Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1899-05-27
DEBS TALKS TO THE VEAL THY.
Continued from 1st page


cred and defied and almost 500 con-
victs set at liberty
Fortunately the system of leasing
and contracting prison labor for pri-
vate exploitation is being exposed and
it's monster iniquities laid bare.
Thanks to organized labor and to the
spirit of prison reform, this horrifv-
ING phase of the evil is doomed to dis
| appear before an enlightened public
sentiment
The public account system, though
subject to serious criticism, is far less
Objectionable than either the lease, the
contract or the piece-system. At least
the prisoners infirmities cease to be
the prey of speculative greed and con-
scienceless rapacity.
The system of manufacturing for the
use of state, county and municipalin-
stitutions adopted by the state of New
York is an improvement upon those
hitherto in effect, but it is certain to
develop serious objections in course of
time. With the use of modern ma
chinery the limited demand will soon
be supplied and then what? 1t NAV
be in order to suggest that the pris-
shoes and clothes for the destitute
poor and school books for their child
rem and many other articles which
the poor sorely need but are unable
to buy.
Developing along this line it would be
only question OF time until the state
would be manufacturing all things for
the use of the people, and then per-
haps the inquiry would be pertinent:
If the state can give men steady en-
ployment after they commit crime
and manufacturing can be carried for
ward successfully by their labor, why
can it not give them employment be-
fore they are driven to that extrenl-
itv, thereby preventing them from be-
= coming criminals?
"All useful labor is honest labor,
even if performed in prison Only
the labor of exploiter, such as specu-
lators, stock gamblers, beef enbalm-
ers and their mercenary politicians,
lawyers, and other parasites-only
such is dishonest labors. A thief
making shoes in penatentiary is en-
gagged in more useful and therefore
more honest labor than a "free"
stonemasOn at work on a palace
whose foundations are laid in the
skulls and bones; and cemented in the
sweat and the blood of ten thousand
victims of capitalistic exploitation
In both cases the labor compulsory
The stonernason would not work for
the trustmagnate were he not COM
PEELED to do so.
In ancient times only slaves labor
ed And as a matter of fact only
slaves labor now. The millions are
made by the magic of manipulation.
The coal miners of West Virginia,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Ill
inois receive an average wage of less
than 75cts. a day They perform the
most useful and necessary labor,
without which your homes, if posi-
BILE at all, would be as cherries as
caves and the great heart of industry
would cease to throb. Are they free
men, or are they slaves? And what
is the effect of their labor on trade and
Industry? And upon themselves and
their families? Dante would search
the realms of inferno in vain for such
pictures of horror aud despair as are
to be found in the mining regions of
free America.
To the students of social sciecnce
the haggard fact stands forth that
under the competitive system OF pro-
duction and distribution the problem
will never be solved-and its effects
on trade industry will never be great
lv modified. The fact will remain
that whatever labor is performed by
prison labor could and should be per-
formed by free lobor, and when in the
march of economic progress the cap
italist system of industry for private
profit succumbs to the socialist sys-
tenn OF industry for humnn happiness,
when the factory which is now pen
itentiarv crowded with life convicts,
among whom children often consti-
tute the maiority-when this factory
is transformed into temple otscience,
and the machine myriad-arned and
tireless. is the only slave, there will
he no prison labor and the problem
will cease to vex the world, and to
this it is coming in obedience the eco
monte law, as unerring in its opera
ton as the law of gravltation.
That prison labor is demoralzing
in it's effect on trade and industry
whenever and wherever brought INTO
competition with it especially under
the various forms of the contract sys-
tenn is of course conceded, but that II