Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-10-27
LEASING CONVICTS.
DEMOCRATS INDIFFERENT TO THE
RIGHTS OF WORKINGMEN.
Conditions in States Where They Have
Absolute Control Shows Absolute In
difference to Rights of Labor-The Con-
vict Lease System in the South.
Especial Correspondence

Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, Oct 10.-The working
men Of the country are finding in the re
cent labor trouble in the south beauti
full opportunity to judge of the real ami
mus of the two political parties toward
labor and laboring people. That the
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 sentim ent.
1t is only in the states or localities in
which 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 compete
ton with the workingmen. Scattered
all over these "safe Democratic" states
are camps of oonyicts, worked upon
or in the mines in COMPETE
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 Ia
Dor produces against the free labor with
which they are brought into COMPETE
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 foggings 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 legis1a-
tors refuse them relief.
Compare This with Republican Methods.
This could not happen in any but a
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 s'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-
ment. 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 COMPETE
ton with the laborer are things I'M
known in Republican states, and only
prevail in states where the Democracy
shows its true colors by the enjoyment
If an enormous and absolutely safe ma
jority. And the more absolute the ma
lority the more absolute in this regard
IF the rights of the laboring man. In
of the solidly Democratic
states leased convict labor is put into
with the workingmen of the
Ten-twelfths of the states
IF the Union which lease their convict
abor are solidly Democratic states, for
there are but two states outside Of the
solidly Democratic south that have even
a modified form of convict lease system.
Seen in National Affairs.
Not only has the Democratic party
shown its Indifference to the rights of
abor under slavery and under the con-
Tict lease system, but also by the words
md votes of its officials at Washington.
When the Mills bill was before congress
/ Republican amendment proposing to
exclude from the United States goods
by convict labor was de-
;eated by Democratic votes. A similar
section in the Mckinley bill was almost
'olidly opposed in the vote by the Demo-
cratic members OF the house. Mr.. Cleve-
and while governor Of New York vetoed
he bill abolishing convict labor in pris-
ms, and while president vetoed the anti
convict labor bill in 1886 and again in
1888, and in his message to congress in
1888 recommended the employment of
government prisoners in the manufac-
5ure of such articles as are needed for
$50 nv the Governments Tins r1ronoSincr