The weekly examiner., 1891-01-17
PENITENTIARY WORK.
NEW YoRk,s LABOR ORGANIZATIONS
 ON coNvlcTegLABoR.

Tho Unions Want Only Goods for State
 Purposes Made by the Prisoners-His-
 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- 1utions condemning the system, and IS bill to be e7gubmitted to the next legislature. The two recent con- ventions of the marble cutters and mar ble polishers have decided to take ener- getic action against convict labor, and announce that they intend to go so far as to have delegates stationed around the prisons and watch where the prod ucts are sent to and order rstrikes on every possible occasion. The delegates to the state branch of the American Fedora tion 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 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 difficult task before them they acknowl- edge in the fact that to effectually pre- vent prison industries interfering with free industries 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 h.. the present one by enforcing utter idle ness on a large number of convicts.
 In New York state reports on this sub iect were made in 1867, 1871, 1876, 1879, 1884 and 1887, theA result being that while one commission has condemned the system another has advocated it. In their reports these commission divide convict labor into four systems-the con- tract, the piece price, the public account, and the lease. The Contract system is where contractor employs the convicts @at 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 at an agreed price. The public account sys- tenn is where the institution carries on the business of manufacturing like a private individual or firm, buying raw materials and conXerting 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 a specified sum, he agrseing 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 1886, con- sisting of William Bookstaver, George Blair and Enos w. Barnes, made thor ough investigation ofs the subject and submitted an extended report. They recommended the public account system, stating that "convictS should be em. aployed upon productive1abo earning as nearly as possible the cost of their main. tenance, and without productive labor there can be no health of discipline and no progress toward reformation"
 The report goes onsetossay: s'It is sim ply brutal to suffer conTiets to remain ir idleness. The experiences at Auburn prison, where for morefthan year and 8 half several hundred <convicts have re mained in enforced ddleness, due in part to the expiration of fbontracts and in part to the failure of the legislature to make sufficient appropriataon for their employ. .ment, furnish all that is necessary in proof of the disaster flowing from idle ness in prisons. Added to serious in ecrease in disease and Hospital represents tion and 8 baneful decline of discipline. there were transferred from that prison during the year ending Sept. 30, 1886, te the asylum for thes insane twenty-si1 prisoners, as against4siR similar transfers during the preceding year"
 The trades unions aawere dissatisfied with this report, and especially with Commissioner George Blair, who was q member of the NeweToFk Central Labor union, so 8 bill waS intfoduced into the assembly which passed&both houses and received the governors approval in An. gust, 1888. It provided that '.no ma chinery or power of1any kind for manu- facturing purposesaeshaN be used in any penal institution ofsstfs state, and no person in such institutions shall be re quired or allowed Go work while under sentence thereto atany trade or industry where his labor, or the production or profit of his labor. tssfarmed out, con- tracted, given OF sold to any person. The superintendento of state prisons shall cause to be manufactured all articles commonly needed inapubhc institutions of the state, and all articles manufact- ured and not required for use therein shall be furnished to the several institu- tions supported inwhole or part by the state" hsss
 This law practically IyThet the require ments of the majority Of labor organiza- lions, but was condemned by so many that another bill waseintroduced in the legislature and became law on June 6, 1889, and still remains in force. The %~~S SR~S..