44 BULLETIN 583, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
DISCIPLINE AND MORALE. 
The methods of discipline contrasted sharply with those practiced 
in the other camps of the comity, State, and section. So far as can 
be learned, similar methods never have been applied in any convict 
camp in the South, and for this reason the success of the system is 
one of the most striking and important results of the experiment 
which demonstrates conclusively that there is no foundation for the 
belief that negro convicts are amenable only to the discipline of 
locks, shackles, and lash. 
In this camp no guard was armed and no convict was shackled; 
the only building locked night or day was the commissary. Plain 
gray clothing was substituted for convict stripes, and the use of the 
whip was prohibited. In place of these negative measures order, 
security, and obedience were obtained by the positive measures of 
attractive food, light, airy quarters, clean and comfortable beds, 
kind treatment, and greater privileges. During the day on the work 
the constant menace of the gun was removed, and the men worked 
under the foremen as freemen work. Whereas the practice in the 
other camps is to put the men "on the chain" immediately after 
the evening meal, in this camp they were permitted to remain out- 
side the buildings, reading, smoking, playing quoits or baseball 
until dark, or in the mess room to enjoy a phonograph which was 
provided for them. Saturday afternoons, during the summer, were 
holidays, and the time was devoted to baseball and other games. 
Minor infractions of the rules, disobedience, and unsatisfactory 
work were punished by demeriting the offender. When the number 
of such demerits exceeded the established limit the convict was re- 
turned to the county headquarters camp to be placed again under 
the more rigid discipline of one of the other camps. Serious offenses 
were punished by immediate return to headquarters camp with a 
recommendation that severe punishment be administered there. 
Attempted escape would have been punished in a similar manner, 
but it was unnecessary to administer any punishment for this cause 
during the entire period of cooperation, and as late as November 
23, ten months after the opening of the camp, there still had not 
been a single attempt to escape. 
Eight of the nine offenders listed in table 29 were punished by 
return to the guarded camp. Convict No. 1 was the camp cook. 
His offense was committed just before his discharge, and the sugar 
was not missed until the monthly inventory was taken. 
The full measure of the success of the system of discipline is 
realized when it is understood that no attempt was made to hold the 
men by rewards of money or allowances of "good time" greater 
than those granted to other county convicts. The only measure of 
