The Labor enquirer., 1885-03-21

Total................ 4s cents per pound
My trade is largely in Texas and Cali,
fornia. Previous to the Perry contract l
sold $25,0OO a year in those states. AT
present, not half that amount. Mr..
Perry sold stoves IN Texas at three and
half cents per pound, when it was
costing me At cents to manufacture.
THE witness produced original corre-
spondence in Mr.. Perry's handwriting
admitting that he had been selling at
that price, No stove manufactured less
than cents per pound" ST..
A manufacturer of brushes and brooms
testified that in attempting to reduce his
workingmen's wages they struck, and
that during the strike he was fur
nished goods by the contractors of the
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania prison labor,
and that those goods were delivered by
the contractors at his door at 25 per cent
less than he had ever been able to manu-
facture them. There are 1888 persons in
the Cleveland, Ohio, workhouse making
brooms and brushes at 10 cents per day.
The report of the Ohio Labor Bureau
says: 1t certainly is strange that while
outside manufacturers are shutting down
their shops or quitting business, the
prisoners at Cleveland are working at
nights to fill orders"
The wagon manufacturers of Ohio
complain to the bureau of that state that
theF Jackson wagon" made by convict
labor in Michigan, is being sold in Ohio
at prices with which we cannot COM
pete" The manufacturers of the Jack
son wagon" have contract for It's men
at So cents per day; this contract does
not expire until 1892. The average
price per day which the state of Michi-
gan receives for her 800 convicts in! the
Jackson prison is 81 At cents. "Fhe
Ionia, Michigan workhouse," says the
report of that state, furnished Atkinson
& Co., of Columbus Ohio, 1925 $50 cigars
at a cost of $l.8l per thousand. We are
informed by outside manufacturers that
the cheapest grade of cigars made by free
labor costs from S. to So per thousand" ."
The rates at this prison is from 25 to 40
cents per day. Formerly Messrs. Fargo
& Co., of Chicago, had a contract with
this prison for labor at 40 cents per day.
In 1882 they received 123,S76 pairs of
boots and shoes, for which they paid the
state $23 3,576S0 or less than 20 cents per
pair. Their contract expired January l,
1854.
The 1000 men working at stove max.
Ing in Sing Sing prison are contracted at
56 cents per day.
When it is remembered that all ma
chinery, engines, store room, ETC., are
furnished free by the state on these con-
tracts, and losses from fire sustained by
the state, it will be seen that contractors
have complete advantage over outside
manufactures: At a recent meeting o.
the Axle Manufacturers Association a
protest against prison labor was signed
by every manufacturer except Sheldon
& Co. the Auburn, New York, prison
contractors who ""could not concur.
This association has since been dissolved
ION account of one of the members" oi
the persistence of Sheldon & Co. in vio'
lating the rules and selling below the
standard price agreed by the associa'
ton"
! The hatter's association have likewise
issued a vigorous protest against the
system, fully twenty-five per cent of the
wool hats made IN the entire country are
claimed to be made by convict labor
The cigarmakers join in the protest. OF
the 1900 conyicts in Joliet prison 1873 are
engaged in making cigars, Indiana So
Michigan So, Ohio 80, Pennsylvania 149
The average wages of these is Al cents
per day.
It Is nowhere claimed that states
should follow the example of Delaware
and support their prisoners in idleness
but it is claimed that whatever of profit
there is IN convict labor should accrue
to the states and not individuals to be
naed in forcing down prices IN compe.
tition with honest labor and capital
a concluded on fourth page.l aI +. q
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