Evening journal., 1897-01-15
LABOR Should BE FREE.

mans health and happiness as food,
yet many so-called labor reformers
have been anxious to prevent the mass
of the people from enjoying its benefits
I'm order to raise its value. 1t would
be a sad thing for this country if half
its working people were obliged to keep
idle n'order to give the other half high
wages for short hours of work II
strikes us that this thing was carried
too far when the politicians of the
State of New York succeeded in getting
an enactment in the Constitution of
that state prohibiting ordinary labor
in prisons
The clause referred to was inserted
at the demand of a certain class OF
labor agitators, who pretend to be-
lieve that work in prisons tends to de-
grade labor in the eyes of people gem
orally, and that it does an injustice to
outside worlSmen inasmuch that it COM
petes with them. From a vote-catching
standpoint it may have been good poll
ties TO deprive the prisoners and the
state of the advantages of this labor,
but il strikes us it was great mis-
take TO thus, through the fundamental
law Of thes tate deprive the taxpay-
ers OF the advantage which they gained
by The labor of prisoners.
Prisoners have to be supported at the
expense of the county or state. and
their maintenance is to more or less
extent paid for by each and every tax
payer The Incarceration of men in
Jail is not intended, at least in this
land, to drive them into insanity
through Incidence, and yet one of the
greatest states in the Union, by its
Constitution, insists upon placing this
burden upon its taxpayers and using
the best possible means for driving its
criminals mad. The new system went
into effect on the first day Of January
and we CLEAN from the Tribune, OF New
York, an insight into affairs at Sing
Sing, as they have already developed,
viz:
Yesterday was the first idle work
day in the prison. and one thousand
men killed time and hoped that the
conference of prison authorities, which
took place in Albany, would result in
work-work of any kind. The men
were marched out in companies of fifty
from the twenty-four galleries at z
o'clock. After breakfast they were al
lowed to exercise an hour, and then.
had to return to their cells, where they
remained until IL o'clock, when they
had another hour of exercise before
their midday meal. Another hour of
marching about the yard or lounging
there, and then back to the little cells.
from which they came again only long
enough to eat their supper of bread and
coffee. That was the Sing Sing con-
vict's first day under the new law"
the bad effect of this enforced idle
ness on the prisoners themselves can
easily be understood" said Warden o.
V. Sage. There is more prison mad
ness than people have an idea of. 1t
is not an unusual thing to have a pris-
oner become violent without warning
or apparent cause. Men who work
daily and do their tasks conscien-
tiously and well, frequently become
mad in consequence of their brooding.
changed mode of life and from physi-
cal causes They must be cared for, and
many have to be sent away. II the
idleness continues these cases will be-
come more numerous, for we know that
the Investigations of crimnologists
have demonstrated tnat fact"
WHAT will be the result Of this en-
forced idleness among so many men,
who have been used for years to obey
promptly and with alacrity, the labor
whistle we cannot as yet foretell
though we have hint of it above
from Warden Sage. The result outside
of the iails is, however, sure, for it is
bound to raise taxes, and other states
in the Union will be wise to think
twice before they enact any such abb
surd legislation as that which has
brought about this state Of affairs.
Here in Delaware, where prison re-
form is now a question of the hour
some adequate provision should be
made for our own prisoners who are
non-producers, and a heavy burden Oh
the taxpayers.