The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-09
~ AND COUNTY RoADwoRK.


roe Labor vs.. Convict Labor.
,nnah. March S.-Editor Morning
-. The writer is informed that it has
:. stated by certain officials that, in
:, rticles comparing the cost of paving
s.norted by Messrs. Willink and Chap
zoe has designedly omitted the differ
in cost of convict and free labor as
loved respectively by the county and
If such information is correct the
rer begs, respectfully. to say that the
,tlsmen are mistaken, and to repeat
~ he has said in a previous article-only
ra emphatically-that he is, in no sense
he word an office seeker and has no AK
,,.ind But since the question has been
aueht up he proposes, briefly, to discuss
the first place we are led to believe
N, information obtained from the news
n.ors that. for the first four months of
tbcounty's paving work. or up to the time
commissioner Chaplin's report in De-
oener 1895 only hired labor under Supt.
We was employed on it. But for the
soLof discussion let US overlook this and
.onler that convict labor was employed
frolthe beginning.
Nv. as shown in the previous arti-
clest appears from the deductions from
Mr.Villink's report on Bay street extend
cd AT the paving alone on the Ogeechee
ro16ould have cost $14, LOG. 40 per mile and,
al e same ratio, 74,05S.60 for the "a
mile paved. From MIR. Chaplin's report
on ts work it seems to have been at the
rate S5,148.O0 per mile or $27 ,027.00 for the
vhoLdistance-a difference of $S95S.40 per
mile, r a7.Osl. go for the completed paving.
Let L suppose that this latter sum repre-
sens he difference in cost between free
ard clvict labor.
Frol the reports that have come to us
;broua the newspapers in the last sever
al yeas we gather that the cost for the
items { guarding and feeding alone, per
work 0y, for each convict, man, woman,
child, ale-bodied, sick or infirm, has been
from % o 81 cents. Adding the other items
Of maintenance, such as clothing, bedding,
housing. medicines and medical attend
ance chins, shackleS and the tools they
work win, a reasonable estimate would
be, for eaeh convict so cents per work day
II we should take into consideration the
number q women, children, sick, disa-
bled ana infirm, who are unable to do
hard labor or work on the roads, but
who are COUNTED at so cents per work day,
the actual cost of able-bodied convict Ia
Dor would be Increased, perhaps, to as
much as rs cents for each one per work
day. However, let us also omit this con-
sideratior and estimate the convict labor
for each work day at so cents per capita.
Let US assume the cost of labor to the
city to have been 81 per capita per day
then the saving to the county on each
laborer was 50 cents a day.
The Morning News of Aug. %, 1895, in
forms US tlat Supt. Wade had just COM
menced the work on the Ogeechee road
with twenty-five men, preparatory to paw
ing it, and in the issue of June %, 1896, is
an article headed, 1.-The Ogeechee Road
Finished" so that the work was in pro-
gress, say, ten months. In these ten
months there are 260 working days, maxi
ing no deductions for Indictment weather
or holidays. New, in $50 days the county
would save on each laborer $50. How
many laborers should it have had for
Every working day in the ten months, to
ave S4703l. 60-the difference in cost of the
the work according to the deductions
from the reports of Messrs. Willink and
Chaplin? Simple arithmetic tells us S61.
But this represents only the labor for the
paving work. According to Mr.. Chaplin's
report on the first 1850 feet of the road,
the grading and other expenses was at
the rate of about 81 $50 per mile, or for
the 5l4 miles, say, $7,612. Counting this in
labor, the sum would represent SO con-
yicts more, for the whole ten months.
Summing up, from the foregoing, the
difference in cost, as appears from the de-
auctions from the official reports referred
10, would represent in convict labor: On
the grading and other work, So convicts;
On the paving work, S61 convicts, or a to-
tai Of say, APO convicts for each and every
work day of the ten months.
As this is not written in a controver-
sal spirit, the writer makes no comment,
out leaves each reader to form his own
conclusions. Inquirer.
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