Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 197, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1915 — REASON WHY LAWRENCE PARSON IS A TRUSTY [ARTICLE]

REASON WHY LAWRENCE PARSON IS A TRUSTY

Remington Press Asks If County Jail Is Place For Vacation —Humanity Makes Reply. In commenting on the prisoners in the county jail, The Remington Press asks whether the jail is maintained as a place pf punishment for prisoners or a place to spend a vacation at the expense of the county with an automobile and gasoline furnished as a special inducement. The article has reference to Lawrence Parson, a young blacksmith who was convicted at Remington of failure to pay dog tax. He was fined S2O and the fine and costs totaled $45 and failing to pay Parson was sent to jail. Sheriff McColly has made a sort of trusty of Parson and he has proven worthy of the trust and has worked diligently about the jail premises and at any task assigned to him. The Republican can not see why the taxpayers are not just as well off as they would have been had the prisoner been confined in a close cell on a bread and water diet. The sheriff is allowed by law a certain amount for his board and the county would pay just the same whether he was closely confined or given some latitude of liberty. The automobile incident apparently refers to the fact that when the public was helping search for the body of little | Delos Woodworth this prisoner also j took part in the search under the di- ! rection of a deputy sheriff. The coun- j ty did not pay »>r any gasoline and it ( was merely an incident that the young man rode in an automobile.

The Republican is now quite thoroughly convinced that the prosecution of young Parson was not based so much on the fact that he had failed to pay his dog tax as it was on the spite of some persons who had given Parson credit and had not been paid. This fact on his part is not defensible and we have no interest in Parson except that if there was an injustice done to taxpayers it was in giving him such a severe sentence and in thus making him a boarder of the county for 45 days. However, Parson has come nearer being worth his board than any other prisoner who has been in the jail for a long time and by working about the yard and house he has kept himself in the best physical condition which could hardly be expected in the case of close cdnfinement. Some may look upon a jail sentence as a punishment but most people and we are certain this is the case in Remington with the exception of those few who have a spite at Parson regard the law as a measure of correction and not of persecution and this higher purpose has been fulfilled and it is not probable that Parson will again decline to pay his dog tax. Since the ice in dog tax violations has been broken it might be a good thing to give other violators a taste of it, not confining the punishment to a young man whose prosecution seems to have been solely a matter of hatred and not inspired by the act of his law violation.

Be that as it may, a 45 days’ jail sentence seems to be a mighty severe punishment for failure to pay taxes on a dog, which was given away the day after the assessor called upon the owner. Parsons is said to be a good blacksmith and able to earn sls or more per week and a number after his services and he has been engaged to go to work for Fred Hemphill, the Cullen street blacksmith, the day after he is discharged, which will be a week from next Sunday. He has been offered a job by Will Geier, a Remington blacksmith, and also by another blacksmith at Frankfort, since he was lodged in jail. The hatred exhibited toward Parson is about the kind that prompted the people of Georgia to lynch Leo Frank and is unbecoming citizens of the higher type and we do not believe that there is any general complaint because Parson has been made a trusty. Thank God Sheriff McColly is not a bread and water sheriff.