The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1879-02-10

Editors Intslligeneer.
Knowing youto be liberalin your views
on most subjects, aud especially willing at
all times TO admit Of a fdll, free and fair
discussion ofsubjects Of general interest,
will you please allow the apparently IN.
popular side Of the convict labor question
to be heard?
The laboring man and the mechanic
are benefited to q certain extent by con.
vict labor. In the first place 1t requires
mechanics and labofers to assist in run.
ming the laborof q prison.
Tken we will suppose that the Legisla-
ture passes an act to abolish convict labor
the consequence will be that the broom
factory, the whip factory and the Webster
Wagon Company will leave the State, TO
20 where they could get prison labor, or
10 some central pointmore suitable 10 their
business. This would take at least 30 la.
borers and mechanics out the State with
them or leave them behind in idleness
which would make 1t just that much hard.
or for those men that are already idle, and
arc bowling about contract labor.
Now let oil the contractors and the out
side men we employ go out Of tho State,
would not the miller, the groceryman and
the merchant Of every kind In this end
OF the State miss our patronage? say moth.
ing OF the amount OF taxes We pay and the
money we pay each year to the State,
This Of itself will amount TO at least &c.
ono per annum. When we came here We
expected to make this State our home,
and It would be very natural for us to wish
to see the State prosper IN every way, and
OF course anything that we require in the
way OF material for the manufacture oil
brooms, whips and wagons We will buy In
the State whenever we can do so to advan.
tage. Farmers raise some broom corn now,
and lot II once be known that tho broOnl
factory Is a fixture In the prison and they
will raise 1t in large quantities and will
find ready sale for 1t all the time. We
already buy much OF our stock for the
whip factory In the State and would buy
all could we do so. But no one can say
that the whip or broom factoryarc inter,
iering with any idle labor for there are nc
manufactures OF the kind within the
State, and were we 10 leave quite mum
/
them, while our capital would all leave
the State, and the revenue accruing would
be lost.
The wagon shop requires lumber and
iron, and the lumber merchant and saw
mill men are given employment as art
also the rolling mill men, and every othel
manufacturing establishment that make:
anything used by the penitentiary labor
II the prison were closed against con.
tract labor IL would throw ont OF employ
ment at least 100 OF the citizens OF Til
State. These men arc laboring men, ant
what VIC might call poor men. Their
where IS the great loss to the poor man II
this contract labor?
II the broom factory were stopped thu
broOms we now furnish the merchants o
Wheeling and other parts OF the STATE
with, would come from Ohio and Penn
sylvania, and the money-paid for tkcn
would be taken out OF the State.
Tho whip factory has but two customer
in tho State, the remainder OF our trade i
all over the United States, and it is tn,
same with the wagon factory, they sci
but very slight per Centage Of their worI
in this State.
| AVN ouppuho IlleIC WAC PluuIUVU VI CAPT
tai brought intot this State to manufacture
articles, and nine-tenths OF these articles
are sold outside oft. little company die
employ fifty per cent OF convict iabo
who would BIO the most benefited? Sure
ly the poor man, the mechanic and thu
merchant, from the fact that itgives then
employment for their labor, sale for thei
wares and helps pay their taxes.
| The shops in the prison give employ
ment to as many men outside OF the wall
as they do convicts within them. So ",
cannot see how the poor man and the me
chanic are oppressed by the manufaclur
ing carried on in the MoundsviIle prison
Hoping this may throw little more ligh
on the subject, and give some information
to those that do not know what they arr
talking about,
| am yours respectfully.
/ A TONys1n