Middletown transcript., 1898-05-07
GOOD ROADS.

or good roads, mas turned MS ATTENTION
to the employment of conVicts to. pre-.
pare the material for road making. In
recent address delivered before tbs
National Road parliament, he alludes
to the advice he gave at the road con.
vention held at Sacramento, three years
ago, in regard to the use of convict
labor for preparing road material.
"They received" J" he says, "with great
satisfaction my suggestion to put the
convict at work in preparing road ma
terial. They wanted to get the teneft
of convict labor and wanted to get 1t
on the roads, but they did not want to
put the convicts to work in public in
building roads," He says again, 81
pointed out to them that right in their
prison grounds at Folsom they had the
best road material in the state; they
had immense water power developed
altogether by convict labor all ready
for work; all they needed 10 do was to
provide machinery for quarring and
crushing the rock, to be driven by
that water power. and put their con-
victs at work preparing road materials.
They took it up at once; they were for
tunate enough to persuade the South
ern Pacific railroad to give them low
rates on the transporting Of this ma
terial, and today the state Of California
is prepared to furnish a thousand tons
of rock a day, put on the cars, at twenty.
five cents ton, all prepared for use.
The railroads Of California are carry.
ing it at the bare cost Of the train SER
vice required, so that the counties in
the great central valley of California,
where there is not a gravel stone that
you can throw at bird are being sup
piled with road materials. delivered at
their doors all crushed, separated aud
prepared for use, at fifty to sixty cents
a ton, less than you can buy it at any
quarry in the United States.
Z 81 see 10 reason why the state of New
York which has 1900 prisoners march
ing around for exercise to keep them
from going mad, should not put some
of these men at work preparing mater
ials for distribution and transportation
over the splendid waterways Of that
state.
"In building the Geneva road, the
surfacing material is carried $50
m lies by canal and river. Nor is there
any reason why the state of Tennessee
should not use its couvicts in the same
way. There is very especial value
in this use of convicts. Itnot only fnr-
nishes materials at a lJw rate, but, in
doing that, it stimulates bodybuilding
and leads to the employment Of free
labor in the actual construction Of the
ro ads. It disposes of the convict labor
question; it practically disposes of the
road question and it makes a demand
for free labcr-the labor of men and
teams 10 putting this material out upon
the roads.o
Nor can there be any reason why
many of the states that have idle con-
Yicts, should not employ their labor In
crushing stone for roads. This cannot
be done in public, but at Quarries where
suitable stones can be found and where
the convicts could be guarded in safe
ty, and kept from the public gaze. In
would be good for the convicts them
selves, and wonld be great assistance
in securing good roads through the
country. Squads Of fifty or twenty
could be stationed at a quarry near to
town or city in which there was q
secure prison to lodge them during the
night. Some such plan would possibly
be feasible and the convict lator would
be secured, without any disadvantage
to other laborers, who might be en-
ployed in getting the material in place
and completing the roads.
But farmere should not wait for con-
vict labor to do what must be done for
the use of every honest farmer. Good
roads pay for the money expended as
well as any improvement made for the
reclaimIng and tilling of the soil, and it
is only question of time when the work
should be undertaken. No outlay
which the state, the county, or the
farmer can make will eventually prove
50 profitable as mopey iudiciously
expended in constructing good roads
through the country. They are becom-
ing as necessary as the roof on a house,
if you would live In it. Every rain
storm and every break up only adds to
the pressing necessity that something
must be done. No subject Of state leg
islation is of greater Importance than
this. Keep this in mind and don't
wait for convict labor.