Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-03-23
A PRISON PARADOX.
on WHAT KIND OF LABOR SHOULD
PRISONERS Bh EMPLOYED
Answers &c the Trades Unions OBJ.
jections-Jute and Morality
Convict Labor Agitation.

Convict Labor Agitation.
EDS. RECORD UNION. An editorial in
the REcoRD-UNIoN of March 9TH, CUES
tioning the retormatery influence of pris-
on jute mills, suggests some interesting re-
Elections, especially when read in connec-
ton with recent protest against cenvict
labor made in the same journal by certain
members Of the Piasterers' Union. The
objections which the RECORD UNION sees
in the establishment of jute mills are
moral rather than economical, and cover
none of the ground urged by the delegates
to the San Francisco Trades Unions Con-
yention, in favor of making the iute indus
try the one to be pursued at State prisons
to the exclusion of all others. Magnify
ing the spectacle of industrious convicts to
an extent quite disproportionate to its real
significance, labor conventions see in con-
vict employment the ruin of their indus
try and pollution of the founts of manufact-
ure. With the moral side of the question.
which colors the editorial of the RECORD.
UNION, the Trades Unions do not concern
themselves, clamoring for the adoption of
their resolutions on economical grounds
alone.
If the labor societies had their way.
they would have the prisoners kept idle
altogether, but as even the Trades Unions
must keep apace with public sentiment,
when that sentiment is fatty opposed to
supporting prisoners in idleness. the
Trades Unions subscribe to it by agreeing
to let the prisoners have the monopoly of
that industry which is admitted by all to
be the most Improbable in the State. At
present this industry is .jute, though seeing
that the manufactures of sacks is profta-
bic, or the reverse, according to the state
of the contemporary tariff, the MONOPOLY
of this industry, which some are willing to
concede the prisons, would be taken away
directly an alteration in the tariff favors a
free prosecution OF it outside. This would
soon be seen if San Quentin were to make
financial success of its wearing plant.
That 1t has not explains the fact that there
IS only one free jute mill in the State.
whereas if the looms of San Quentin could
he made to pay, the effect of this would
be to invite emulation from outside.
coupled with a demand on the Prison Di-
rectorS TO shut down their mill.
AS long as the prison makes only a
doubtful success of its plant, possible com
petitors are content to watch the process
with indifference, but let the prison make
It's plant pay: and its prosperity, SO far
from bene6ting it any, would be used by
the Trades Unions as an argument in favor
of stopping its machinery Concessions of
this character, which the Trades Unions
make to the prisons under pressure of
public opinion, are hypocritieal and insin-
cere, and afford no evidence that the labor
associations are willing to deal with the
question of prison labor in an honest and
conciliating spirit.
1t is impossible to single out any one in
dustry, and say that that industry, and
that alone, shall be pursued at the prison.
An industry that will not pay cultivation
outside will not pay cultivation inside. I'M
less 1t be an industry like mining or quar-
rying, in pursuing which prison may be
exceptionally favored by advantages of
site. In rare and happy instances work
done at the prison is determined by It's
location, said location having been chosen
by the founders as shaping for an indefinite
time the industrial operations of the con-
victs who would be consigned to it.
This industry is invariably connected
with the development of natural wealth.
wealth, which though valuable in the aq-
gregate, seemed to the prison builders in
sufficiently rich to tempt the energies of
free labor. By considerations of this char
acter the Russians have been induced to
found penal establishments in connection
with developing low grade mines, the Weld
of which would be too small to attract free
enterprise.
The British Government, too, in work
ing the quarries of Portland, and estab-
fishing on their site a monster prison. have
availed themselves of a source of wealth
which has been developed with a minimum
of protest from free labor Neither the
breakwater at Portland, nor the backward
at Chatham, would have induced free cap
ital to take the place of the convict out
lay, of which these stupendous works are
the resultants.
The same remark applies to the build
ing of the Folsom dam, and in wider
sense to the quarrying of rock, an employ
ment for the Folsom prisoners which it
would be madness to deprive them of.
Prison mining and prison quarrying,
though industries, are not manufactures, and
few of the objections that are often urged
with good deal of justice against the pro
duction of prison fabrics, can be urged in
the case of building stone and curbing.
The objection raised by the REcoRD-
UNION against the adoption of iute mill
for moral reasons, Is difficult to meet. On
the one hand il NAV be contended that
weaving, spinning and all the employ
ments incident TO jute mill, do instill
habits of application and industry, lack of
which, in nine cases out of ten, being the
cause of the convicts tripping. Further,
that the tactual sense is 10 certain de-
gree educated by familiarity with weav-
ing, though it must be admitted that pro-
iciency of this kind is difficult to turn to
good account outside.
Skill in the manipulation of fax affords
no preparation for the higher branches of
the textile trade, it being about as difficult