Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1895-02-21
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IMPROVEMENT.
CoNvIcTs FOR ROAD WORK.

state or county authorities would APP
propriate funds sufficient to employ
free labor in the construction of our
common roads. ! would strenuously OPP
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 con-
coded that neither state nor county
authority has reached, or is likely to
reach, the advanced position where APP
preparations will be made adequate to
the construction Of roads by the hand
of the free and honest citizen. II 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 common roads was entered
upon in this county. So far as this sec
tiun of the state is concerned the work
was experimental The legislature APP
propriated $4,000 to be spent in build
ing roads within thirty miles of he
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 ,666.G6 for
.r.ae ,-1ir chaIfarsrrr 10 -
the convicts. Out of that sum was paid
the civil engineer and surveyor from
the state engineers Office at Albany.
The agent and warden, 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 by 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 0wasco
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 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.. Stouts 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 Danne-
mora prison two guards for each con
Wet, and that 50. 900 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 GOO
convicts-and the superintendent made
no official protest. In his report of
1894. through one of mis- 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 lof the
roads made) is one that is entirely sat
isfactory That limited number of
convicts can be worked successfully at
road building is now an established
fact and that the road constructed is a
first-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:
II 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 1000 mile, and in my annual re-
port to the superintendent of prisons
this year, / shall recommend larger
appropriation for building and repair
ing roads 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.
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