The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1895-02-09
AGRICULTURALHINT
coNvIcTs FOR ROAD WORK.

Mr.. Robinson, a Cayuca County CN. Y.
Supervisor, Tells His Experience.
If there were q probability hat the
state or county authorities would ap-
propr!ate funds sufficient to employ
free labor in the construction of our
onmon roads. | would strenuouslv op-
pose 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 cor
ceded hat neither state nor county
authority has reached, or is likely tC
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-
victS on the ommOn roads was entered
upon in this county. So far as this sec
ton of the state is concerned the work
was experimental. The legislature ap-
propriated $4,000 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
$1,000: to this sum-. by subsequent act
of the legislature, the agent and warden
were authorized to draw 81. 6G6.G6 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, Il 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 We're thorough
" rolled by steam roller. lie 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
watcr-one of the most essential things
III the proper construction of roads.
am informed by Mr.. Stout that not
an attempt was made by Il 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
Wet, and that $4,000 was expended 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 200 convicts on the roads; last
year it extended the number to 600
convicts-and the superintendent made
no official protest. In his report of
1894, through one of his agents and
wardens, he says:
Taking into consideration that the
convicts worked only eight hours per
day and that they. as well as their
keepers, were inexperienced in road
making, the above showing (Of the
roads made) is one that is entirely sat
i~sfactory. That a limited number of
convicts can be worked successfully at
road building is now IN established
fact and hat the road constructed is a
frst-class one is conceded by every one
who has seen it"
The road here referred to is the road
constructed at Dannemora prison in
Clinton county, which he denounces 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:
Il am thoroughly convinced that the
Ct building roads by convicts
is a step in the right direction. l think
we can bmI macadamized IDS
throughout the country for from $500
II 900 a mile. and in my annual re-
port to the superintendent OF prisons
this year, l shall rec2mmend a lager
appropriation for building Eta repair
ing roads, l find where have worked
that the farmers are becoming greatly
interesred and have rendered assistance
IL che way Of donating stone and tea,n
l also believe that in the future
appropriations should be made and
that il would be advisable for h dis