Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-27
CONTEMPT FOR THEM.
That's What Henry Warner Says Of
Laws Against Prison Labor.
WRITES A LETTER TO POwDERLY.
The Bill Now Before the Legislature
Scored and Ridiculed.
CONvICTS ARE NOT COMPETITORS

Superintendent Henry Warner, of the
Allegheny County Workhouse, has written
letter to General Master Workman T., V.
Powderly, of the Knights of Labor, on the
subject of prison labor. He says that he
has contempt for any class of working
men who would concern themselves about
entering into competition with prison labor.
He says that any opposition given prison
labor is an obstacle thrown in the way of
civilization and advancement. He scores
the bill now pending before the Legislature,
and says it should be entitled an act con-
verting the prisons inta insane asylums. The
letter to Mr.. Powderly is dated Clarsmont,
March 25, and is as follows:
A recent circular addressed by committee of
the Knights Of Labor to the Legislature Of Penn
syivania, requests the enactment of certain laws
now pending before that body presumably in the
interest of your order, among which is enumerated
an act regulating convict labor.
| Iassume that the circular has the approval of
yourself and the Knights of Labor and that 1t has
been issued under yours and their sanction.
HIS MAIN OBJECTIONS.
Therefore desire to specially call your attention
question, which is known No. AZ: of the file of
the House of Representatives, and entitled an act
Regulating the employment of convicts and In
mates of the penal and reformatory institutions
| within the State.''
! The title Of this bill is a misnomer. Its pro-
visions are such (and no doubt intended to be SOY
to be utterly destructive of all industries that
are now conducted in the several institutions
named. The act should be better entitled IAN
act for the destruction of useful employment and
| 0f ref mafi IF VIII n Innate
| crtminality, misfortune or otherwise, have been
| unfortunate enough to be confined within prison
wals.'' 1t should be entitled IAN act converting
the prisons and reformatOres of the State into in
sane asylums.'' 1t should be entitled IAN act to
increase taxation" or Gan act to destroy public
property OF great value.''
Prison labor as practiced in this and other
States, north of Mason and Dixon's line, for the
past Is or 30 years, is the outgrowth of the best
| thought Of philanthropists and specialists, VINO
| have labored necessarily for the advancement Of
the best interests of all the people. 1t marks the
| progress of Christianity and the nineteenth CEN
| tury-to abolish it would be to turn back the
| hands upon the dial OF human progress and rele-
gate all that has been accomplished in this line to
| barbartsm. Although these things should be ap-
parent to the most superficial observer, yet
cannot but conclude that they have escaped your
| attention.
PER CONTRA CONSIDERATION.
1t is claimed and properly SO, that labor pays
1
of the laboring man to contribute out of his hard
earnings to the support of a horde of criminals,
who, relieved of the necessity Of self support even
in part, would eat in idleness the substance OF
the landy
Take the institution over which Ipreside. as an
| example, which 1 believe would represent in
large all the other prisons of the country
| employing convict labor, and you will find as a
| rule the prisoners committed to its care incapa-
| BILE and inefficient. In fact good mechanics
| flan
| up in large proportions of the vicious, the men,
| tally and physically unsound; aged and crippled.
women. When the lists Of inmates are studied, i
is difficult to repress feeling OF honest contempt
this country, who would give themselves any
serious concern about competition in either busi-
ness or labor arising irom such community; I'm ny
$35 600 annually, and 1t never has been in all Of
| word, self-supporting by the product Of Its la
| Dor.
some eight or ten years since, 1t was made TO ap-
pear So but the result did not arise from the pro-
duct Of labor conducted with outside parties, but
estimates of the value of labor expended on the
improvement of buildings and grounds.
Our chief industries are the manufacturing of
brooms, white lead kegs and barrels for refined
| oil.
MAINTAINING THE POINT.
We are the customers and not the competitors
of free labor. The slaves, headings, hoop iron,
|
ETC., which enter into our manufactures are the
product of free labor. Free labor produces all
our raw material, transports them to us and car
ries them away. And never yet have heard Of
any objection from merchant or lahoring man to
selling us anything that was needed, either for
general supplies for the conduct Of the business
of the institution. The last shows that the
output of all convict labor in the United States
was only 5 one-hundredths of / per cenl,
as compared with the total Of manufactures OF
TNI,N-
it must also be remembered. is based upon The
full value of the product and not upon the value
rious articles of manufacture. If the true pro-
portion of convict labor to the whole was actu-
ally portrayed it would be difficult to express its
minuteness in ineligible figures.
| A practical statement of the effects of the pas
sage of the bill in question upon this institution
1t would convert over s4O, 900 worth of machinery
| and tools into little better than scrap iron; ii
would render useless shops and buildings of equal
value; il would render unavailable more than
at heavy loss as best we could, and all this as
stated before, would be the destruction of the pro-
with the @ money Of the people Of this county -'
BARRELS AND THE STANDARD.
| As to our chief industry of barrel making its
stoppage would cause serious embarrassment tC
the independent refneries of this section. The
Standard Oil Company manufactures its own bar
rels and would not be affected, except by the re-
moval OF another com petitor in the market fol
staves which would give it practical monopoly
of that business in this part of the State, but
several independent refneries are dependeltup
us for their supply of barrels, it would for time
almost cause a suspension Of their business, and
would inevitably result in their almost entire
Abandonment of the of barrels fer transporta.
tion of refined oil the sea-board, using instead
of barrels, tanks and pipe lines, which are already
| growing in use daily.
In conclusion, an act similar to the one under
discussion was passed at the last session of the
| General Assembly of the State of New York. 1t.
| off re we'll nd re Cnr n
stantly making themselves more plainly felt. The
results are prisoners being transferred in large
| numbers to the State Asylums for the Insane
| large appropriations for the maintenance Of
I prisons exhausted early in the year, and wide
| spread confusion and embarrassment resulting tc
the management of the prisons, causing a loud
| and increasing cry for its repeal.
1t seems to me that a careful review of the whole
| subject should convince any fair minded person
that this proposed act should not become a law.
AS per his custom in such cases, Mr.. Pow
derly will probably reply to the letter in few