The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-01-27
BY HELEN KAY.
ARTICLE ~
The Chain Gang.

The Chain Gang.
John Donlan, a sixty-fiye year old unemployed
comrade sentenced to the chain gang for dis
tributing leaflets in Kansas City, was brutually
murdered on January 9th by the lackies Of cap
itaIst justice
Jim Allen, editor Of the Southern Worker"
writes on some other victims Of the chain gang:
Recently there crept into secluded spot Of some
Southern newspapers, two chain gang incidents
On chain gang in North Carolina Negro pris-
oner was shot to death by a camp guard because
he threw stones at him. At Cordele, Georgia.
twenty three year old Negro chain gang prisoner
was killed by guard because he was "bosterous. +"
Another prisoner, Willie Bellanmy died in
North Carolina chain gang camp from Sweat
box treatment, and being hit over the head with
a blackjack while confined to the box In most
cases deaths on chain gangs go by unnoticed
except for the official evasion, "died of natural
causes"
few years ago a murder in the SchloSs-Scho-
field Company. where a prisoner was leased to
the Steel Co., and where the prisoner for the
ron-perfor1ance of the task assigned to him was
dipped BY the warden into vat of boiling water
At the trial few years later. exposes showed
that the warden had injected poison into the
cooked BODY of the convict in order to make it
appear as though he had committed suicide.
These are some of the horrors of the chain
gang the weapon of the southern ruling class
to scare away organizers and to keep the south
ern workers in subsection. These states are not
part of the Soviet Union but of the bosses, U. S.
A. 1t is another hangover like lynch law from
the fuedal aoes. At the present time in Biz
rninehan. Alabama. four of our organizers are
threatened with this enslavement
The chain gang is used for work the roads.
in the quarres. on the prison farms, in the cyp-
press svamps of Mississippi and Alabama, or in
the tyrpentine swamps of Georgia.
The shackes are welded on the prisoners ankles
rs soon as he is confined to the Convict Camp.
There is Just about enough room for the pris-
oner to walk. and work. In many of the states
the prisoner is permitted to buy the release of
the ball and chain. amounting to about s25
month. Often the guard allows the prisoner to
attempt a runaway then, the bond which he mt
down for this freedom" automatically goes into
the hands Of the warden. or it is divided up, be-
tween the guard and the warden.
A prisoner can be seuterced to slave on the
chain gang from one day to ten years. After
ten years he IS giver the privilege OF toiling on
the state factories. Workers heve been sent n
the chain gar% even before sA'1tance is hardeI
ioun and work for de--s hN"a~a they know Just
how much time thy r-''et r@yvc
The Negro worker t. ~ o7uioited worl-er
of the south is corsaq~t' ketnq rsed on TIE
chain ganr Nero reo' f~e~'ers who try to
escape from s1averv on ~ n4-,+rfion are i'm
medately handed tn t'> 81 aorities. for rsn
on the gang. In San hn~o'o. Te~os the chain
gang system was inaueurstcd Wednesday jan
uary list. in order to get rid of unemployed
workers" and finish up county roads.
Police raids on the oppressed Negro workers
during seasons of use of the chain gang are well
all he In nlire
raided the water front with the purpose of sup
plying free labor at the City Pea Farm In Vir-
einia. and the Carolinss. in Alabama and Flor
ida. n Mississippi and Missouri, unemployed
workers arc constantly being brought UP on
Charges of being iobless and forced to work for
nothing
Lawrence Hogan. of the Federated Press. tells
of conditions OH the Chain Gang i'll the Jan 10
igsUe Of tabor News When. q prisoner first
comes to the chain gang all his possessions in
Guiding clothes are taken away from him
''Tro is riven bed or bunk with sheets of blue
denim Or overall cloth which long time prisoners
told me had not been Numbered for years. When
one ran gets through with the bed clothes they
are simply set aside for the next man The
beds are covered with the largest bedbugs ever
saw. never knows what disease the last oc-
cupant Of the bed may have had
THE first bed they gave me was between
man with tuberculosis and syphilitic We all
used the same wash basin and toilet, regardless
of diseases"
"rhe men working from daylight to dark.
winter and summer. regardless of cold heat.
The only thing they stop for is rain. Last sum-
ner while it was so hot the men we're worked
until they fell completely exhausted: then they
were carried to the shade for few minutes.
If they are sick, they allowed to stay in
until doctor comes: then if he orders them to
work. they have to go out or get whipped
All forms of brutality are forced upon the pris-
oners Ninety per cent of the penalties are i'm
posed upon them. for 'non-performance of
tasks" Whipping posts. stocks. sweat boxes
punishment cells. starvation diets. and other
forms of torture are inflicted Upon the helpless
convicts.
The National Society of Penal Information in
its annual report on American prisons and re-