CONVICT LEASING SYSTEM

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3000, 24 September 1908, Page 5

CONVICT LEASING SYSTEM

ABOLISHED IN GEORGIA. Received September 23, 8.3 a.m. NEW YORK, September 22. The Georgia Legislature, after a prolonged struggle, has virtually abolished the convict leasing system.

The Legislative Investigation Committee, which sat in Alabama in July laat, elicited remarkable evidence respecting the State convict 1 asing system practised in the Southern States. It was shown that in one State prison, larm convicts were lined up and solJ like mules to the highest bidder. One convict was leased out in exchange for seven r-egroes, because he was possessed of clerical ability. A white boy, who was leased, was whipped to death for spilling coffee on a dog. In a pamphlet issued last year by the Pentecostal Era Company, Washington, and in an article in the "Nineteenth Century," astonishing -—almost incredible—statements are to be found about the hasirg of convicts in the Southern States. Twenty years ago Tennes:ee convicts leased to a wealthy corporation, were found to be living in rough shanties unfit for human habitation, their bedding was filthy and scanty, they were Boorly fed and clothtd, and cruel floggings were intficte i for nearly every breach of rules. "Sickness is not counted as inability to work," said New York "Sun," in 1891. "The policy is to work him (the convict) until he drops, and then cure him if possible; it nof, let him make way for some other, foe thare is never a lack The guard curses, kicks, clubs, or kills at pleasure. The company asks no questionsthe State bus rr.eagre chance of finding tie truth, and would be elow to act public indignation should be aroused. To make a dash for liierty is simply a way of committing suicide . convicts frequently court death by making this bold dath. Tha rifle sings out ... a hole is dug, and the dead zebra 1 is put out of sight speedily. Any guard vviil Lll you many a tale, and the chances are he will boast and laugh a good deal." Coming to recent times, Dr Bnrgj, in a report to the Govarncr c* Alabama, in January, 1907, reported that the county convict system was worse than ever; the dtmand for labour was so great th: t men quite unfit for such work were sent to the mines. JViany of thise wretched creatures ought never to have been arrested at all. In 1901 an Alabama paper told of twenty untried menall of them professing innocence—having been sent to the mines, for unlawfully traveling in trains. The man who arrested them was two dollars for ; every person ha captured. In March,- 1904, 149 persons in one district were sent to the chain-gang for walking on park grass. In 1901 the experience was given of a clergyman, who said be had been chloroformed by two men, and taken away to a convict camp in South Carolina, where lie was iorced to work with negroes, who were fed on bread and water, and brutally treated. When he escaped he was a physical and mental wreck. Perhaps the worst case recorded is that of a coloured girl, who was arrested on a charge of bigamy and acquitted, but to pay her lawyer's fee, was sent to a convict camp partly owned b> a member of the Georgia Legislature. Here she worked for over a year, was whipped, and, although a wife and mother, was forced to marry a prisoner.