Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-10-14
THE MECHANICS rs COUNCIL.
.&H "a WN!
Convict Labor Discussed.
An EnthusIasslc Meeting.

meeLl0g Oh Tie lDccudnicS anu IuddulaSttr
rers of Nashville met at the courthouse last
night. ...t..., ~.
Col. T. H. Jones, President of Mechanics
and Manufacturers Association, took the
chair and called the meeting to order. He I
said: will explain to the gentlemen pre-
sent briefly the object of this meeting. we
have some minor items Of business before
the Association, and we viii have some |
speeches from parties present who can In
terest the audience this evening. This call
has made to the mechanics and manutactu-
rers and all favorable to the interests OF the !
mechanics and manufacturers of the State
of Tennessee, to give an expression OF their |
opinion in regard to the present oppressive |
system ofcompetition which we are enduring
throughthe Penitentiary. We call this body |
to express its feeling as regards the best
means of doing away with this EVIL which
has for years been burden upon us, when
has for years been stagnating the channels
of our manufacturing interests, and which
has for the past two or three years especially
been brought to bear so heavily upon our
interests as to drive men and capital from
our midst and prevent thousands OF dollars
from coming here for an investment which
we would otherwise have received and, L
might add, hundreds OF good honest men
kent out by few hundreds of convicts.
The object of this meeting being stated, we
will now await from the members of this
meeting any motion or suggestion pending
the regular speeches OF the evening.
After pause, the President announced
that the Association had decidedto dispense
with the regular business, and introduced
to the meeting Judge Whitworth, one OF the
orators of the evening.
Judge James Whitworth said he had at
tended the meeting to meet and mingie
with the mechanics and manufacturers OF
Nashville, tointerchangc opinions with them
and so far as in him lay, to assist them i'll
what he conceived to be the duty they owed
to the State in which they lived, and to
their children after them in regard to
the great question that was before this
peopie-a question with which this meeting
| had much to do. He did not address them
to abuse ANYBODY, but to endeavour if pos
| sble in his humble way, to explain how it
| was-that some remedy Of what they con-
| ceiyed, and what he really and conscien-
| tiously believed to be great evil that was
| in their midst, and it was one Of
that sort of evils that beset every
community, perhaps in the world,
| one LIldL EQulu nbI SUI In Va
entirely. He meant by this that
crime and the confinement Of criminals be-
longed to every community the world over.
1t was in Tennessee, it had been III the
State ever since it had been settled, and it
would always exist in our midst. In 1850,
he believed, the Penitentiary was estsb-
lished. Previous to that time 1t was the
| whipping post and the hangmans rope
| a. a.. ,,I1niShaH in
Tennessee. When the Penitentiary was
established, the manufacturing and me-
chanical interests of the State doubtless
seemed to be of small consequence. While
there were only one or two hundred con-
victs in the Penitentiary it seemed OF little
consequence what they did, or what they
did not But we had reached period In
our history when we were obliged to be-
come manufacturing people. Crime had
greatly increased till the convicts in our
Penitentiary now Rnmbsred some seven
hundred, and the increase continued. In
two years, at the present rate, their num-
beers would be doubled and what was then
to be done with them? Were they to be
made the laborers or the OppreSsors Of the
mechanics? He proposed to show how the
present system might be changed and the
| CONVICT ldDOI BlduC d SDllNC VI nIhith pA'
prosperity instead of being bar to
the prosperity and progress of the people
to make it the handmade to mechanical
labor. There was, in his opinion, more OF
Tennessee's future prosperity in the proper
: direction of this penitentiary labor, than in
any other thing the State Legislature could
deal with. OF the 700 convicts in the Pen,
itentiary, there were about 500 able bsdied
! ,FC Isy.or hard mammal NVark
They were not mechanics l.o@, but TO a
very large extent common laborers. lie
proposed to keep them in that capacity. He
was opposed to locking them up and keep
ing them at the public expense. He
proposed to make them useful-te
make them the very foundation
of the States prosperity. lie proposed tc
put them in the coal and iron mines, either
by leasing them out to individual enterprise
or by letting the State utilize them in q
similar way. He happened to know some
thing of this subject, and he proposed tc
show what could be done by placing these
r convicts in the coal mines. 1t would cheaper
coal so that, if need be, it could be bought
in Nashville for ten cents per bushel. The
result would be TO draw skilled labor and
capital to the city, and to build up manu-
factories ln our midst. They would
thus become the very foundation o!
the prosperity Of artisans, mechanics
and manufacturers. There were in the
Sewanee Coal Mines convicts employed ant
the State received 10 cents per diem fol
each one of them, and it was proposed Il
take more of them for the same purpose
BY this the price of coal had been reduced
two cents in the bushel in Nashville. Now
if all the able bodied convicts were sent tC
work in the mines in the same way, tht
prosperity which it would bring to the State
could hardly be calculated. While if they
remained in the PGnitentiary they were I
dead weight and expense Oh the people. He
was ready heart and hand to remove thi:
burden from them and to demand that thi!
convict labor should be directed in way thai
would be TO the advantage of the mechanic:
of Nashville instead of, as it now was, t.
their disadvantage. lApplause,) If Goa
could be produced here cheaper than il
other places, there was no reason why Ten
neSSee should not become the chief manu-
featuring district of the North American
} continent. Convict labor could not he 81
utilized in PENNSYLVANIA, because the miners
there would hang every convict before
morning. We have comparatively few
miners in Tennessee. Pennsylvania haC
thousands and tens of thousands, and thel
: would never permit the cOnvictS to b,
brought in competition with them. Their
lay in our undevelOped mines sources o
untold wealth. The millions Of dollar
that now found their way to other places tt
: purchase the rails for our railroads could b.
circulated among our own people if theS'
convicts were put to work in our coal anC
iron mines, for the cost reproduction woulC
be lower even than in any other State. He
: was for producing everything in Nashville
that could be produced here, and ne was fol
Tennessee before every other State. ltwa'
the inhabitants of country that made its
wealth. The working men were its strength
for without work there was no prosperity
After advocating immigration to the
8 State, he concluded by hoping that his hear
/. ers would take up the subject and deal witt
it earnestly, fearlesSly and resolutely, quar-
reling with nobody, but demanding thai
they should be heard, and asking that thi
convict labor be so employed that it should
, not conflict with their interests. applause.
Mr. J. J. Mccain moved that commit
tee of five be appointed to draft resolutions
expressing the feeling of the Assembly, witt
regard to the competition of convict labo
, with honest mechanics of our State. Car
| ried.
- N n