The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-09-14
CONVICT LABOR.

The platform adopted by the Independent
Workingmen's party of this county is in
most respects broad and abe document.
There are one or two ideas in it that DO not
thoroughly accord; however, with the prin-
ciples Of true economy. For example, the
clause condemning the employment of
prison labor in production on the ground
that the working OF convlcts throws honest
laborers and mechanics out of employment,
Is serious error.
The work of convicts does lessen the
work OF workingmen to this extent: 1t re-
lleves them of the labor that is necessa "
Tor the support of the convicts and compels
the convicts to support themselves. This
merely shifts the burden to the shoulders
of prison labor aud relieves free labor
to that extent from the necessity Of
supporting the criminals. If workingmen
want work simply, they might as well do
the work OF other people as well as that of
prisoners; and perhaps many other people
can be found outside of the prisons who
are willing to quit work and let some one
else support them.
The work done by convict labor is not
likely to iniure even single class of work.
lngmen, and it is simply impossible for
convict labor to injure the workingmen or
the people as whole. The case is exactly
the same as any other labor saving device;
1T lessons the labor of the citizen that must
otherwise be performed by him for the sup
port OF the idle convict What the me-
cnanic pays for the support of prisoners is
70 a year. let Us say, equivalent to one days
work. slight improy ement he makes
in his method of working or in the tools he
uses, enables him to earn So more
year with exactly the same
labor as before, and it is
clear that his payment of So in taxes for
the support of the convicts will leave him
% better off than before he made the i'm
provement. Now, If each of one hundred
mechanics make like inprovem ent, a
convict can be supported among them sim
ply by the gain they had made in the pro-
ductiveness Of their labor. But precisely
the same result would be accomplished by
setting the convict to work and compelling
him to support himself, and precisely the
same benefit would accrue to the mechan &c
by relief of the So tax.
| Nevertheless, some people fear that the
convict, If he makes cheap shoes, will throw
the shoemaker out of work. This is un-
likely as the demand for shoes is so great
and increases with each reduction in their
cost; but it is'aH strong and just view OF
the case to imagine that convict labor
would throw every man out of employment.
and do all our work for US, then surely no
one would grumble at that result 1t is
the pay, the result, that we want, not the
work. And If the convicts can be made to
zens enjoy the results, it is SO much labor
saved to the citizens.
When sewing machines were first used,
tailofs declared their living was gone, but
SO far was this from the fact, that the
number OF taiors increased many fold as
the sewing machines came into use. When
railroads come into country, teamsters
: think they will have nothing to do, bu'
they soon learn better. The threshins
machine does not deprive farm hands O.
work, but makes it profitable to cultivat,
new farms: and so on indefinitely. Every
} labor saving device raises the wages OF tn,
laborers. Theiereason is that human de
sires are unlimited, and money saved by
the substitution of labor saving machine
for hand labor is at once expended in pay
ing wages for some other necessity or lux
ury. The money is sure to be spent
mostly as wages, for something. Men ar
not thrown out of work by machinery. no
by convict labor, but are at once givel
something better to do and at once receiv,
higher wages. Money deposited in blnl,
is rot idle, but at work paying wages; fo
nearly all articles are finally reducible to tn,
: wages paid in their production. 1t would
be great mistake on the part of the work
ingmen to insist that convicts should eithe,
stand idle or do work with no money in it
for fear Of throwing others out of employ.
ment. There is no danger, and hardly ;
possibility of that; let the convcts suppor
themselves.
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