Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-02
WOMENbACk
WAR To END
BEAT|NCS
Men and Religion Movement Asks
Discharge of Unjust Guards
and Deep Probe.

Indignation against the merciles:
flogging of prisoners in Georgia's con
vict camps took effective form Sat
urday in a demand for a Grand Jury
investigation of the whole system IN
Fulton County.
Philip wertner. secretary OF the
Georgia Prison Association, signed the
statement. which was to be commu-
nioated to the County Commissioners
for their action. Mr.. We1tner called
for a fearless and thorough probe, He
said that the light should be turned
on every phase of convict camp ad
ministration and that nothing should
escape the investigators.
Calls Flogglns UneIviIized.
He charged that the fiogging was
barbarous and .uncivilized He asked
that every person who could have any
valuable knowledge on this point
should be called before the jury. The
5ClLod liOAdl Oh
was prepared by Mr.. Weltner from
his association with prison and con-
Wet problems, and sent out under the
sanction of the Men and Religion
Forward Movement.
Sanitary conditions, the quality OF
prisoners food, the lack of humane
privileges in the prison camps
cramped condition of prisoners quar-
tiers, cruelties of the guards toward
their charges, the unjustified taking
away from prisoners of their good
time" marks and other deplorable
conditions are recited at length in the
communication.
Asks Discharge of Guard.
The report then recommends the
discharge of all guards found to have
been unjust to prisoners; the aboli-
ton of male guards at female camps;
the establishment of an honor camp
for colored prisoners; the abolition OF
chains and the lash, and the working
out Of a system whereby prisoners viii
be physically. mentally and morally
improved
Chief among the well-known Allan
Ia women who denounced fioggins
and inhumane treatment of convicts
generally was Mrs. Emma Neal Doug
las, long known throughout the South
for her work in behalf of the pool
and the unfortunate.
The atrocities which have come tc
light as the result of the Fulton
County Grand Jury's investigation o!
the fiogging and general brutal treat
ment of Georgia prisoners who are
strung together with ball-and chain
and driven around Ike cattle have
astounded Mrs, Douglas, although she
has been close student of prison life
and the treatment Of prisoners ir
Georgia for years.
Nothing that l ,ould say would
express the cnr.Ismnation ! feel foi
the brutal, barbarous. Anticipated pro-
vision of law tina permits a human
being to be bound hand and foot witt
iron and beaten until the blood runs,
she said.
Conditions lnconeeivable.
1T is almost inconceivable that
such a condition could exist in this
nation that we call civilized; that II
could exist even under cover, to say
nothing of its being sanctioned by the
law which Is supposed to represent
the result Of the combined thought 81
the keenest and most just minds in
the Commonwealth.
Evidently Georgia has not profited
by the lesson Victor Hugo gives us
in the story of Jean Vatican, the
man who was nearly crushed back
into barbarism by the brutality Of the
thirteen years he spent in prison for
stealing loaf Of bread.
when you put man in prison
and put stripes upon him. shackle
him with iron and steel, browbeat
and abuse him, feed him bad food
then take him out a-' cut his flesh
with a lash because &c breaks down