THE CONVICT LEASE SYSTEM IN AMERICA.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR :1
Sic,—There is a sentence in your excellent article on the convict lease system in the Southern States of America
(Spectator, August 3rd.), which indirectly suggests that which may perhaps afford some solution of the difficulties involved. You remark that " State rights are at present an impenetrable stockade against which even an upright President may lead the forces of righteousness in vain." The cruelties and brutalities of the existing system (worse, in some respects, than those of the old slavery days) are so indisputable that more than a few persons, even in the Southern States, are anxious to diminish, if not to abolish them. But at the same time, these very persons are, perhaps not unreasonably, very appreciative of their own " State rights," and very jealous of any attempt on the part of outsiders, even in the Northern States (to say nothing of Englishmen) to interfere with these rights, or to control their own action in any way. It has been wisely urged by a valued correspondent of the Howard Association (Mr. Timothy Nicholson, a Prison Commissioner in Indiana), that great benefit would accrue to the Southern States if each of them would secure the appointment of a " State Board of Charities and Corrections," such as now exists in most of the Northern States. There these Boards have led to great improvements in the prisons. Their members have not, in general, administrative powers, but there are accorded to them valuable functions of inspection and publicity of report. Their observations and suggestions have already been fruitful in good results ; and therefore such Boards, in the South, might be expected to have similar consequences, whilst, at the same time, giving no offence to local susceptibilities in regard to State rights. Mr. Roosevelt, in the admirable completeness of his Presidential qualifications, has already taken opportunities of expressing his own strong disapproval of cruelties to the negro race ; but, even in his case, this has not failed to offend some of the Southern people. But the appointment of the State Boards alluded to would embody the best Southern opinion and influence. And truly there is urgent need for such embodiment and united action, for the vested interests involved in maintaining and increasing these camps are very wealthy and powerful. Scores of thousands of unfortunate persons, both black and white, many presumably innocent or arrested on frivolous pretexts, and very many children of tender years, are being victimised in these " habitations of cruelty." Vice and filth, as well as brutality, are rampant in more than a few of them. The condition of the women in them is often a peculiarly shocking one. The exorcism of the evil will need strenuous and continued-
Formerly Secretary of the Howard Association. Upper Clayton, N.E.
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