St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-02-26
CONTRACT PRISON LABOR.
1t Forms the Theme Of Discussion at Mass
Meeti ng in the House Chamber.

4
sion of the convict labor question in this
state, at the hall of representatives last even
ing, yet the body of the house was thoroughly
filed and the gallery overlooked, showing
that there is a deep interest felt on
this subject among the people. The meeting
was organized by the choice of E. R. Harouu
of st. Paul as chairman, who stated its OBJ
jects and who called upon
G. A. LAFAYETTE
of st. Paul, who pronounced the whole sys-
TEN of convict labor from end to end as
gross injustice to the working man and an
unwarrantable interference and com petitor
with honest industry. He went on to show
how, in the erection of the First
National bauk building and the Hotel Ryan
in their interior woodwork, convict labor al
43 cents a day had come in competition
anic at 50 and $3.50 per day, and left the
former in idleness and want. He questioned
the right of the state to permit this sort OF
things which did not enrich the state treas
ury penny, and only Injured to conserve
the interests and add to the wealth of private
individuals who were not dependent upon
their own labor for support.
He held that the state had no business to
treat criminals except as criminals, and to
seek to reform them; but their being taught
skilled trades and the products thereof bein q
put upon the markets at an under price was
but to let them injure the public in another
shape in great degree as it would be to
turn them loose on the community.
IL the system was to be continued the
goods made at Saltwater should be put
upon the market at the market
price; instead of convict labor being
farmed out to the contractors, it should be
put under the management of the warden
and his assistants, and the entire revenue
thus accrue to the state, instead of putting
millions of surplus earnings into tue pockets
CT those who hire the convicts 10 work them
on prison fare like slaves.
THIS CONVICT LABOR
was crime against capital as well as indus
try, for the two were allied to an extent that
money was the very life-blood of business.
1t caused money to lie Idle in the banks
and unemployed, while labor languished as
a result. Convict labor by contract should
be abolished, and the labor of that class be
made to subserve the interests of the me
be taken to reform criminals in fact, as this
reformation is now only thing of time.
r. II. sHADRICK
of Minneapolis was then introduced, and
said that the system of convict labor should
be made to subserve TO the best
interests of society, and in no form
should be suffered to exist longer than it
fulfilled that condition. The theory of JUS
tice in the incarceration of tue criminal was
the protection of society against the recur-
renee of the injury, the correction of the
criminal and his punishment. The method
of dealing with prisoners at Saltwater as now
existing was wrong and totally inconsistent
1t protects against one injury and inflicts
another. A good -for-nothing, idle, shift
less man, of no use to the commu-
nifty and not a bread winner therein, COM
mits a crime and is sent to Saltwater, where
a weapon is placed in his hands by which he
can injure men not unfortunate enough to
have outraged the laws under which they
live. Before the convict law was repealed in
New York state, it was shown that under con-
tractors, prisoners were forced to harder
work than they could sustain under prison
fare, that they had no opportunity to appeal
from the severity Of their masters, that they
were virtually owned by those who
hired them of the state. and that this usage
heated the load Of hatred in their souls
against society.
HOW SHOULD WE REFORM THE CRIMINAL2
Not by confinement in idleness, for idle
ness was dangerous both inside and outside
of prison. The state was bound TO pro-
vide for the unfortunates in charitable insti-
tutiOns and to incarcerate the criminals in
penal institutions, and he thought it the best
way to correct the latter by making them ill
the soil and work at shoemaking and tailor
ing, so that they shall provide for the mate
rial wants of the inmates Of the former in
sttut ons as well as themselves, instead of
pitting them at wage of forty-three cents
against the skilled laborer who's wants de-
manded 81. 80 per day.
POLITICS AND CONTRACTS.
Convict labor was managed In this state
now in the interest Of political administra-
tons and their pockets. No man ever held
penal contract in this state except he was
a political wheeler 1t was a discredit to
Minnesota TO be represented in the senate of
the United States at this moment by a crea-
ture of con Wet labor and it would not occur
again II the vote Of the workingmen of the
state could hinder 1t.
The principle Of reforming criminals was
then considered at length, and the speaker
said this could be accom- plished without their
being put in the position of competitors with
skilled labor outside Of prison walls. En-
ployment bad nothing to do with moral re-
formation, and it would be much better
move toward attaining that end TO turn our
penitentiary into a church rather than a fac
tory. Then again, labor was not punish
ment to criminal, but was
blessing instead of curse TO all men.
Idlencss was the worst Of all punish
ments when enforced in a solitary cell with
guilty conscience for companiouship.
THE VOICE OF INDUSTRY
in this matter must be needed, for the enter
ing wedge to destroy or perpetuate society is
labor. The industrial standard must be ele-
waited to make the people strong, and it must
not be yoked to either ignorance or crime to
enervate it. Il will not do TO teach the child
that to live life Of labor he must spend bis
life in competition with crime, and lead il 10
begin in the earlier years to look forward to
the grave as the only refuge from injustice.
Tomorrow the legislature Of this state
which is the servant Of the people and not
their masters, will be sifted on a vote on this
subject, the only one asked for for the pro-
lection of mechanics; while the protection
OF the farmer has been carefully covered.
The interest Of the farmer and mechanic are
allied even in this matter, for, If the state
treasury now had in it the fortunes wrung
out Of convict labor in this state By contract
ors, the taxes would be lowered in
a proporionate degree. The industry
at tie peuitentiarY at Saltwater
should no longer exist where its
contractors are coming dollars out Of the
blood aud sweat of the convicts TO the in jury
OF the wOrkiugmen all over this state. There
was not a convention or a caucus held in
Minnesota that the hands Of these contractors
was not in the pie after their plum. The