The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-12-29
PEOPLES FORUM
aMhat,n in a Name.,,

To the Editor of The Age-Herald. The newspaper reports of the proposed abolition CD of the con- vict lease system indicate but a new name for an unpopular and indefensible practice. The pro- posed contract, as reported, re- stores an old practice, which be- slows undeserved privileges and immunities on certain coal com panies, and takes away numerous benefits from the state and it's convicts. It is a step backward, wrongfully labeled as a forward march,"
 Perhaps an overwhelming ma jority of Alabama citizenship Is unalterably opposed to exposing convicts to the extraordinary haz- ards of the mines. Certainly all citizens, actuated by unselfish mo- tives, oppose granting special privileges to few. and robbing a convict and his family of the right of recovery for injury and death brought about by his involuntary labor in mine. The new contract heralded as the abolishing of the convict lease system does not even remotely accomplish that object. According to the report 1t will provide as follows:
 l. Shift the burden of pay ing guards, engineers, purchase and supervision of equipment,
 heretofore borne by the Sloss
 Company, Pratt Company,
 and Pnccnv,,at Land Company, to the state,
 2. Work the convicts In the
 same mines.>
 3. Deliver the coal mined by
 them to their same old mas
 ters.
 4. Deliver such coal to them
 at price fixed without com
 petitive bidding, at closed
 session.
 5. Keep the convicts in the
 most dangerous mines in the
 district, where from two and
 half to five times as many
 deaths occur as at mines em-
 ploying free labor.
 6. Relieve the Sloss Com
 pany, the Pratt Company and
 Bessemer Coal, Iron and Land
 Company of all liability to convicts and their widows and orphans. for injuries and death
 of convicts in these dangerous
 mines.
 [. Give to these few com
 panies with convicts working
 in their mines tho privilege
 of obtaining a monopoly of
 their output with cheap labor.
 with no burdens which must
 be borne by operators working
 free labor, and thus do ire
 trievable damage to 25.ooo free miners.
 8. Give profit from the
 labors of Alabama's convicts to three companies which
 should go to the convict's
 family, and if not to the fam
 fly, to all the citizens of the
 state.
 9. Tax Alabama to support the Sloss Company, Pratt Company and Bessemer Coal, Iron and Land Company.
 It is impossible to. believe that Governor Brandon will make or approve any such contract. The people want to free themselves of this iniquitous system both in theory and practice. Halfway measures do not satisfy. We can not believe that the governor of all the people will tolerate a con- tract benefiting so few. If the state has the bona fide intention of mining coal, with its convicts, for its own benefits. why tie its hands as to the corporations to whom, and the price at which, the coal will be sold?
 HUGO l.. BLACK, President Alabama Prison Reform Association.
 Birmingham, Ala, Dec. 27, 1923. Appreciate Support of Age-HeraId To the Editor of The Age-Herald: The enclosed editorial from to- days Age-Herald, reprinted on the front page of the Florence Times with comments, may be of interest to you. And for your in- formation, kindly permit me to say that we in the Tennessee Val ley appreciate the loyal support that The Herald is giving the Ford offer. and the paper is re- garded as pre-eminently the best that comes into this district. With