- Transcription
Hammer & Kelly,
Attorneys and Counsellors at Law,
Asheboro, N.C.,
Dec. 29, 1913.
To his Excellency Locke Craig, Governor,
Raleigh.
Dear Governor:
Randolph is building roads by the county paying half and the other half being raised by private subscription, and as there is an act permitting the penitentiary authorities to hire the convicts to build roads at not less than a dollar a day, Randolph County would like to have 50 convicts at least for several months and would appreciate it if you would help us get them. We think $1.50 a day and pay the railroad fare both ways and furnish convict camps is too much. We hope to get these convicts at $1.00 a day, but would pay $1.25 a day. I do not see how we could afford to pay $1.50. You may get $1.50 a day from railroads, but usually it is common stock that is paid for them when $1.50 is charged, and for one, I have been for years opposing the use of convicts on the railroads or anywhere else except for cash; and if they could be hired out for $1.25 cash every day there would be a vast saving to the penitentiary. I consider the stock paid for the convicts in these railroads absolutely worthless. You will pardon me for expressing my opinion so freely, but I have been at it for years. I opposed it during the administrations of Governor Kitchin and Governor Glenn.
Yours most truly,
