Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-12-14
zailcaster f1ltelIiQemrer.
WEDNESDAY EVENING. DEC. IA, 1881
Labor at the Prison.

Labor at the Prison.
In accordance with the resolution
adopted by four members of the prison
board of inspectors-two Of the board
leaving the room when the motion was
put,-scaled proposals have been invited
6 for prison labor, in the Lancaster
county prison, in the manufacture of
cigars, for one year from January ., 1852,
to be received up to December u, at II
o'clock M, and TO he opened January 2,
1882, ut IL O'Clock a. m. Contractor to
furnish tobacco, foreman, &c, and pay
per thousand. Fifteen to twenty-five
men to bc employed. Factory has first
class accommodations and now makes
1000 per month"; The members of
the board who voted for this measure
were Mcssls. IIoffmcicr, Miller, Wolfe
and Rutter those who are understood
to be against it are Messrs. Carter and
Hagen OF these Wolfe and Mil.
lcr go out this year, to be
replaced by Weaver and Bitter,
elected at the last election. 1t is rumored
that an effort is being made to commit
the new members, or one of them at
least, against the contract plan, and if
either of them can he secured to act
with Messrs. Hagen and Carter il is con-
lidently expected to arrange it SO that no
proposal offered will be accepted and the
propOse0e new measure will miscarry.
An even division of the board would
block its operation.
For long time there has been loud
and well-fOunled complaint against the
management Of the manufacturing de-
partment At our county prison. While
ut Sing Sing this branch of New YOrk's
great pcnitentiary is a source OF profit,
and in our neighbOring county of Bcrks,
on Il scale commensurate with our
local operations, the manufacturing is
carried on with considerable gain, the
convict labor at our Jail shows very poor
results 1t is very hard to see why able
bodied convicts, kept ut the small ex
pense for board and clothes upon which
prisoners subsist should not only maintain
themselves, pay the cost of confinement
and earn enough to he appropriated to
the subsistence of their families, who i'll
many cases are punished far more Sc
vereIy Than themselves by their incarcer
alton. We believe Il model system of
prison labor and one that is entirely
practicable if honestly administered,
would bc To SO regulate Il prisoners in
dustry that he would first earn the ac-
tual cost of his maintenance 10y tho
county, and then earn sufficient surplus
to relieve his family from want or the
community from keeping it while its head
was supported in idleneSs. Everybody
knows how far short of This the employ
ment of convict labor in the Lancaster
if it can show any actual profit. There
is 4 species of jugylcry with figures, in
which u certain class of expenditures
and the loss in valuc.of raw material Oh
hand are not counted, by which certain
branches of prison labor are made to
appear profitable, and 10y this device, no
doubt, the last grand jury WAS hood
winkcd into reporting that the cigar
manufacturing department paid. We
expressed our distrust of their cal
culation then. We still cherish
it, and the resolution of a majority of the
board to change the mode of operations
confirms our opinion. The public re-
member, too, what scandal has been oc-
1,xyt fncr
lent, purchases of leaf tobacco for this
department, bought 1T unduly high
prices in the pursuance of a policy of
favOritism and kept Oh hand TO rot and
become worthless. Allegations are
made, too, of the product sold in like
manner to the county's disadvantage,
and it is very certain that the present
system has neither been satiStac-
tory nor profitable to the county
at least. So long rs the management
can buy the raw material and sell the
product as il has bought and sold in the
past, and SO long us the Republican party
in this county continues to elect inspcc-
tors not above suspicion nor proof to
lSlupldIlOIl, IicIC Will DC 1Ittlc IttSOIl 10
expect reform.
The new departure resolved upon by
the board is ut least entitled to Il fair
trial. The new inspectors cannot refuse
to give it that without exposing them
selves to the suspicion of acting in Ger
tain interests whose control of the public
institutions the people want to get rid of.
We have our own idea that things will
never be much better undef the present
plan of prison control, but any expert
mcnt That promises TO correct some of
the abuses which it has engendercd
should he given a chance.
A Hopeful Delegation.
The encouragement felt in certain
quarters of the Republican party 10y the
avowed tendencies of the new admins
tratiOn are sgnlied 10y the advance upon
Washington of the defeated Republican
late ,,,f i,,<o ,N,&o al,