The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-02-28
THE EFFECT OF CONVICT AND CHEAP LABOR.

When it came out in the investigation
of the sweat shops in Chicago that most
of the wholesale clothing dealers in that
city handled goods made by convict Ia
Dor at Sing Sing, n. Y, Mr.. O'Donnell,
a member of the legislative committee
conducting the investigation, said:
This is the milk of the cocoanut. i re-
gard it as the most important information
that the committee has yet found These
prison made goods lower prices and to
compete with them the man ufaoturer must
Cypress the contractor. and to this Is large
ly due the evil OF the sweater"
Mr.. O'D0nnell is a Democrat, and,
presumably, like all Democrats, is deeply
interested in the welfare of working
men. He was shocked to find that
York was sold in Chicago at such prices
as to compel the local employers of free
labor to resort to the sweating system
and starvation prices in order to COM
pete with the convict-made goods. He
suggested that Congress ought to pass
law restricting the sale of convict
made clothing to the State in which 1t is
manufactured, or prohibiting its manu-
facture and sale altogether.
Mr.. O'Donnelps discovery as to the
effect of convict labor on the price of
FREQ labor In Chicago furnishes on in
structive object lesson as to the opera
ton of free trade and the necessity of
protection to keep up wages. OF the
1900 convicts at Sing Sing it is estimated
that not more than three hundred are
employed in the manufacture of cloth
ing, yet 1t is found that the result of
this work is to depress wages in the
distant city of Chicago. and if in Chi
cago, of course. in other cities where
clothing is manufactured. Suppose that
instead of three hundred convicts MAX
ing ready-made clothing at less than
half the wages of free labor. there were
10000, 1000 or 100000 convicts so en-
ployed. And suppose that besides 5O.-
600 or 100000 cOnvicts employed in the
manufacture of clothing. there were
as many more employed in manufacture
ing hats and caps, boots and shoes, col
lars and cuffs. gloves, underwear, cut
lery, clocks and watches, glass and glass
ware, wall paper. jewelry. cotton goods,
wooden goods, silk gOods-in short, all
the commodities that enter into the con-
sumption of daily life. If these $4,000
or 100, 900 cOnvicts were at work in New
York manufacturing all these lines of
goods atconvict wages, is it not plain
that the wages of free labor would be
forced down to the same Standard 1t
is as plain as the sun at MONDAY that
such would be the case. The whole
country would become one vast sweat
shop.
Three thousand miles east of Sing
Sing, in England and on the continent
of Europe, are hundreds of thousands of
workmen and women, skilled laborers,
who work for less than the Sing Sing
convicts are paid. They are employed
in all kinds of manufacturing. The
product of their labor is enormous, and
those who control it are exceedingly
anxious to have free access to this
market. If all restrictions were re-
moved they could lay their manufactured
goods down in this country ut much less
than it costs to produce them here. and
could either drive American manutac-
turers out of the market OF force them
to reduce the rate of wages to the
European standard. The result would
be the establishment of the sweating
system in all lines of manufacture. 1t
would be necessary in order to compete