Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-03-30


county government and municipal taxes.
nearly thirteen million dollars, and in the
next two years the men who work with
their hands must raise and pay that thir-
teen million dollars All wealth is the
product OF labor; therefore, labor will pro-
duce for the next two years not only the
taxes which have been assessed against
property, but all the profit on all enter
prise. Primarily production rests upon
the shoulders of labor Now the convict
who is sent to the State Prison is main
tanned in that prison at the expense OF
labor, and the economical question in
volved is to be formulated in this way
as the competition of the convict in the
prison a greater injury than the cost Of his
maintenance in idleness?" If it costs
more to maintain criminal in idleness
than the reduction of wages which would
ensue to labor by reason of employing him
in skilled trade, then the folly of the OBJ
lection to prison manufacture becomes APP
parent. If on the other hand, the compe-
tition of the convict infiicts financial
punishment upon labor greater than the
cost of his maintenance, then the position
of the Trades Unions is right. Even this
formulation is from superficial stand
point, because as an actual fact every
drone in society, whether in prison or out
of it, is maintained at the expense of
labor
Every demand made upon the product
i've energies of a people, every extrava-
gance, every wastefulness, every loss Of
property by fire or food, inficts an addi-
tional burden upon the laboring classes.
The loss of all property is charged to
labor. 1t follows, then, that the convict
maintained in idleness is an absolutely
clear loss to the shoemaker. the stone
cutter, the tailor the cabinet maker and
all other artisans. The industrious convict,
the one who is forced not only to maintain
himself, but to assist in the maintenance
of society and add to the general product
iyeness of people, confers an actual pc
cuniary benefit upon labor, because the
condition of labor rises with the augment
alton of the productive capacity of peo-
pie. The moral side of this question,
therefore, becomes the most practical view
of it, and the so-called economical view
become the theoretical, the uniformed
the partial view of the subject The
prison which is SO conducted as to expand
itself constantly, to make the establish
ment of branch prisons necessary, to in
crease the annual crop of crime, to add to
the cost of maintaining peace, or to pro-
tect society against the criminal tenden-
cies constantly working within it; such an
institution is continually augmenting the
burden of labor Add to such condition
the maintenance of the constantly increas-
ing number of convicts in idleness and
you have the sum of the supreme folly
contended for by the Trades Unions.
There is great truth underlying this
discussion. 1t ought to be met boldly and
discussed candidly and fairly The Trades
Unions are most grievously mistaken in
the position they have taken on the whole
subject They will come into knowledge
of the truth by obtaining broader views.
No intelligence gains the mastery of
subject by dividing it into its ethical, its
moral, its spiritual, its financial and prac-
teal subdivisions, and then selecting one
of these, airily pluming itself upon having
rejected all considerations of the others,
thus admitting that it is blindly cropping
in the dark corner of subject, Instead OF
putting a sky with its broad expanse of
thought over the mind.
A small element of truth may become
so apparent to the mind as to be mistaken
for the whole truth. The Trades Unions
have perceived that there is measure of
competition between the product of prison
industry and free industry, and IL have
looked so steadily at this truth, have DIS
cussed it under the duress of popularity
within the trades, under the encourage
ment of demagogism which always turns
willing ear to every conceivable mistake
of labor or of labor organizations, that it
has become magniied until it is mistaken
for the whole truth.
The discussion of this prison problem is
not in its incipient beginning when it be-
gins and ends with the competitive view
between prison industry and free industry,
and those who suppose they are covering
the entire range of considerations involved,
and acquiring just views of this great
question when they refuse to admit to
place among its highest probabilities the
moral element involved, proclaim the mar
rowness of their perceptions, and their in
ability to grasp the most practical phase of
the whole subject.