Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-03-29
coxv1crs AND ROAD BUILDING.
Public Opinion in several States Favorable
to Thus Employing Prisoners.


to Thus Employing Prisoners.
From the Springfield tMass) Republican
The drift OF opinion in several states il per-
ceptibly in favor Of employing state prison con-
victs in public road making. In the southern
states-like Georgia, Tennessee and some others
where the convict lease ayssem is in opera
ton, this question presents an aspect different
from that presented in those states where con-
victs are already housed in prisons and en-
ployed on public account, directly or indi-
rectly. 1t is practically settled that convict
camps and convict leases must 20. Human
ity and the interests Of the states where these
relics of old-time barbarities survive demand
it. In Tennessee the miners revolt is hasten
ing the inevitable. In the other states various
potent conditions are working in the same di-
rection. In view Of this outlook the question
Is pressing what to do with the convicts when
they are returned to the care Of the state. The
legislature Of two or three Of these states
Georgia and Alabama, with Tennessee. we be-
heve-have had this matter before them, and
in one or more Of these states the legislature
was asked to refer the matter to a commission
which should report on the best means of en-
ploying convict labor. The various systems of
indoor empioyment-the piece price, public ac-
cussed, but none seems to meet with so much
favor as the proposition to make the conyicts
build the highways.
1t is difficult enough in the old and richer
states to solve the proble1 OF good roads. but
it is much harder in the south 1t is largely a
question Of money and taxation everywhere.
and is, because OF the greater poverty of the
south, all the more difficult problem for that
section TO solve. 1t is also true that the need
OF good roads IS greater there than in the north
and east because the railroads are fewer and
the hauls from the farm to the shipping point
are longer. All tine conditions seem to exist,
therefore, in state like Tennessee for ap-
plying convict labor to the solution of the road
problem. SO far as it will 60. There is the pub
lie consciousness Of the need for good roads
and the public reluctance or inability to tax it.
self to build them. On the other hand there is
this supply Of labor ready at hand. which is
only burden on the state if not employed in
some way FOX the public good The chances
seem good that the law of supply and demand
will be allowed to operate to bring these ele-
ments together in several southern state. and
that it will rot be long before the convicts are
al work road building
Ii convlcts of any class or all classes can be
used In building roads without interfering with
the purposes OF reform. which are among the
ends aimed at by imprisonment why not set
them at work? Such is the proposition. The
legislature of New York has this question be-
fore it in the shape of bill providing that
road making shall be part of the 'nard labor
included in the conyict's sentence. Under This
bill only two-thirds of the conv;cts in anv
prison can be EMPLOYED in road making at anv
one time. This Limitation leaves an onnor.
tunity, by rotation in work. for the learning
of trades and the operation Of the other re-
formatory features OF prison life. All winter.
also, when road building could not 90 on. trade
learning and teaching OF other kinds could be
continued There are. moreover. multitndes
OF short-tirne convicts who are not in prison.
long enough at any one time to learn trades
who could be put TO work on the roads. It is
not a disadvantage to this plan that it adds an
element of hardship to the prisoners lot. L.
is not. it must be confessed, a yerv edifying
spectacle to see a cham gang at work in the
streets or on the highway, and such a public
exposure would necessarily be Illuminating to all