Governor's message [John B. Gordon], July 6, 1887

GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE.
Geo. W. Harrison, State Printer.

MESSAGE.
To the Senate and House of Representatives :
Your attention is respectfully invited to the suggestion;-; herein submitted; and if your judgement approves, your cooperation is solicited.
Both our penitentiary system and agricultiual interests demand consideration by the Legislative and Executive departments of this State. My reason for referring to Loth in the same official communication will dearly appear, I trust, in the further reading of this message.
In the first place, there seem:-, to be a scriouH defect in the law authorizing the leasing of the convicts of this State. There is apparently no provision made for retention by the State of the convicts or any portion of them, should the lease, or any part of it Le declared forfoite<.l. The law seems to provide that in case of forfeiture, the convicts, shall not be rdained, but shall be re-let to other lessees, for a period not leRs than 20 yearR. I respectfully refer you to sections 4 and \:l of the Act of Feb., 25 1876.
If the present system of farming out or leasing the convicts to individuals or corporations is to be the pc;rrnanent policy of the State, then the provisions referred to may not be defects; but if the present system is ever to be modified or abandoned, I respectfully recommend that the law be so amended as to permit the State to retain possesHion of such convicts as may be recovered from the lessees or any one of them, through forfeiture or otherwise-such retention and control being necessary to enable the State to test the wi~dom and practicability of other systems..
There are objections, as the Legislature is fully aware, urged ito the present lease system. These objectiomi in no

degree or respect involve personal criticisms; but are lodged wholly against the system itself.
It places pecuniary interests in conflict with humanity. It makes possible the infliction of greater punishment than the law and the courts have imposed. It renders impracticable the proper care by the State of the health of its prisoners, or their requisite seperation according to classes, sexes and conditions. It reduces to the minimum the chances for reformation. It places convict labor in many instances in direct competition with the honest labor of the State. These, briefly stated, are some of the objections urged against the present system. It will be generally admitted that they are of so grave a character that the State will not be justified in continuing the system, provided it can be changed legally and without the violation of good faith; and provided also that a better system should be practicable. After much reflection I venture the opinion that another plan might be adopted legally by the State, and its pra cticability at least partially te~ted at an early day without any violation of good faith. ' I do not allude to the system of confining the convicts withirl walls and buildings, as formerly existing in this State, and still adhered to in some of the other States. To that plan the objections are almost, if not quite as serious; for while it avoids some of the difficulties noted above, it encounters others, to which the lease system is less liable, or from which it is entirely free. For instance, the death rate is greater under the old plan in most of the States than under the new in our State. Under the old system in Georgia the expense of maintenance was onerous, and this expense, with the large number of convicts now on hand, would be a burden upon the labor and property of the people too heavy to be incurred. Nor do I refer to the plan which has been suggested of using the convicts in building or improving the public roads of the St~te. There is no doubt, I think, that such employment of the State's prisoners if not too great a present burden, would be an improvement upon the lease sys-

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tern; and it would surely eventuate in great and lasting benefits to the people. An extensive correspondence, conducted for months past, has drawn from certain localities in different States a fund of important information as to the cost of Macadamizing roads and the relative advance_ in value of property along and contiguous to such improved highways.
Should the wisdom of the Legislature devise a feasible plan for using the State convicts or a portion of them, on such public improvements, it will meet my hearty concurrence. But there are serious obstacles to the practical working of this plan also. The entire force thus employed must be guarded, housed, fed and clothed by direct taxation. The ultimate result, 1 repeat, would be an enormous increase in the value of farms and lands along the lines of these Macadamized roads; and the roads themselves when built would beyond doubt become potential agencies in developing the sections through which they woul<l pass, by furnishing transportation facilities scarcely inferior in value to well-equipped railroads. In discussing, however, the practicability o1 such a plan, it, will be necessary to consider the immedatP and continued burden of taxation it would impose as well as the inevitable contentions which would ensue between the various sections of the State, and the different counties thereof, and between the respective neighborhoods and roads in the several counties as to priority of construction, and as to the equitable distribution of this labor supported as it would be by general taxation. But the Legislature may devise or authorize some arrangement with certain counties by which the State should be relieved of this taxation and a portion of the convicts employed by these counties in improving their important highways.
'l'here is, however, a plan for using a portion of the State's convicts, to which if successful there can be few, if any objections, and which might prove, of much benefit to the agricultural interests of Georgia.

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In vie1v of the meagre profits realized from the cult~vation of our soil, and the support which that industry furnishes to every other interest, it becomes the 1iigh duty of the State Gc,vernment to foster our agriculture by every legitimate encouragement. Witholding any recommendation on the subject, I venture suggestion that such encour:igement may be afforded without taxing other industries to interests, and that a penitentiary system, free from seriom objections, may at the same time be permanently estab lished, for at least a certain class and number of convicts. In or<ler to attempt the accomplishment, in one act, of both these objects the Legislature might establish one farm as an experiment, to be worked by short term convictR, controlled by the State, as these convicts are received from the present lessee!'<, either through forfeiture, voluntary surrender or otherwise. If the Legislature shall authorize the Governor to act in the premises, I shall hope to secure for the State a sufficient number of ,these prisoners to supply one such farm. Such limited experiment could not involve the State in much loss and if unsatisfactory could be abandoned and changrd by the Legislature which will meet two years hence. If the result should prove satisfactory additional farms might be established in different sections of the State; but in no case would I recommend the establishment of such additional farms except as and until experience should prove them to be self-sustaining. The attention of the General Assembly is especially invited to the probable results to follow such system if properly organized and if success should be secured by the State. To whatever extent profitahle employment could thus be found for the convicts the results from the system would be most important.
It would at once eliminate from our penitentiary system the serious objections to the old plan of close confinement, and the equally grave objections to the present plan ot leasing.
It would confine the convicts thus employed to such labor as would least compete with the honest labor of the State.
It would place the State in direct and full control of its
prisoners,

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It would restore to the State the full power to enforce the exact punishment imposed by the courts.
rtwould place upon the State the just responsibility for guarding the health of the convicts and wou Id confine them to the most healthful employments. _
It would enable the State to seperate them at all times according to classes, eonditions, sexes, and fitness for di fferent kinds of labor, and to institute methods for reformation with greater promise of success.
It would make such portion of the penitentiary at least self-sustaining, I think, and with proper management, might cause it to yield a farger net revenue, per capita, than that, now derived from leasing.
But important as are these results in them,;el ves considered, they become of still greater value when conpled with the benefits that would probably accrue to our agriculture from such experimental farms.
With such labor, uniform, certain, constant and under absolute control, with intelligent and practical superintendence, airled by the Agricultural society of the State, and by scientific chemists, the experiments suggested by the Agricultural Department should be thorough, of great variety and absolutely reliable. The cost of a bushd of grain or bale of hay or of cotton, measUL"ed by days or h:mrs of labor, and prodnced by different methods of cultivation and manuring, could be definitely determined and reported.
The relative expense and value of deep and shillorplowing in various soils, at different seasons and for different crops, should be reliably ascertained and made known to the farmers of the State.
The comparative profits to be realized in various localities, from various crops, fruits and vegetables could soon be known and made public.
The best and most economical fertilizers for different soils and crops and seasons, and the proper times and methods of their application could be reliably determined.

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But experimental farming should not be resorted to until the farm has become self-sustaining.
The amount of money requisite for inaugurating one farm for thirty or forty convicts, and for testing the practicability of such system would be small, as the operations could be conducted upon leased lands if the Legislature should so direct; and the amount to be expended for maintenance and expenses during the year could, I think, be returned from the farm products. As stated above, the test could he made in the two years to intervene before the meeting of the next Legislature and the result of the trial made known.
I suggest, finally, that it is impossible for individual farmers to conduct these needful and essential experiments. They have neither the time, nor means, nor facilities for such tests. And it seems to me probable that no other kind of labor and no other basis for organization and operations will likely furnish so economical, so definite, so minute, and at the same time so vast and valuable and requisite information and such needful aid.
These views are the outgrowth of a careful investigation of these important subjects, and are presented with a profound sense of my responsibility to the people. And while I indulge the hope that the plan suggested would prove, if tried, both safe and practicable, yet I shall be glad to give such aid as the Executive may furnish in carrying to successful execution any better system which the General Assembly may devise. If this limited test should be made and should prove unsatisfactory, the tax upon the State's treasury would have been very small. If the test should demonstrate the feasibility of the plan, it would have furnished an important contribution to the satisfactory solut10n of the penitentiary problem on the one hand, and to the neces.sary encouragement and aid to our agriculture on the other.
]. B. GORDON.