Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-02-07
AGRICULTURAL HINTS;
coNvIcTs FOR ROAD WORK.

propriate funds sufficient to employ
free labor in the construction of our
common roads, would strenuously OPP
nosa the employment of prison con-
victs on the work. believe that true
economy would be found in building
up our highways through the intel
ligence and skill of honest industry.
More work and better work would be
secured and the expenditures would
meet with a wider circulation in the
community and would subserve more
diversified interests. But it is con-
coded that neither state nor county
authority has reached, or is likely to
reach, the advanced position where ap-
preparations will be made adequate to
the construction of roads by the hand
of the free and honest citizen. If this
be true, then it is equally obvious that
the friends of good roads, must de-
pend on the use of such means in the
furtherance of their projects as may
be offered.
Last year the employment of con-
vets on the common roads was entered
upon in this county. So far as this sec
ton of the state is concerned the work
was experimental The legislature APP
propriated 5000 to be spent in build
ing roads within thirty miles of the
three prisons of the state and the money
was divided, each prison receiving
s.. 900: to this sum, by subsequent act
of the legislature, the agent and warden
were authorized to draw 81, 666-66 for
guarding, sheltering and the care of
the convicts. Out of that sum was paid
the civil engineer and surveyor from
the state engineers office at Albany.
The agent and warden, a friend of
'.good roads, pushed the work vigor-
ously and faithfully. During the few
months left to him, he built and COM
pleted three miles of macadamized
road. using broken stone and gravel
for top dressing, which were thorough
ly rolled 10y steam roller. He also pre-
pared many miles of road under the
direction of road commissioners and
has opened bitches and turnpiked three
miles of road on the west side of Owasco
lake. and has constructed many sluice-
ways for the carrying off of surface
water-one of the most essential things
in the proper construction of roads.
am informed by Mr.. Stout that not
an attempt was made by convict to
escape and that he found it necessary
to employ but one guard for ten con-
victS. The threat to lock a man for the
day in his cell and to keep him from
his outdoor work was sufficient to Sc
cure discipline.
This evidence of Mr.. Stout's would
seem to negative the statement recent
ly made by Superintendent Lathrop in
an interview published in the New
York papers, wherein he is reported as
saving that it required at the Dame
mora prison two guards for each con-
vict, and that $4,000 wasexpended from
the road fund IN securing two escaped
convicts.
The superintendent of state prisons
does not agree with the legislature, nor
does he agree with himself. Two years
ago the legislature provided for the
work of 2OG eonvicts on the roads; last
wear it extended the number to $50
convicts-and the superintendent made
NO official protest. In his report G
1894, through one OF his agents and
svardens, he says:
Taking into consideration that the
eGnvicts worked only eight hours per
day and that they. as we'll as their
keepers, were inexperienced in road
making, the above showing (Of the
roads made is one that is entirely sat
isfaetory. That a limited nEmber OF
conviets can be worked successfully at
road Building is now an esta blished
fact and that the road constructed is
frst-elass one is conceded by every one
who has seen it,
The road here referred to is tbs. road
constructed at Dannemora prison in
Clinton county, which he denounees in
his newspaper interview
Agent and Warden Stout could not
have been advised of this change OF
front on the part of his superior, for,
in a carefully considered letter, adj
dressed to one of our citizens and writ
ten within the last month. the agent
and warden thus expresses himself:
~ am thoroughly convinced that the
scheme of building roads by convicts
is step in the right direction. / think
we can build macadamized roads
throughout the country for from $500
to 81 600 mile. and in my annual re-
port to the superintendent of prisons
this year. I shall recommend a larger
appropriation for building and repair
ing roads l find where have worked
that the farmers are becoming greatly
interested and have rendered assistance
in the way of donating stone and team
work. / also believe that in the future
appropriations should be made and
that it would be advisable for the dis
tricts in which the work is done to join
the state forces and work their road
tax in connection with work done
by the state authorities
I assume that the statement made by
Agent and Warden Stout, that the
macadamized road could be construct
ed for $500 per mile by convict labor,
intends to include only the cost of ma
terial, of teams, machinery and guards,
and assumes that the labor of the con-
victs cannot be charged to the expense
account; otherwise it seems hardly
possible that his estimate would be
sufficient. If he is correct, then we
would be compelled to admit that con-
Wet road building is the cheapest at
tainable means for the making of good
roads.-William p. Robinson, in Auburn
On. " Advertiser.