which leaves only s1Sl
972.79.
Now, If the next slegislature realizes an,
| appreciates the needs and demand TO
road Improvement that the people ar
clamoring for, this appropriation will b
INCREASED TO not less than $500 900, and
this is done there will be the mere p,ttanc
of $4,000 to be scrambled for. Now. VIII,
not consolidate the convict board and IN
highway commission and give to the high
ways of the state those convicts that III
state does not need to carry on her ow,
works This plan can be worked out an,
save money! to the state and give TO TN
n farmer good roads and keen his labor a
home. where it will be most available an
most needed. v b. ATKINS
Selma November I, 1913