ALABAMA. 



9 



door for all his products, that customs duties, laid for 

 the proper expenses of the national Government, shall 

 be distributed with a view to the protection of and 

 fostering of all these great interests, and to the end 

 that we may continue to pay our labor, as now, more 

 than double the prices paid in England and other for- 

 eign countries. 



we denounce the present convict system of Ala- 

 bama, inaugurated by a Democratic administration, as 

 an outrage on humanity, a disgrace to any civilized 

 State, as degrading to honest labor, as tending to re- 

 duce the laboring-classes to a competition with peni- 

 tentiary convicts, and as tending to impede immigra- 

 tion to our great State. 



The election on the 4th of August resulted 

 in the choice of Democratic State officers and 

 a Democratic Legislature, substantially without 

 opposition. On the 4th of November Demo- 

 cratic Congressmen and presidential electors- 

 were chosen by large majorities. 



Finances* During the past two years unusual 

 efforts have been made toward the collection 

 of the various items of revenue. Of taxes due 

 on former years, there was collected in the 

 year ending Sept. 30, 1883, $33,180.77, and in 

 the year ending Sept. 30, 1884, $28,390.84, 

 while the aggregate of balances against tax- 

 collectors at the latter date was only $25,039.- 

 33, nearly all of which is in suit. In the two 

 years, the total receipts at the treasury, from 

 the owners of the Alabama and Chattanooga 

 Railroad lands, from the sureties and the es- 

 tate of the late treasurer, and from back taxes, 

 were $114,910.59. The balance in the treasury 

 to the credit of the general fund on Sept. 30, 

 1884, was $134,518.38. The receipts from all 

 sources during the first quarter of the present 

 fiscal year (to Dec. 31, 1884) may reach $150,- 

 000. The current expenses of the government 

 for this period, including the cost of the cur- 

 rent legislative session, are not over-estimated 

 at $120,000 ; and the January (1885) interest 

 on the bonded debt, to be provided and set 

 apart by December 31st, is $160,200. The act of 

 Feb. 23, 1883, " to levy and collect taxes for 

 the use of this State and the counties thereof," 

 which reduced the rate of taxation from sixty- 

 five cents on the hundred dollars to fifty-five 

 cents, was declared void by the Supreme Court, 

 because of an error in its enrollment. Last 

 year, when the act would have been in force, 

 the total^eceipts at the treasury from taxes on 

 property (including payments made by collect- 

 ors on school warrants) were $925,385.42. At 

 fifty-five cents on the hundred dollars, the re- 

 ceipts, on the same assessments, would have 

 been $783,018.11. The difference, $142,367.- 

 31, is greater than the treasury balance at the 

 close of the year by $7,948.93. Every effort 

 to find the defaulting and fugitive State Treas- 

 urer, Isaac H. Vincent, has failed. The State 

 will realize from his property and sureties but 

 a small percentage of its loss. 



The Penitentiary. Says the Governor: "The 

 penitentiary was intended for a penal and re- 

 formatory prison. The welfare of the convict 

 was considered in connection with the protec- 

 tion of society by bis punishment. It took the 



place of the gallows and whipping-post for 

 many offenses. But its humane purpose was 

 soon neglected. Convicts, left to the unre- 

 strained control of lessees and contractors, were 

 overworked, insufficiently fed, badly clothed, 

 and beaten with stripes. They sickened and 

 died in great numbers. In one year the death- 

 rate was two hundred and fifty in the thou- 

 sand. The prison was maintained from the 

 first at heavy cost. Until 1878 it was an ex- 

 pense to the State every year. Since i878 it 

 has yielded a net profit, increasing from year 

 to year. In 1883 it paid into the treasury a 

 net sum of $19,198.80, and in 1884 of $17,197.- 

 78 ; exclusive, in both years, of payments to 

 officers and inspectors from the treasury. Since 

 Sept. 30, 1884, an additional payment into the 

 treasury has been made of $15,890.01. Until 

 within a few years, little effort appears to have 

 been made to secure to convicts the humane 

 treatment prescribed bylaw, and until 1882 no 

 report of any officer of the penitentiary told of 

 the constant and utter disregard of all legal 

 regulations for their benefit and protection. 

 The reports of the warden and the inspectors 

 two years ago disclosed a condition of affairs 

 so deplorable that the Legislature at once un- 

 dertook to correct and mitigate it by the act 

 of Feb. 22, 1883, the result of which has been 

 an improvement in the treatment and condi- 

 tion of the convicts, while the profits from 

 their labor have increased. There were in the 

 penitentiary, Sept. 30, 1884, 527 convicts, of 

 whom 349 were at Pratt Mines, 63 at the quar- 

 ries at Blount Springs, and 86 on Williams's 

 plantations." 



Education. In the fifty-one counties from 

 which reports have been made, a greater num- 

 ber of schools have been taught for longer time 

 and by better teachers than heretofore. The 

 superintendent makes a number of recommen- 

 dations, the more important of which are : 1. 

 That counties, cities, townships, and separate 

 school districts be authorized, by a vote of the 

 qualified electors, to levy and collect a school- 

 tax; 2. That the salaries of county superin- 

 tendents be increased ; 3. That all money for 

 the schools, except the poll-tax, be paid from 

 the State treasury, and none by collectors upon 

 the Auditor's warrants ; 4. That section 983 of 

 the code be so amended as to authorize the sale 

 of sixteenth-section lands for cash; and, 5. 

 That appropriations for certain normal schools 

 be increased. 



Agriculture. The Agricultural Department 

 went into operation on Sept. 1, 1883, under 

 the direction of E. C. Betts, of Madison Coun- 

 ty, who had been appointed commissioner. 



Hospital for the Insane. The enlargement of 

 the Hospital for the Insane, for which $100,- 

 000 was appropriated Feb. 26, 1881, has been 

 completed in the addition of two wings, each 

 three stories high. The entire building is of 

 brick, and as nearly fire-proof as possible. It 

 is lighted by gas made on the premises and is 

 heated by steam. It is abundantly supplied 



