I am in receipt of your letter of the thirteenth and note that you are inclined to recommend that the entire administration of the State Prison be conducted from the State Farm in Halifax County. There is no question but what this is the economical thing to do; yet it will not be popular with the prison officials, as naturally they would rather not live on the farm, and I don’t blame them. But as the farm is the main business of the State Prison at present there is no question in my mind but what the administration officials should be in the midst of it.

It is true that Halifax County is not an ideal place for a prison hospital, neither is Raleigh. The State’s Farm is one of the richest in North Carolina, and it should pay better than it does, and if the prison officials were down there on the ground so that they could give more personal attention to detail there is no question but what it would pay better.

Being a good roads enthusiast I have thought for a number of years, but have not expressed it, that the time would come when the State Farm would be sold to private individuals, and if that should happen and the majority of the state convicts were put to work building state highways, then my opinion would be to buy a thousand or two acres of land in Moore, Hoke or Lee counties and make that the prison headquarters, with sanitarium so that tubercular patients could be properly treated, and let the weak, old and decrepit prisoners who could do some work work on this farm. In fact if the able bodied prisoners were not put on the roads but were to work under contract at such public work as is now being done at Badin and Bridgewater or on public roads, the prison authorities would make more money than we are making today; and we are using a farm in Halifax county that’s worth three-quarters of a million dollars, and we are occupying a plant in Raleigh that’s worth nearly another million.

Its hard to tell what the future has in store for the State’s Prison. It may be that the wave of sentimentalism for prisoners has largely passed, and it may be that it has just begun; yet the things that is more likely to happen than anything else in the future, in my opinion, is that the State Legislature will make an appropriation for the support of the prison and use all prisoners for the construction of state highways. The reason I say this is that the outlook today for the construction of roads and a better type of road is brighter than ever before.

Recently while in Washington I had a talk with a number of Senators and other officials, and I found that a bill had been introduced by Senator Bankhead making an appropriation of one-hundred million dollars annually for the construction of roads, and I was talk that this project had the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture, as well as the President of the United States, which, if true, will mean that it will become a law. That will necessitate the state of North Carolina making an appropriation to aid in the construction of roads, and the legislature is very likely to turn to the state prison to secure this aid, or at least a part of it.

The time is not far distant when you will see concrete-asphalt highways leading from the Atlantic ocean to the Tennessee line, and from Virginia to the South Carolina line, connecting up all the great centers like Wilmington, Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Charlotte and Asheville. And in my humble opinion now is the time to make the movement, and the next legislature should make an appropriation sufficient to be able to take care of any funds that we are entitled to from the Federal Government. During the next five years with the return of our boys from France we should make North Carolina go forward as never before, and she will blossom like a rose.

I think your idea of making recommendations along the line of your letter very good, and it will meet with my hearty approval.