Daily Kennebec journal., 1897-09-02
Convict Labor in Road MAKING.

In several of the northern states
serious consideration has been given 10
the proposition to employ the convicts
at road making but so far no definite
One of the arguments most frequently
advanced against it is that it is de-
scending to the Southern system of
leasing convicts. a system looked upon
with adherence by most people in this
part of the country and which is fall
ing into disfavor in those localities
where it is in force. Here in Maine
where the disposition of the thousands
of vagrant visitors who extort a living
out of the people and are a menace as
we'll as nuisance is a serious problem
The idea Of putting them to work upon
the highways which their restless feet
help to wear out has been discussel
somewhat but no attempt has yet been
made to provide by law for such pur-
pose. But because the problem of
what to do with our convicts remains
unsolved is no reason to suppose that
it does not press for solution. There is
the bitterest hostility against employ
ing convicts at work, the products of
which are to give rise to a competition
injurious to the honest toilers in any
industry. This has had the effect in
New York state of depriving many If
the convicts of any sort of employ
ment with the result that insanity has
increased among the imprisoned and
strong agitation against this enforced
idleness is being made.
1t will be well to keep in mind the
fact that putting our convicts to work
upon the highways is not patterning
after the Southern lease system,
Georgia, which is just now disgusted
and with good reason, at the scandals
and brutality attending that system is
planning to change it for one by means
of which the convicts may be employed
~ Acou CuiiNiHs5. 1At tHetl WoIh FtIcS
will be engaged in a healthfuls occupa-
ton, will be competing with no class
of labor, for they will be doing that
which without them would remain un-
done for years to come, and they will
be recompensing the taxpayers of the
state for their support.
The convict labor problem has been
brought to the front in Georgia by 4
report of a special commissioner ap-
the condition of affairs in the convict
camps, also by wakening among the
people generally to the need of better
roads. The report has aroused intense
Indignation, though it exposes no more
than many have known to exist for
years. But the publicity of the cruelty
and slavery to which the convicts are
subjected under the lash Of the greedy
taskmaster puts the matter in such
light that Georgians cannot afford u
be otherwise than indignant. Then,
too, the people have several object les
! sons to reflect upon. North Carolina
has secured the best roads in the South
by the employment of her convict la
Dor at that work for the past five
years. The experiment has been tried
in and about Atlanta with good results.
Another proposition, which is now not
so favorably received but may be by
the time the Legislature meets is to
establish convict farm as Mississippi
has successfully done.
But convicts or no convicts the road
question still lives, and tramps are
often afflicted with longevity.
The Lewiston Journal reports that Of
the 400 or 500 school teachers in An.
droscoggin county. only a dozen or Sd