The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-09-05
On hand December 31, 1918 ...........
 THREE OUT OF FOUR ESCAPE

THREE OUT OF FOUR ESCAPE
 This report shows that there were seven hundred and fifty-five (755) fell ony prisoners put on the public road and that five hundred and thirty -four (53D of them escaped, 3 out of 4.
 "The working of all able bodied con- victs on the roads in Alabama include of course all the murders, all the burg lars, all the train robbers. all the high waymen, all those who are guilty of arson and of attempt to rape, all men in the prison of desperate character.
 To put these men on the public roads of Alabama wil, oefeat the ends of justice is conclusively proved by the experience of the state of Georgia. Why go through the expense of a trial to convict guilty men, Gen guilty of the heinous crime and then put them on the roads where they will surely ge. lway.
 After this class of men have been convicted and then get away in their desperation to keep out of the hands of the law they will stop at no crime to retain their liberty. They will steal of take by force horses, automobiles and every other kind of means that will provide rapid flight. Should the owners of the property attempt to stop the convicts in confiscation they will be killed. This type of men at large, especially in the rural counties where there is no police protection, will be a constant source of terror and peril to the people of those communities That this is not figment of the imagination is shown by the newspaper accounts of the raping of helpless white women by the negro convicts who escaped from the public roads of Georgia. II is possible that this accounts for the great number of lynchings in that state, when these desperadoes are caught it is felt that it would be fool ish to put them back on the roads from which they would again escape.
 101 WHITES IN MINES
 There are in the mines of Alabama one hundred and one GOD white men, all the rest of the convicts in the mines are negroes. After a man has had some experience in working in the mines he prefers this kind of work for the following reasons: First, in the mines he is "out from under the gun" In the mine he is given task and when he has finished this task he quits work and comes out of the mine. That this task is not too heavy is shown by the fact that last year in Alabama the convicts in the coal mines after completing their task. earned for them selves more than fifty thousand dol- lars (s50,0OO). Some convicts earn as much as fifty dollars ($5000) per month extra Second, the temperature of the mines is equal the year round-neither too hot in the summer nor too cold in the winter. The convict is not subject to the scorching rays of July sun nor to the icy blast of February snows and rains. He is comfortable in the mines in all kinds of weather and when he comes out he takes a warm bath and puts on clean clothes from head to foot. It would be impossible for him to have these sanitary surroundings if worked upon the public roads. Many of the convicts take the daily papers as well as other periodicals
 All of this clamor about the brutal treatment of the convicts in the mines, while not word is said about the way he is being treated on the public roads of those counties in which they work is for . purpose and most sinister purpose. All that is needed to hush 1t up, for the general public to know tho real facts about the convicts and the purpose of those who want them taken from the mines. In one road