The Labor enquirer., 1886-02-20
PRICE FIVE CENTS
IHE coNYlcTs.
The Two Horns Of This Di-
lemma Which Are Al
ways Present.
Is 1t Best to Keep the Criminals
at Work or In Idle
ness2

II the Former, Will 1t Not be the
i Means Of Filling the Prisons
j to OrernoWingi
For the Enquirer
/ Just at present much is being said
about prison.contract labor in Chicago.
!, The city council passed prison.con-
tract-labor ordinance, and theinmates of
the Bridewell are idle. True. they have
been SO since the first of September, but
nothing but lack of contracts prevented
their working.
Alderman Colvin said: Il knew the
contractors had gone to Michigan City.
Indiana, but did not know but that
some other contractor wanted to make
arrangements with the house of correc-
ton for the prison labor. There are
more men out of employment in Chicago
than ever saw before. live can give
ten of them employment by keeping
city prisoners idle, / am in favor of it.
Alderman Campbell said ut is an
outrage that taxpayers have to pay to
sustain their criminals in idleness."
The morning News says: "Any sys-
tenn of working 600 or 700 yagrants and
petty rascals, is better than tie inevita-
BILE decentralization which will follow lack
of employment. Any possible amount
of competition from their employment,
is preferable to holding out the premium
of free lodging and board to the vicious
and abandoned" 50. 2ai ~.
Here are the two horns of the dilem-
ma, always present when prison labor is
ND for discussion, be it in the New York
state prisons or Chicago Bridewell.
With thousands of idle yet willing
men, who, in spite of circumstances,
laws and harsh public opinion, have
kept from being classed as criminals, it
cannot seem just to employ men who
have passed that arbitrary time between
Innocence and vice.
"Free labor" should not in justice, it
would appear, be allowed to starve in
idleness, while men supposed to be un-
dergoing punishment for crimes, are
sheltered fed and clothed.
Yet on the other hand it certainly is
not expedient or wise to imprison men
and keep them in idleness, when it is
true that their support must come from
some one, and Inevitably though lndi-
reetly, m,ist fall on the laborer, and
when it is also true that. "Satan finds
some mischief still for idle hands to do"
1t is a question right here though,
whether the inevitable Decentralization"
which follows idleness might not better
fall on those already supposed to be de-
moralized, than on the henest and vir-
tuous workingmen who have always
been kept out If mischief by being con-
stantly occupied. If some body must be
idle had it not better be the criminal
classes who have no morals TO losea And
by the same token, should not we Social
lists keep silent about the wealthy idle?
The real problem, however. is, that
such dilemma should exist in a civili-
zation marching on to perfection in such
gigantic strides as this boasted one of
ours. The problem presents itself in va
rious forms everywhere in the world
in the starvation among. .laboring people,
when granaries and warehouses are full
lest, and in misery to wage workers,
wherever labor-saving machinery is in
troduced.
Reasoning from common sense, hu-
manity.has right to supposed that the
more labor-saving machinery is put into
practical use. the better off humanity will
be ; and that the more real wealth there
is created the more comfortable and pros.
porous everybody ought to feel.
Yet we have such societarv arrange
ments that exactly the opposite isl true.
This fact looming up so darkly through
the light of growing knowledge, should
make every person living doubt that we
are progressing in the right direction.
It is as plain as the MONDAY sun that
something in our societary arrangements
is radically wrong; that the whole in.
dustrial system, which governs product.
i've and distributive relations, is a false
and unjust one, and In everv way con-
trary to natural and equitable principles.
And yet editors, professional labor re-
formers, and many trade unionists con.
tinue discussing an undisputed evil, IN
stead of wondering how it came to exist.
People 90 on shifting the burden of the
evil, first on one part of society and then
on another, without refecting that it
has no business to be here at all, and
ought to be abolished completely.
Labor saving machinery ought to save
the whole human race from drudgery,
and ought to relieve no man from
healthy every day exercises. Prisoners,
if there must be prisoners, should, as
well as evorY person living, perform as
much labor alb they make, and that they
did 80 should not render other human
beings idle and miserable. The whole
industrial system, having its root in pri-
vate ownership of the means of life
must be changed before this lust aud
natural condition of things can be
brought about.
Tits not fair to presume that everyone
behind the bars is "yicious and aban-
, doned." The Chicago News itself has
, chr0nicled many an instance where
: young men have been asked to be sent
to the Bridewell because too weary and
disheartened to tramp, any longer hunt
ing for work, always hungry and cold.
t Many men would prefer working In 8
Bridewell or prison on bread and thin
soup, to tramping and freezing on 9 dubi-
ous meal twice week. This does not
z argue that men are naturally deprayed
either; but only society is abominably.
, terribly unjust.
I. n.aok kos.x 4 a. nfEor 10 fhnsl.