The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-09-05
-.ooI MILLIuN DonAAn.


 ITO take the convicts out of the mines and put them on the public roads will cost to make the change ~alone one million dollars ($1,000,0 ,000). This is not an exaggerated, but most con- servative estimate. Each year there after the state will lose what the con victs now earn in the mines, about three quarters of million dollars. Many convicted men can with just treatment be reformed, but to put them upon the public roads is to brutalize them be- yond redemption. From nineteen to twenty-eight years of age is the time that even good men sometimes commit rash acts such as manslaughter. The commission of these acts are more gem eral in the country where there is not police supervision than in towns where there is There is public en- tertainment, some drunken lout be- comes offensive and insulting to the ladies. A brother, sweetheart or son of some lady attempts to remon strate with the lout for his conduct, fight follows and killing is the result. Self defense cannot be plead, because there was no effort to avoid the fight. The young man who was trying to preserve decency is convict ed of manslaughter. He is committed to the public roads for five years. Those with whom he associated, girls and boys in his own set, drive by in automo- piles, see him in stripes and shackles working side by side with murderers and highwaymen. Is it probable that this treatment of him will tend to ele- vate or to debase him. Will it make him feel more kindly toward society or will it imbitter him forever against all government? Could any course better suited than this be selected to make him despise God and hate men? If you were to set out to spread the gospel of Bolshevism and to make anarchists what better way would you ask than to be given the right to work intelligent white men on the public roads? Ex- cept in war times, all enlightened gov ernments abandoned the working of men on public roads many years ago It IS return in another form of the stocks into which men were put to advertise their shame On the public road in moving from camp to camp the convicts are hauled in cages like hyenas and when they lie down at night, not to sleep but to spend the hours in night mares. they are chained by the leg like wild beasts This horrible outrage Is being now perpetrated in some Alabama counties and it is be- lng done in the name of humanity Shame on those who pretend to want to better the condition of the convicts and who advocate the state as a whole endorsing this unspeakable crime against unfortunate men.
 THE REMEDY
 Ut is well known by all who have gone to the trouble of investigating the convict system of Alabama that the mis- treatment of the convicts grows ont of leasing them to persons and to corpora- tions.
 The state puts the dollar mark on the criminal and this in turn puts the lash upon his back.
 Therefore, the leasing of conyicts either to coal miners, to lumber and tur- pentlne camps or to counties to work them on the public roads should stop. ''In addition to leasing the oonvicts, the states coal lands are also leased to cor porations, thus adding folly to crime. Both the leasing of the convicts and the leasing of the states coal lands is un- wise and inhuman. The convicts should l be worked on the coal lands of the state and the coal be put upon the mar ket and sold for the benefit of the state, that all the people may receive the bene- 1 fits to come from this source rather than l that they should go to further enrich the coal barons.
 l "A part of the convict's earnings should go to those who are dependent upon hm-his wife and children, his aged pa rents or younger brothers ana sisters. A part should be set aside to be given him I when he has earned his liberty. The | reasons for this should appeal and will appeal to every man of heart and brain and conscience. The rest of the convict S earnings should go to building public roads and to the public schools. If the experience of the state of Tennessee in working it's convicts on the state coal lands is criterion from which we can draw conclusions, there will be enough left after caring for the convict's de- pendents and setting aside part to be given him on his release to give us good roads throughout the length and breadth of Alabama and to put a nine-months school in every little red schoolhouse in the state.
 \ ALREADY PASSED BY SENATE
 "A bill to work the states coal lands