The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-31
Torture COnyicts
in the Southern
Prison Camps
BY CYRIL BRIGGS.

One Of the most typical ilstitu-
lions of capitalist America is a sys-
tenn of convict labor so horrible and
revolving, in the admission even of
boss newspaper correspondents, that
it has no equal in blood-curdling
horror and disgust in all the annals
of recorded history. For comparison
admits Robert N. Webb, in the New
York Graphic of March q, 1881, one
must turn to "the human treadmill
of pre-civilized days" Not even the
horrors of chattel slavery supposedly
abolished in the United States), the
cruelties of medieval society nor the
horrible tortures of the inquisition
conducted by ''the holy Roman Gath
Ole Church" against the heretics can
afford comparison.
Fantastic as are the imaginary hor-
rors conjured up by the irnperialist
liars for the Soviet Union lumber
camps in their vicious campaign of
lies against the Workers Republic,
not even the fetid. filthy minds of the
most degenerate of these shameless
liars could conjrue up anything ap-
preaching the horrible details. the
inhuman brutalities and murderouS
tortures of the extensive convict la
Dor system in the United States
paradise of the capitalists.
Describing the convict caravans in
which the victims, mostly Negro
workers, of capitalist brutality, are
taken to the scenes of their exploita-
ton, Webb writes:
"a prison on wheels! Steel cages
packed with sweeping humanity I'M
der blazing Florida sun! Prisoners
on paradel
"On rolls this strange caravan
horrible, revolving! The whine OF its
iron wheels grinding through the
scorching sand rasps cruelty upon a
watchers nerves-reminding him OF
nothing SO much as of the human
treadmin Of pre-civilized days.
Instituted Under Florida Law
"It is a weird spectacle, fantastic,
unbelievable--a spectacle that the
greatest Snowman who ever lived
should never have conceived. Strange
and nerve-chilling exhibits have FILL
ed his iron cages, but had p. r. Bar
mum attempted such a display as
daily rolls through the backlands Of
Florida, he would have been driven
from the country. Yet it is cou1ltc-
nanced under the majesty OF a Flor
ida law" Gust as the African dodgel
game is permitted at Coney Island
in the State OF New York;.
The men are forced to work II
hours q day at the most terrific
speed-up, with armed guards driving
them on and sayagely beating them
UP or even shooting them down al
the slightest sign of revolt.
"And at dusk, when their work b
done, and the sun is sinking low ir
the west over the tops of swayins
pine trees, turning the sky into .
brilliant polychrome, these men. like
animals are put back into their cage.
They are forced to sleep on iror
beds" covered only with a piece o.
canvas. Eighteen are put into one
of these cages, hardly larger than thu
average cell meant for one. They
are chained TO their hunks and LOCKED
in. The cage Is too far IN the wood,
to return TO the prison camp. Blu
tho guards may 50. leaving no oms
to aid II a prisoner Is bitten by q
snake, or scorpion, or becomes VIC.
lently i'll, as often happens.
scorpions, mosquitoes, any kind o.
bug. can readily get into the cage
Snakes can glide through the marrow
grating. There Is no way for tbt
prisoner to protect himself. He car
move one way q smother but q IN
incns sgt t1ss be p lsfsT-. stsxA