Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-02-02
PENITENTIARY WORK.
NEW YoRK's LABOR ORGANIZATIONS
ON CONVICT LABOR.

tory of the Action Heretofore Taken In
This Matter.
The labor organizations of this city
and state are up in arms against the
present system of convict labor. The
Granite Cutters union has passed reso-
lutious condemning the system, and is
preparing bill to be submitted to the
next legislature. The two recent con-
ventions of the marble cutters and mar
BILE polishers have decided to take ener-
| getic action against convict labor, and
announce that they intend to go 30 far
as to have delegates stationed around
the prisons and watch where the prod
ucts are sent to and order strikes on every
possible occasion. The delegates to the
state branch Of the American Fedora
ton of Labor, the state assembly Of the
| Knights of Labor and the State Trades
Assembly, have all been instructed TO
see that these conventions do their ut
most to urge upon the state assembly a
measure to nullify the present law and
prevent in every way convict labor en-
tering into competition with free labor.
That the labor organizations have a
difficult task before them they achnowl-
edge in the fact that to effectually pre-.
vent prison industries interfering with
| freeindustries they are acting contrary TO
the reports of all the commissioners that
have been appointed, and who claim
that to prevent the product of convict
labor being placed ON the market will
cause an evil much more serious than
the present one by enforcing utter idle
ness on large number of convicts.
In New York state reports ON this sub
ject were made in 1867, 1871, 1870, 1879,
1884 and 1887, the result being that
while one commission has condemned
the system another has advocated il.
In their reports these commissions divide
convict labor into four systelns-the con-
tract, the piece price, the public account,
and the lease. The contract system is
where contractor employs the convicts
at n certain price per day for their
labor, the institution generally furnish
ing the necessary power or machinery.
In the piece price system the contract
or furnishes to the prison the material
ready for working and receives from the
prison the manufactured article Mt an
agreed price. The public account sys-
TEN is where the institution carries on
the business of manufacturing like
private individual or firm, buying raw
materials and converting them into
manufactured articles, which are sold in
the best available market In the lease
system the institution hires out the con-
victs to contractor for n specified sum,
he agr. ing to properly clothe, feed and
care for them. In all these methods the
labor of the convicts more or less enters
into competition with free labor, so the |
trades unions propose that they shall |
only be employed in manufacturing for |
the immediate use or benefit Of penal |
or charitable institutions, and that no |
product shall be placed ON the market.
The commission appointed in 1880, con-
sisting of William Bookstaver, George |
Blair and Enos w. Barnes, made thor
ough investigation Of the subject and |
submitted an extended report. They |
recommended the public account system,
stating that "convicts should be en-
poyed upon productive labor, earning as
! nearly as possible the cost Of their main |
i tenance, and without productive labor |
| there can be no health of discipline and |
no progress toward reformation"
The report goes on 30 say: 1T Ii sim |
ply brutal TO suffer convicts to remain In |
idleDass The experiences ut Auburn |
prison. whore for more than year and |
u half several hundred convicts have re-
mained in enforced idleness, due in part
TO the expiration Of contracts and in part
TO the failure Of tho Legislature TO make
sufficient appropriation for their employ
ment, furnish all that is necessary In
proof OF the disaster flowing from idle
ness IN prisons. Added 10 a serious In
crease In disease and hospital representa-
ton and baneful decline of discipline,
there were transferred from that prison
during the year ending Sept. 30, 1885, 10
the asylum for the insane twenty-hx
prisoners. as against six similar transfers
during the preceding year"
The trades unions were dissatisfied
with this report, and especially with
George Blair, who was a
member Of the New York Central Labor
union, 30 bin was introduced into the
assembly which passed both houses and
received the governors approval In Au-
gust, 1893. Ii provided that mo ma {
chinery or power n any kind for manu-
iacturing purposes shall be used In any {
PENAL institution of tho state, and no G
person In such institutions shall be re-
luired or allowed 10 work while under c
entenee thereto at any trade OF industry l
where his labor, or the production OF
,roft Of his labor, is farmed out, con
rActed, given OF sold 10 any person.
The superintendent OF state prisons shall
ause TO be manufactured all articles =
commonly needed In public institutions
4 tho state. and all articles manufact-
red and not required for uso therein Y
hall DO furnished 10 tho several institu- .
ions supported Ia whole or part by the y
tate" 4
Thia law practically met tho require .
lents ot the majority Of labor orgAniza- e
ons, but was condemned by 30 many o.
lat another bill was introduced In the o.
gislature and became law ON June 9, v
80, and stin remains In force. The 4
III endeavOred 10 incorporate some OF u
10 aysteIns with Limitation. section ~
y OF chapter 883 says; The system OF
labor in each Of Aaid prisons "A
AL DO either the public aceOunt sys :,
IN or what IA known ~ tho piece price -,
stem, or partly ono or tho Othar, A. the -
Perintendent Of state prisons shall de "a