The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1888-04-25

can be accounted for in other ways which
cannot well be considered here as they
should be; as have not access to the neces-
Sary facts and figures. do not know how
much convict earns over and above the
cost of his maintenance; how many are in
the employ of the state who do not receive
the price paid for those who are employed
by the contractors; how many are disabled
from sickness, and age, etc. There are
many things to be considered besides the
mere facts that the penitentiary is not
self-sustainng, and those who work for the
contractors get As cents day.
The great "hOwr against convict contract
manufactures competing with those OF free
labor, has long been heard and it will re-
quire some better substitute than that sug-
gested by L. M. to stop this objection; for
if the state were controlling these manufac-
lures the competition would exist between
state institution employing convict labor
and free labor productions. In other words,
the state would simply take the place of the
present contractors, with ihe undiSputed
right to work the convict to the end OF THE
GREATEST POSSIBLE PROFIT. which means
hard labor, long hours, close discipline in
order to secure the greater labor; close over
seers with no one to protect the convict from
unj just treatment, except those who are in
tereSted in him earning the most money pos
sibe. How is this under the contract sys-
tenn? The state receives definite price for
the labor of the convict, and the officers,
being i'm no way interested in the amount of
labor accomplished, stand as shield and
protection to the convict. The direct evil
dence of this is apparent to every intelli-
gent inmate of this prison. The officers
will not allow an inmate to be worked be-
&c c,>b.- obi hni
thies are with the convict. and as uncOn-
trOlled power over the actions and lives of
men is always dangerous thing. so would
it be when the one interest and the only OBJ
ject was to require the convict to earn
money. The evils that my opponents would
aScribe to the contract system are attributa-
bic to the prison system. and might. and be-
lieve would, attach with double force to our
present prison system under exclusive state
control.
If the convict earns two dollars per day
for the contractors and the state receives
but 45 cents it does not argue that the con-
tract system is a failure, but simply that
the state does not receive just price for the
labor of the convict. But it must be con-
sidered that while one man may earn two
dollars another may not earn forty cents,
and upon the whole number must the profit
be counted. This is a business matter and
must be treated us such. The capital en-
ployed in such an enterprise as the present
company contractors, is not to be managed
and turned to profitable advantage without
great business ability. When the state un-
dertakeS to manage four or five hundred
men under business principles. with the
great amount of money required for the in
stitutiOn, and furtherance of the contem-
Mated scheme if will learn as has other
states that it is an immense business con-
cern. and to be made profitable one. re-
quires the employment of shrewd business
managers, as does any business interest, that
it may pay sufficient profit on the capital
and labor employed.
There are many advantages to the con-
vict in the contract system which will be
apparent when he comes to contrast it with
system where the officers of the prison
would have direct object in getting the
greatest possible amount of labor out of
each inmate. The officers have their mani
fold duties under the present contract sys-
tenn. but if our labor is to be employed by
the state on speculative scheme, as nat
ural consequence the officers who manage
and control the business interests will have
to be other than the warden or the deputy,
and these managers. by whatever names
they may be designated. will have almost
exclusive control over the actions of the con-
victs during working hours, and from the
necessity of the situation the way of the
ambitious gentlemen who clamOr for a
change, would not be strewn with roses.
They complain that the present system does
not give them the advantages of learning a