The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-08-31

| any purpose other than building five convict road camps in different parts of the state, which is provided for by the bill.
 PROVISIONS OF BILL
 ''The bill provides that all able bodied convicts shall be worked on the state trunk roads under the direction of the state highway commission in co-opera- ton with the convict department. Thas the highway department shall make preparations and lay out such work and
 make acquisitions on the convict depart ment for as many convicts as can be used and cared for from time to time after tho passage of the bill so as to withdraw all able bodied convicts from the lease system by not later than the first day of January, 1923. Under this bill if the highway department can, n,maka the preparations and get ready to use the convicts they can all be placed on the roads during the next twelve months, but it gives the period from the passage of the bill until January 1, 1923, before tie lease system is finally abolished and it is made unlawful to lease convicts.
 'The bill further provides that the highway department shall pay the con- vist department the current price for the labor, sad price to be determined by the governor out of funds derived from the sale of the s250O0,000 of road bonds, provided the proposed bond issue is sub- mitted to the people and carried. In the event the bond issue is not carried it provides thai the labor shall be paid for out of the funds derived from the sale of automobile license tags, which funds have been set aside to the credit and use of the highway commission. The high way commission then works the convicts on the roads against the federal aid (which is authorized by the federal acD and is reimbursed for every dollars worth of labor worked on the public highways, so it can easily be seen that # is after all the federal government paying the state of Alabama to work it's own convicts on it's own public high ways This absolutely explodes the financial argument that has been made against the bill and the proposed change and those that are trying to inject a financial argument into the fight either don't know the meaning of the bill or they are the opponents of the interest in Alabama that are today enjoying the fruits of the convicts' labor.
 ONE PERTINENT REASON
 There are many and various reasons why the bill should pass the Senate without delay. but leaving all senti- mental reasons out there is one very pertinent reason that should be men, E that if the legislature sees fit to pass the bond issue bill providing for the issu- ance of $25,000 600 of state road bonds and submit the same to the people that the same will be ratified, and if for any reason it should fail to be ratified by the people then the legislature will have met and adjourned without doing any thing for the roads, but on the other hand if they pass the Orr bill they have the convicts to fall back on and the highway commission can use the convcts in matching federal aid and will be able to get large portion of the $2, 2,00o,000 federal aid which is annually available for Alabama.
 ''The records show that the very best and most physically fit convicts are be- ing worked in coal mines. It is fact according to the records, that no prisoner is sent to the mines unless he is in sound health, and notwithstanding this precaution it is an undeniable fact that go per cent of all the cripples in the en- tire convict department received their injuries in the mines and 80 per cent of all the tuberculosis patients in the entire convict department contracted the dis ease in the mines, notwithstanding when they were sent there they were examined by a doctor and no traces of the disease could be found
 ''The state of Alabama will never solve its convict problems under the ground; it must come out in the open and turn Gods sunlight on, and then if things go wrong the people can see and will see and will demand and take steps to cor rect the evils that may exist. But so long as we hide our convcts out in great forests at turpentine and sawmill camps away from civilization and down in the ground where no one knows the condi- tons save the guards and the sufferer and where no one can hear the groans and walls offthe oppressed, just so long will the atrocities that now exist thrive"