Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-02-28
DAILY RECORD UNION
TEUi.sDAv-.-.. .FEsRUARY as, 1889.
PRISON LABOR.

The workingman is committed to a radi-
cal mistake when he subscribes to the
doctrine that employment of convicts in
prison is injurious TO him. We do not
doubt the sincerity Of the workers who
hold to this idea; they honestly think that
In reality labor in prison just that much
shears labor out of prison. But it is fall
lacious idea, and one that has been demon
strated to be an error. No compulsory la
Dor ever materially interferes with free la
Dor. The number of convicts employed in
prison at trades is infnitesmal as compared
TO the whole body of men employed in
useful labor. If, as Warden Brockway asks
an entire lot of several hundred workers
in q factory should all at once become con-
vie;s, and guards should be put upon the
building and il declared State prison. and
the men be still kept at work, would the
result be any different from that prior to
the change OF attitude? All the prison
made goods in the Union, measured by the
entire product of manufacturing, amounted
to SO little as to be scarcely distinguishable,
anu this fact the labor statis.icians have
proved over and again the percentage is SO
small indeed, that it has to be expressed in
the one-hundretbs of one per cent. What
ever the labor of convicts contributes to
their support, that much lessons taxation.
and nearly all taxation is visited upon the
consumers of products, among whom. of
course, are the workingmen who object to
convict labor.
Moreover, the discipline Of prisons, that
there may be reform, that detention NAV
have beneficial influence and thus pro-
tect society from the criminal class, requires
that prisoners shall be employed. And
SUCH employment must be at useful labor,
Tor 10 engage the convict IN mere profitless
or isuitless labor, as the carrying of stones
from one pile to another and then back
again, IS worse than idleness and produces,
Invariably, bad results. The men who
labor, and the men who own property, paw
eyeg cent of the cost of maintaining those
WHO do not labor. If convicts are to be
kept in idleness then the workers must
pay the increased cost If the convict
should not work at trade because of the
faliacy that it shuts some free worker out
nom employment, then the logic of the
argument will uphold the scheme of pre-
venting the convict from tilling the soil in
the prison farm or garden, to supply his
OWL food, for it narrows the sale of yege-
tables and grains by outside tillers of the
soil.
There is still another consideration that
is 10 be taken into account-that the
support OF convicts in idleness, or their en-
ployment in kinds of labor that cannot be
awaited OF by them on discharge, tends to
constantly increase the vagrant the Grim
inal and the dependent classes, and thus
to steadily augment the burdens of the free
producers and wage-earners. This is an
undeniable truth-every man must make
his living, or someone must make it for
him; If, therefore, we create body of
non producers and augment the number of
that body constantly, we proportionally in
crease the burdens of those who must sup
per them. We do not touch now upon
the moral or physical benefits of useful
labor, the part it plays in true reforma-
tory system and as deterrent influence,
but treat the subject from a purely econo-
mic standpoint. In that light. every lesson
OF experience, every dictate of reason, the
laws OF political and domestic economy,
the well being of the taxpaying class, the
good of the producers and workers, all
unite in disapproval of the demand that
productive labor shall cease in the prisons