

UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. (ALABAMA.) 



689 



Convicts. By the report of July 1 it was 

 shown that there were then 1,866 State convicts, 

 of whom 1,476 were leased to contractors, and 390 

 were worked on the State farms or kept at the 

 State prisons. The net profits from the depart- 

 ment for the year ending Sept. 30 were $98,885.61. 

 On Jan. 1, 1903, a new system in regard to the 

 leasing of convict labor will go into operation. 

 The conditions as regards the treatment of con- 

 victs by contractors have been much improved in 

 the past two years. Some of these conditions 

 were described in the Annual Cyclopaedia for 1901. 

 This year one of the inspecting physicians report- 

 ed that the mines at Coalburg, where many were 

 employed, were totally unfit for the compulsory 

 working of men. " On April 1, 1899, there were 

 559 convicts confined there. Between that time 

 and April 1, 1902, 1,676 convicts have been re- 

 ceived, making a total of 2,235. Of this number 

 100 have died, 87 from disease and 13 from acci- 

 dent and other causes." After this report the con- 

 tracting company removed the convicts to a bet- 

 ter location. But henceforth the prisoners will be 

 under the direct supervision of State officials. 



At the Boys' Industrial School, also known as 

 the East Lake Reformatory, established in 1900, 

 there were at the beginning of the year 52 boys in 

 residence. The receipts for the year were $16,- 

 445.34, and the expenditures $15,813.23. Boys are 

 employed in printing, shoe, and carpenter shops 

 and on the farm; military drill is given and each 

 boy has a half-day's work in school. 



Crime. The biennial report of the Attorney- 

 General, which covers the two years ending Sept. 

 30, 1902, shows that 13,388 criminal cases were 

 disposed of in Alabama in that period. The fig- 

 ures in the report show that 61 per cent, of these 

 cases resulted in conviction. 



More cases against prisoners charged with car- 

 rying concealed weapons were disposed of than 

 for any other offense. In the two years 1,349 con- 

 cealed-weapon cases were disposed of. 



Militia. The report of the Adjutant-General 

 shows the strength of the National Guard to be 

 nearly 3,000. There is 1 battalion of artillery 

 with 3 batteries, 17 officers, and 171 enlisted men 

 and non-commissioned officers; 1 squadron of 

 cavalry, consisting of 4 troops, with 14 cavalry 

 officers and 187 non-commissioned officers and en- 

 listed men; and 3 regiments of infantry with 153 

 officers and 2,197 men; there is also a complete 

 hospital corps with 40 men and an ambulance. 



Lawlessness. Two " race riots " were reported 

 this year, one at Jasper, March 26, the immediate 

 occasion of which was the whipping of 2 negroes 

 by white men on a charge of stealing. The other 

 took place at Littleton, 25 miles from Birming- 

 ham, Oct. 19. It arose, according to the despatch, 

 from a white man being pushed from a railroad 

 trestle by a negro woman. In the fight that en- 

 sued 2 riegroes were seriously shot, 1 white man 

 was fatally wounded, and another was missing 

 and supposed to be dead. 



A negro was lynched near Troy, March 24, 

 charged with assault on a little white girl. From 

 testimony taken afterward it appeared that the 

 charge was false, having originated with a woman 

 M!KI sought revenge on the negro for having given 

 evidence against her in a suit for slander, and 

 several alleged lynchers were arrested. 



A negro resisting arrest near Tuscumbia, April 

 <5, on a charge of obtaining goods on false pre- 

 tenses, killed 2 men and fatally wounded 5 others. 

 The negro had fortified himself in a small cabin, 

 and 3 houses were burned before he was forced 

 out and shot. 



A mulatto who had attempted an assault on a 

 VOL. XLII. 44 A 



young lady was captured and hanged by a mob 

 near Cocao in July. 



At or near Opelika, Nov. 3, a negro field-hand 

 entered the house of his employer, intending rob- 

 bery, and attacked the farmer's wife and daugh- 

 ter, mortally wounding one and leaving both for 

 dead. On being identified by the daughter, he 

 was lynched by a crowd of men. 



Three men who were convicted of taking part 

 in the lynching of Robert White in July, 1901, 

 were pardoned unconditionally by the Governor 

 in June. One had been sentenced to life imprison- 

 ment, the others to ten years each. They had 

 been led to take part in the crime by the exagger- 

 ated statement of the white man with whom 

 White had quarreled, who said that White had at- 

 tempted to murder him and his family. This man 

 is under sentence of ten years' imprisonment. 



Railroads. The State is credited with 102.97 

 miles of new track built in 1901. The official as- 

 sessment of railroad property in the State for 

 1902 shows a total of $50,519,520, against $50,- 

 253,750 in 1901. 



Products and Industries. Following are the 

 figures of Secretary Hester's report on the cotton- 

 crop of 1901-'02, relating to Alabama: The 

 commercial crop, 1,200,000 bales, against 1,000,000 

 bales the year preceding; consumption in mills of 

 the State, 198,011 bales, an increase of 33,654 

 bales; number of mills, 58; looms, 13,051; spin- 

 dles, 653,440; consumption in pounds of lint-cot- 

 ton, 94,995,017; average weight of bales, 479.75 Ibs. 



The census report on cotton-seed manufacture 

 in 1900 gives the figures for Alabama: Cotton- 

 seed, 172,093 tons; cost, $2,019,085; products, 

 $2,952,254. 



The capital in flour and grist mills in 1900 was 

 $1,047,961, and the product $3,310,757. The capi- 

 tal in saw and planing mills was $13,020,183, and 

 the product $12,867,551. 



According to the census there are 223,220 farms 

 in Alabama, valued at $134,618,183. Farm im- 

 plements are valued at $8,675,900; and live stock 

 at $36,105,799 a total of $179,399,888 invested in 

 agriculture. Acreage in farms, improved, 8,654,- 

 991; unimproved, 12,030,436; total, 20,685,427. 

 Percentage of improved land to unimproved 41.8, 

 an increase of 3 per cent, in the last decade. 



The number of farms shown in this census is 

 over five times as great as in 1850 and 41.5 per 

 cent, greater than in 1890, but the average size of 

 farms is less than one-third the size of farms in 

 1850. This shows an increase in the number of 

 farmers and naturally an increase in the agricul- 

 tural development of the State. 



The output is given as follows: Animal prod- 

 ucts, $18,196,689; crops, $73.190,720; total, $91,- 

 387,409 a value which exceeds the total of 1889 

 by 38 per cent. 



Other items are: Number of white farmers, 

 129.137; colored farmers, 94,083; white owners, 

 69,823; colored owners, 11,123; white part-owners, 

 8,686; colored part-owners, 2,871; white cash ten- 

 ants, 18,118; colored cash tenants, 56,212: white 

 share tenants, 30,855; colored share tenants, 23,- 

 689; average acreage of white farmers, 123.6; of 

 colored farmers, 50.2; value of farm property cul- 

 tivated by white farmers, $123,481,529; by colored 

 farmers, $46.918.2:>:*. 



The value of manufactured products in 1900 

 was $82,793,804; in 1890 it was $.> 1.226.605. 



The output of coal in 1901 is given at 9,078,677 

 tons; in 1891 it was 4,759.781 ton>. 



The shipments of pig-iron from the Anniston 

 district for the year ending June 30, 1902, amount- 

 ed to 225,164 tons, and of cast-iron pipe 38,957 

 tons; those from the Birmingham district were 



