The Portland daily press., 1886-12-20
STATE PRISON WORK.

The carriage manufacturers of Bangor
have made another complaint of the compe-
tition ofprison-made vehicles at time when
the employment of convict labor is attract
ing much attention in the country. This
complaint is not q new one; has been made
in almost every State in the Union.
Manufacturers have complained that the
competition of the State institutions have
diminished their profit, and laborers have
complained that the competition of virtual
slaves has crowded down their wages In
the South the chain gangs, that work on
railroads and plantations; and in the West
and North the gangs of convicts whose labor
is let out by contract, have caused dissatis-
faction to which the protest from Bangor
bears no comparison. But the system of
employing convict labor in the prison at
Thomaston differs widely from the systems
which have aroused the complaints in the
West and South. Indeed q formal step
which has just been taken to lessen the
evils of convict competition does not eontem-
plate the Maine system. As its name implies,
the National Anti-Convict Contract Associa-
ton makes war on the letting cut of convict
labor on contract The States of New York,
New Jersey. Pennsylvania, Ohio and
California have by acts of legislature ar
rayed themselves against the saystem. The
object of the Association is to cause the
enactment of similar laws in other States. 1t
includes representatives of manufacturing
establishments, none of them located in the
West, but having also representation in the
New England States of Massachusetts, and
New Hampshire. But Maine hardly falls
within the scope Of this movement, because
here the contract system does not exist, ex-
cept in two or three county jails.
The prison at Thomaston, of which the
complaint is made is managed on a basis en-
tirely different from the contract system.
The State buys its material, and itself en-
banks in the manufacturing enterprise. The
Bangor manufacturers claim that even this
method Of disposing of the conyicts' time is
very damaging to their business They says
that the prison can manufacture carriages,
sleighs and harnesses % per cent cheaper
than they can; because the prison can pur-
chase its raw material cheaper, as it pur-
chases it in larger quantities, and prison
labor costs nothing These advantages, the
Bangor manufacturers assert, enable the pri-
son to make a carriage, sleigh or harness for
fifty dollars. that would cost any manufac-
turer in the State seyenty-fve dollars The
charge is made that prison goods are sold
mainly by cutting prices, and that "the
agents for the prison in Bangor acknowledge
this, and to shield themselves, they
remove the plates from the prison
goods and put on their own" Those
are serious charges, but it is probable
that the hardship is for some reason, oyer
estimated in Bangor. In the first place the
prison does not manufacture over per cent
Of the sleighs and wagons used in Maine.
Were it an established fact that prison goods
are universally sold lower than other goods
OF the same quality, an assertion which the
officials who control the prison declare to be
false, so small quantity as per cent OF
all the vehicles sold, would hardly disturb
the mark It's of the State seriously. If a
large quantity were sent to one locality, con-
siderable hardship might result to local man
ufacturers. 1t is probable that this is what
has happened in Bangor. But better dis
tribution OF goods would remedy this. So
long as the State has $50 or 200 convicts it
must keep them employed, and there is no
better way than that now adopted. 1t has
not the odi0us features of the contract sys-
TEN from which the manufacturers and free
laborers of other States suffer; it gives
trades and employment to convicts without
producing enough to disturb wages or prices
II the products are properly distributed