The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1879-02-20
ABsURD NOTIONS ABOUT work
HOOssS AVID WHIPPING POSTS
AND PENITRN

We see in the newspapers of this and
other States and often hear, in sweet
speeches made by arrant demegogues
in quest of Offices, vehement denuncia-
tions of the policy of employing con-
vict labor in sny proft-yIeldiDg pur-
suit. The objection consists in the
fact that the workhouse or hiring sys-
TEN brings convict labor in direct COM
petition with that of honest men.
These convicts have the god-9iven
right to live. They gain bread under
many Disadvantages. Deprived by
law of the profits of-industry their toll
is the least skillful and least profitable.
They do no more and no better than
fear impels. Hirers everywhere COM
pete with one another and bid as much
for such labor as it is worth. They
! give for it the most possible and prof.
Its are derived from its skIllful man
agement rather than its compulsory
cheapness. Compared with the whole
body of laboring men il Texas, eYeu
If convict labor were really cheaper
than that of honest people, the num-
Der of striped coats and half-shorn
heads is very small and the
effect of their industry dpon
the labor market is never really
appreciable until a roaring speech
maker wants votes in ward meetings
or corner grocery conventions. More
men are bsnkrupted than enriched by
hiring convicts, and until favoritism
aud kuavery prevent competition, and
the market price for what it Is worth
are no longer paid for such labor, there
can hardly be well founded complaints
because of this ''competition between
| free and slave labor" II a convict's
labor be worth dollar the hirer will
hardly get it for less. There are al
ways bidders willing to pay what this
compulsory industry is worth. The
truth Is the lowest rates of compensa-
tion for Industry are paid by those
branches of trade in which there is no |
competition with convicts. Factory |
hands IN cotton and wooden mills |
everywhere receive the meanest re-
wards for toll. No shirts or plain |
dresses are made in penitentisries, and |
yet sewing girls, toiling fifteen hours |
in each twenty-four, cannot make more |
than eight dollars per month. But the |
overworked pale women, the sickly |
lsmphght of whose weary lives |
goes out before half the race is |
run, are not howlers for offices,
discharge no official duties. There
are no Kearneys amolg them. They |
never rise up and weep before the
voting multitude because the law does
not interpose to protect them against
Others who, because Grd dccreed 1t,
must make their own bread by their
own toll.
The truth about all this matter is
that 1t is not conYict labor which be-
gets hard times, but gold is money
and it buys vast deal of property or
of labor. Wages, like everything else,
are low. Rigid economy is required
at the hands of those who would en-
ploy labor and live, and there is no
honest, trustworthy remedy for evils
We endure except patience and econo-
my. Meanwhile working men should
not forget that the number OF convicts,
as compared with the whole indus
trial population, is 30 small that the
effect of this compulsory industry upon
the labor market, even if not hired at
full rates, IS unfelt, and the law of
supply and demand, uninfuenced by
convict labor, regulates prices within
and without the walls of penitentia-
riss. Enough absurd twaddle In refer
ence to this subject has been INDUCED
in, and the sooner we have, in densely
populous counties, perfect warehouses;
Tor idlers and inspiriting whipping
posts to expel thieves from Texas,
the better for all classes. And yet the
Legisla ure, it appears, is not ready to
enact such healthy measures.