CONVICT LABOR FOR ROAD WORK. 63 
populations of the camps, the negroes are not noticeably less amenable 
to the discipline than the whites. In West Virginia, where the sys- 
tem has been in operation since 1913, and where more than half of 
the convicts employed under it are negroes, it is reported that of 
18 attempts to escape made in 1914, 16 were by white men and 
only 2 by negroes. But the most convincing proof of the amena- 
bility of negro prisoners to honor-system discipline is that which is 
being recorded daily in the experimental convict camp established 
by the commissioners of Fulton County, Ga., in cooperation with 
the Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering. At this camp, 
established in January, 1916, with a population of 40 negro convicts 
drawn from the guarded camps of the county, not a single attempt 
to escape has been reported in the seven months during which it has 
been in operation. Whipping as a punishment has been entirely 
abandoned, and the foremen in charge of the men are entirely un- 
armed, yet the discipline is satisfactory in every respect and the 
industry of the inmates is above the average. Inasmuch as it is con- 
ceded by all persons of experience in dealing with convicts that the 
.most dangerous period in the life of an honor camp is that immedi- 
ately after its inauguration, the results of this experiment in the 
heart of the South must carry considerable weight as evidence of the 
fitness of the negro convict for a reasonable form of the honor system. 
The character of the warden or prison superintendent who makes 
the selection of the men to be trusted and of the sergeant or deputy 
warden who is placed in charge of the camp has, of all factors, the 
most influence upon the success or failure of the honor system. It 
may almost be said that unless these officials are possessed of the 
ability to win the respect of the men and cultivate sentiments of 
loyalty and pride the system is foredoomed to failure. 
GRADED SYSTEM OF DISCIPLINE. 
From the preceding discussion it must be evident that the honor 
system of discipline can be applied to only a part of the entire popu- 
lation of any penitentiary or convict force. The reports of the pro- 
portions of men trusted in a number of States under the honor sys- 
tem and guard system, respectively, seem to indicate that under 
average conditions about 25 per cent of any force responds favorably 
to a reasonable measure of trust. The remainder must be guarded 
more or less strictly to prevent their escape. Success of a certain 
kind can be obtained by treating all convicts alike and subjecting 
all to the rigid discipline necessary for the government of the worst, 
but such a plan imposes unnecessarily severe restraint upon the 
better class and ignores the very considerable disciplinary value of a 
policy of treating the convict according to his deserts. The tendency 
of modern penology toward an increasing recognition of the shades 
53577°— Bull. 414—16 5 
