Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1892-10-21
LEASING CONVICTS.
DEMOCRATS INDIFFERENT TO THE
RIGHTS OF WoRKINcMEN.
Conditions In States where They Have
Absolute Control shows Absolute In
difference to Rights OF Labor-The Con-
Wet Lease System in the South.

1 tlCt Lease system IN the eOuth.
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10.-The working
men of the country are finding in the re-
cent labor trouble in the south a beauti-
full opportunity to judge of the real ami
mus of the two political parties toward
labor AL l@bcring people. That tine
Democratic party has been the foe of free
labor is recognized feature of the earlier
history of this country, and that it is still
Indifferent to the interests of the labor
ing element must be apparent to any
body who stops to study the situation as
brought sharply into notice by the pres
ent condition of affairs in the south.
Word comes from Tennessee that in spite
of the promises of the governor the con-
ditions in regard to the use of convict
labor in competition with free labor have
not at all improved.
Absolute Control Shows Real Sentiment.
1t is only in the states or localities in
whick party has absolute and undis-
puted control for long period that its
real attitude toward any element Of So
ciety is clearly shown. Where the ma
| jority is slender it is often necessary for
party leaders to hide their real senti.
ments in order to continue their control.
But in the southern states, where they
have had enormous majorities and held
them constantly by their own peculiar
methods, they have shown their entire
disregard of the interests of free labor
and to the laboring element generally.
| Convict Labor Leased In the "safe DEM
ocratic" States.
Take the "safe" Democratic states of
the country at large as an example.
There are perhaps dozen which have
been considered absolutely safe to the
Democracy under all circumstances,
located of course in the south.
In ten of these twelve states they have
put convict labor into direct competition
with the workingmen of the state. In
| only two of the safe Democratic states
has the party omitted to show its hos
| tility to labor by failing to put convicts
| in striped clothing into open competi-
| ton with the workingmen. Scattered
all over these ''safe Democratic" states
are camps of convicts, worked upon
| plantations or in the mines In competi-
ton with the laboring men of those
states, and if the laboring people dare
protest, that favorite argument Of the
southern Democracy, the rifle, is turned
against them.
Brutal Treatment OF Prisoners.
The tales of horror which come from
these convict camps are shocking, not
only in the matter Of their cruelty to the
convicts themselves, but to the working
people at large whose interests are over
ridden by party which thus shows its
absolute contempt for their interest and
appeals. Prisoners are beaten, starved,
threatened with death in order to force
them to perform heavy tasks and thus
increase the competition which their la
Dor produces against the free labor with
which they are brought into competi-
ton. These questions have been brought
to the attention of the authorities time
after time, but with no avail. Labor
leased for forty cents per day, and driven
to its utmost tension with hoggings and
threats of death, is calmly put into COM
petition with the working people at
large, and they are held in subsection
by the use of rifles and Gatling guns,
while Democratic governors and legisla-
tors refuse them relief.
Compare This with Republican Methods
This could not happen in any but
solidly Democratic community. At least
it does not happen in any other. There
are twice as many ''safe Republican"
states at the north as there are ''safe
Democratic" states at the south. Yet
there is scarcely single one of the GER
tainly Republican states which permits
convict labor to be brought in any way
into competition with the laboring ele-
| mert. Convicts are worked in prisons,
and care is taken to select for them en-
ployment in the occupations which will
bring them as little as possible into COM
petition with free labor or skilled work
men, and prevent their personal contact
with any.
Convict camps and convict competi-
| ton with the laborer are things un-
known in Republican states, and only
prevail in states where the Democracy
shows its true colors by the enjoyment
| of an enormous and absolutely safe ma
| iority. And the more absolute the ma
| jority the more absolute in this regard
Of the rights of the laboring man. In
ten-twelfths of the solidly Democratic
states leased convict labor is put into
competition with the workingmen Of the
communities. Ten-twelfths Of the states
Of the Union which lease their convict
labor are solidly Democratic states, for
there are but two states outside of the
solidly Democratic south that have even
modified form Of convict lease system.
Seen I'm National Affairs.
Not only has the Democratic party
shown its indifference to the rights OF
labor under slavery and under the con-
vict lease system, but also by the words
and votes of its officials at Washington.
When the Mills bill was before congress
q Republican amendment proposing to
exclude from the United States goods
manufactured by convict labor was de-
feated by Democratic votes. A similar
section in the Mckinley bill was almost
solidly opposed in the vote by the Demo
cratic members of the house. Mr.. Cleve-
land while governor of New York vetoed
the bill abolishing convict labor in pris-
ons, and while president vetoed the anti
convict labor bill in 1885 and again in
1888, and i'll his message to congress in
1888 recommended the employment of
government prisoners in the ,aanufac-
ture of such articles as are needed for
use by the government, thus proposing
to put them in competition with the
workingmen Of the country.
| o. p. AUSTIN.
| ri EvEI AND,S LETTER