The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-19
AGAIN, THE LEASE SCANDAL


 this state into unwelcome and unde- served national notoriety. Unwelcome, because it reflects upon the good name of the state, and undeserved, because the great majority of the people of Alabama denounce the lease system and have long demanded it's abolition. Nobody desires to condone the offense of the convicts, but resort to flogging reveals grave lack of official morale and discipline. The public had thought l that flogging had been barred in this state. Its reinstatement is recognized as indicative of a weakness in the con- vict management.
 The president of the state convict board says that he is willing to take the entire responsibility for the re- grettable act. The people of Alabama konly wish that he could assume all the disgrace that attaches to his deed But he cannot. The state is forced to share that, because the governor, and the legislature supposed to repre- sent the public will, have refused to free the people from the stigma un- der which they writhe.
 To be sure, the responsibility for the situation rests upon Governor Brandon, who appointed to head the convict board a man who has profited out of the leasing of convicts, a sys- tenn in which brutal methods of pun ishment have been common.
 It is not yet too late for->the legis- lators to compel the immediate with drawal of convicts from mines Their public duty commands them to do this their sense of obligation to the people and of public decency should impel them to do it. The legislature is a party to the lamentable financial sit uation which the governor gives as his only shadow of excuse for delay. In the matter of altering the successful tax-collecting machinery the legisla- ture blindly followed the lead of a governor who was repeatedly warned in advance of the folly of his course, and whom the result has shown to be ignorant of the principles of taxation and public financing. The legislature has yet time to redeem itself partially from the consequences of that ill., considered policy.
 In the final analysis, however, the ultimate responsibility rests upon Gov ernor Brandon. He is the one who conceived the idea of replacing suc- cessful tax agents with men who had not been tested, and of laying violent hands upon process of tax adjust I
 ment and equalization that was making Alabama financially independent of extra levies and was giving the state plenty of revenue for all present and increasing needs. Governor Brandon is the one who demanded that the ob- jectionable lease system be continued, and who gave as his reason the finan- cial dilemma which he himself had caused
 If there is wide national criticism of Alabama's lease system and treat ment of convicts, let it be as widely related that not the people of Ala bama, but the governor of this state Ahas stretched out his arm protectingly over barbarous institution and said to the whole world: Civilization halts here. We will continue our barbaroui and inhumane policy because Alabama l neeuS tHc IOHSy. hcI ib pc WlucAy known that Governor Brandon can give the order within twenty-four hours to withdraw the convicts from the mines and to halt convict leasing in the whole United States. Let it be known that the revenue from this bru- tai and hated system is required, not by the taxpayers of Alabama to make up any deficit, but by the governor of Alabama partially to repair the dam age his own mistaken policy has caused to the revenue-collections of this state.
 Those citizens who so vigorously and so clearly set forth the convict lease evil and so urgently and tire lessly urged it's abolition represent the true sentiment of the majority of the people of Alabama. If they are not disheartened by the callous indiffer-