The Labor enquirer., 1886-07-03

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of California, by the Representative
Council of thu Federated Trades and
Labor Unions of the Pacific Coast:
To His Excellency George Stoneman, Gov.
ernor of California.
DEAR SIR: In reviewing the work
you have before you IN relation to the
method of employing the convicts of
the state, the question has no doubt fre-
quentlY arisen in your mind, eff the
prisoners are not employed in this way,
to whit use can thev be put ?" and we
respectfully suggest that this misgiving
is the outcome of the premise which
seems to be the main consideration in
the management of penal institutio MS
that they shall be profitable to the state,
not in the sense of preventing or re-
straining crime, but in financial sense
that their cost shall be Offset by their
earnings, so that nothing, or as small
sum as possible. shall be added to the
burden of taxation.
The necessity for brevity in this COM
munication will not permit US to demon
strate, as we might, that this policy is
the reverse Of economical, as it makes
state bear in the market in such linas
of business az it thus takes up, and by
depressing prices renders many forms
of useful ent erprise uncer rtaln and 30
precarious and unremunerative that
large numbers of our citizens, who
might find profitable employm ent
therein, are compelled to direct their
energies into other channels, thereby
intensifying competition, which would
not be 80 bitter if all avocations were
free from prison influence.
In your investigations you have no
doubt been impressed with the fact that
most of the criminals in our prisons are
undergoing punishment for offenses
against property ty-burglar larceny and
kinured crimes Eight hundred and nine
of the inmates Of San Quentin out of
total prison roll of 1912, or Sc per cant
belong to this class of offenders, while
at Folsom they include Is out of total
of 56l, or very nearly rs per cent 80
that while all the people of the state are
personally interested ID the repression
and punishment of crime, che property
owners and the Wealthier portion of the
community have direct material in
terest which does not apply with equal
force to the general public. Thus, If a
system of prison management which
did not take into account the question
of profit should entail slight increase
to the burden of these taxpayers, it
would seem that they have cores
ponding benefit in the increased safety
and security with which they may en-
10y the favors of fortune.
The benefit is even more direct than
that which results from judicious in
suranCe In the latter case the tax is
paid ungrudgipglv year y year, while
no loss intervenes, for the recognized Sc
curity of recompense should disaster
occur; while in the case of our prisons
the benefit is manifest, continuous and
permanent, for during their term of
punishment the prisoners. like Gagged
birds of prey, are incapable of mischief,
and in 80 far as they are concerned all
rights of property are absolutely secure.
But, sir this tax, like that of lnsur-
ance, at last comes inc vitablY upon the
industrial element in the state, for the
tax upon the property must be paid by
the rent and the rent must be paid by
the profits of che business, and where
do the profits come from if not from the
consumer?
=. Thus the Workingm n is placed be-
tween the upper and neither milstones,
for the competition of the prisons keeps
the reward of his labor at the lowest
notch, and he must pay an increased
price for the necessaries of life out of
his diminished earnings, for the legisla-
tive appropriation Of 100000 demon
strates, in spite of figures, or statements.
or reports, tn It the prisons are not self
sustaining and that management that
ruins free labor and at the same time
imposes taxation upon the ruined is rad
ically wrong.
The people have remedied the matter
or thought they did, when they voted
over~ helmingly fol section six of article
ten of the new constitution, but they
did not know that an ingenious board Of
prison directors could nullifY the organic
law. Exercising in manner the old
right of petition, We come before you
now, and ask that you intervene in our
behalf and in behalf of the law, for you
alone can do it.
During the investigation recently con-
Quoted before you it will be remembered
that counsel for the directors, insisting
upon the application of the rigid rules Of
evidence which obtain in our courts of
law, seemed to press the witnesses with
constant requests regarding the market
price of articles manufactured in the
prisons, totally ignoring or ignorant OF
tho fart which the most incomDetent O1