The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1883-10-06
wANTEp CoNvIOFs 40 no THE STATE
PRINTING.


Judge VIM. LawreLce was at the Re-
publican tariff convention the other day
and sat in the pulpit with Foster and
Mckinley on either side of him, giving
out the hymns of praise to the god of
protection to American labor" This
man was a member of The State Senate
in 1850-51, and the author of bill to
make printers out of Penitentiary con-
victs so that the State printing might
be done by convict labor. The reasons
assigned for this movement were that
the State printing would cost compare
lively little If done by the States pris-
Oners, and that the poor cOnVictS would
be learning a useful trade which would
enable them to earn an honest living
after they were tout. A moral motive
must be given by political hypOcTites for
the enactment of law striking heavily
at honest labor. But Judge Lawrence
found, to his sorrow, that printers were
not so easily deceived by shallow pre-
lenses. The bill was printed, and Mr..
Thompson, printer and editor of the
whig paper i'll Delaware, and represent
ing Delaware and Franklin counties in
the Senate, presented the following
memorial of +. w. Murray and twenty
one other ex-editOrs, publishers and
printers III the office of the Ohio State
journal, as follows:
To the Honorable the General Assembly
of the State of Ohio:
Your memOrialists, believing the pres
ent the age of reform, respectfully ask
that the study of law be introduced into
the Ohio Penitentiary, and, III case suit
able persons may not at any time be
fOund'in the penltentiary, the directors
should employ such competent persons
as may be necessary to instruct eOnVlcts,
so that they may be competent TO prac-
tlee before any proper judicial tribunal
within the State of Ohio. In selecting
cOnVicts to be instructed as aforesaid,
the directors should, as far as practic.
able, select persons under thirty years
of age, and such as may have the long
est period to remain in the penitentiary;
and in the event of said directors find
ing it difficult to procure suitable in
structOTs, the Governor should have
power to make a draft on the County of
Logan. Logan was the county in which
Lawrence resided.
Your memOTialists believe that if this
object is carried into effect il will not
only give the said cOnVictS a start
in the world, after the expiration of
their term of service to the State, but
would advance the profession generally.
And we would further suggest that when
any one or more of said cOnVicts thus
INSTRUCTED" in the law are deemed
competent by the directors they should
be hired out to any county requiring
their services, to serve such county as
its prosecuting attorney, at the usual
rate of prison labor. All of " hich is re-
spectfully submitted.
rhe portions in the above inclOsed in
quotation imarks are all copied from
the bill of Mr.. Lawrence to introduce
uTintlnU i'm thp DaUitpn tiurU
Other petitions of like character were
presented, and Lawrence's bill was
laughed out of the Senate. But the
workers in other trades have not been
50 fortunate, and the convict labor of
Ohio, thanks to the Republican party,
who have had control of the State for
quarter of century, enters into direct
competition with honest labor in a
number of industries.