The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-20
PEOPLES FORUM
The "Traffic in Souls"

To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 Doubtless every thoughtful citl- zen of Alabama felt a sense of disappointment when our governor
 declared that the state was not financially ready to discontinue her traffic in the souls and desti- nies of her convicted men and | women. We had hoped for so
 much he the "self-made man"
 would know the dangers and pitfalls of the poor. Learned in the law, he would know their rights and knowing, dare main- tain" He, the unanimously nom- mated and uproariously elected,
 the idol of all the people, surely
 he would do right, nor money
 power or hope of the next rung of the political ladder would sway
 him from the high road of right eous rule.
 We had tried to forget the con
 vict leasing business, hoping that his coming would put an end to it; tried to forget that our taxes
 were a trifle less heavy because
 we could sell a convicted boy into
 the coal mines and lumber camps to become a slave for revenue.
 We had tried to forget the hor-
 TOTS of these camps with their degradation, their yermin and the
 gall boy" Now comes from our sister state of Florida one of those
 awful incidents in the leasing
 system that make us ashamed of
 ourselves again.
 A~ The state of Florida has dis
 continued the system, but 1t is Tolerated as a county enterprise in sections where revenue is wor- shipped and illiteracy is king; just another illustration of the blessedness of the workings of local option.
 A young boy from North Dakota
 was imprisoned for some offense and was duly rented to a lumb Der company. He incurred the dis pleasure of the flegging boss at the camp and was lashed by him until he died. It is a shuddering, disquieting tale, mere boy, fif- teen hundred miles from home. without protection, caught in the uncertain operation of Florida law and turned over to the off clal lasher of the camp. Weak and unable to resist, thrown face downward to the ground, the flog- gers heel upon the back of his neck pushing his face into the sand to stifle his cries for mercy or help. It did not heed his hor- TOT, done in the name of law and economy to make us ashamed in Alabama, we were that before hut this murder was so revoltinr. so unspeakably inhuman, and yet so clearly in line with what may happen in any convict camp any Where, and doubtless has happen ca heretofore, that we may well | dread the day when suca a tale | Will be told all over the world | from an Alabama convict camp.
 l tell you~me and women of | Alabama there Is no source of | power or authority anywhere in this country from which any man or set of men may draw or derive | the right to do a thing like that. This was not the crime of a man. It was the crime of a system. No | one lmputes to our governor any moral turpitude in the matter, 1t IF his policy, his duty as he sees It. Others look upon 1t as the eternal trucking to fear, either of responsibilities or the yox populi at the next election. There IS and has been a deep ground- swell of protest and while it nav not be vocal now it will speak in time with words that will stinr nke the sting of the flogger.s lash. Any school boy will tell you that it Is better to be rov- efner of state sunk in poverty as deep as the convict leasing and flashing system ought to be sunk in hell, than to sit in the seat or protected power and en- save your less fortunate fellaws Tor the revenue of the state.
 TI