The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-07-05

| industry would In lew years grow
to enormous proportions, for the de
mand would grow with every year
and become enormous beyond con
temptation. Judge Morris wrote:
The lease system having been
abandoned, leaves the state to direct
the manner of employing convicts
What objection is there to the en-
plovment of Texas conVictS a Sulta'
BILE deposits of ore in the manufacture
of iron fencing material, including
posts, railroad steel rails, as well us
other ircn material for railway or
fence construction What objection
is there to the employment of skilled
convict labor within the walls at
Huntsville in constructing agricul-
tural implements, the iron and steel
necessary to be supplied by convict
labor?
The expense of the administration
of criminal laws, as well as the sup
port and care of the convictS, being
u charge on the people of Texas, 1t IS
but Just as well as well-timed move
in aid of the inteSeStS of agricultur-
lists and StockraiSerS, as well as every
homestead in Texas, that these arti-
cleS should be sold at cost and charges,
the. benefit to be strictly confined to
domiciled Texas consumers for their
own personal use. The labor might
be extended to the mining of coal and
other Texas minerals, the points to be
selected ut healthy localities and
walled in, where the laborers might
be employed comfortably, and
housed, clothed and guarded with
safety and economy, free from
the temptations to escape that so
often cost the unfortunate culprit
his life, when employed in general
outdoor labor.
The plan cOntemplates a great SyS-
tenn of criminal punishment. humane
i'll It's application, and increased GER
tainty in punishment, and would put
the means of indeStructable fences
within the reach of every farm, stock
ranch and homestead in Texas.
No state in the Union equals Texas
in fine ductile iron, suited to making
car wheels, that chillS without
admiXture, and for wire, for cot
ton ties, and for fine steel, and
with ore enough TO supply the world
with iron. In east Texas charcoal
material is inexhaustible, while stone
coal, il necessary, can be conveniently
supplied by rail. If the plan urged IS
not feasible or practicable it is hoped
some one may point out a good one.
If it can be successfully inaugurated,
the proper authorities should lose no
time in its cOnSummation.
1t is suggested to the penitentiary
board to at once put the Rusk peni-
tentiary to making iron posts, to be
sold to Texas consumers for their
own use at cost and charges,
on which to hang the barbed
wire now being so largely used over
Texas by the stockmen and farmers.
That lie manufacture of iron fencing
posts lie commenced at once at the
Rusk prison. That but little skill
and machinery would be required to
get out swall hollow tubes with per-
haps light tianges for anchors and
faStenings for the wire. Let the
plan be inaugurated and every man,
woman and child in Texas will
laugh with joy. Destructable fences
by rot or fire will then soon be things
of the past.
Certainly the field Of operation in
iron in Texas by the state is fertile
one. Besides the manufacture of
fencing and the casting of material
for wagons, plows and other imple-
ments, there might be other indus
tries established, of great benefit to
the public. Were the manufacture OF
iron cotton ties established it would
be boon to our cotton planters. Now
they pay an enormous protection tax
on the interest of a few manufactur-
ers in eastern states. Texas could
undersell the world in cotton ties
and it would take but short time to
prepare for their production. 1t
is believed the people OF the state
will join with us in saying
that here great economic question Is
solved. 1t is one in which every per-
son in Texas is interested, and it only
requires the will to lserye the public
to prove that the theory OF
resumption is false, to make out of
our convict system an unmixed pub
lie blessing.