Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-08
CO NVICT LABOR
Interesting Facts Presented to the
Industrial Commission.
new YORK'S SECRETARY OF STATE
Tells Of the Changes Made in the
State Prisons.
NO OPEN MARKET SALES

The industrial commission resumed Its
work this morning by examining Mr.. John
7. McDonough, secretary of state of New
York. Mr. McDonough was commissioner
of labor from April. 1896, until he assumed
the office of secretary of state, on the LIST
of last January. He was a member of the
constitutional convention of New York In
1894, and is at present chairman of that
committee. and is the author of section 20,
article }, of the constitution, which had the
effect of changing the labor system in the
prisons of New York state Prior to jan
uary l, 1897 the systems in vogue in New
York prisons was known as the piece price
plan In the working of convicts. Under
this pan articles were manufactured at a
given price per piece. Another system in
other prisons in the state was to allow the
head of the prison to purchase goods and
make them up and sell them in the open
market. Both of these systems were OBJ
Jecled TO by manufacturers and wOrkmen
outside the prisons as the prison price
really made the market price. In one prison
1000 pairs of shoes were turned out daily
at cost OF 80 cents day for the labor
Inc business was regarded as profitable
Tor the prisons, and they actually began to
bid for prisoners from all parts of the coun-
try.
Bidding for Prisoners.
Contractors made money out of the SyS-
tenn, and it was said that the police were
instructed in Albany, when the number of
prisoners were not sufficient for the work
on hand, to arrest more men, and 500 had
been onered as special reward for a long
term prisoner in good condition Under the
changed system the number of prisoners
from the city of Albany has fallen off
greatly Under the old system shoes were
MADE Tor and cents pair in the prison,
and then went with competition in the
OEen market with free labor
Under the provision of the constitution
prepared by Mr.. McDonougb since the 1st
OF January. 1897 no prisoner is allowed to
work on anything that Is sold in the open
market blu: the work is only furnished the
state and reformatory institutions The in
sane asylums of the state have % 900 in
mates and are the best customers of the
prisoners The articles are paid for but in
no case are they allowed to be sold in the
market in way to affect the price of
other similar articles.
Prisoners Still Kept Busy.
Inc number of prisoners now in the prisons
iholcates that the desire for prisoners
In order to make money out of them has
stopped for In the past three years the in
crease OF prisoners had not kept pace with
the population All the prisoners are now
Kept as busy AS formerly and learn more
races because they do more hand work
ne sdld there is also more opportunity to
reform the prisoners and there was not the
incentive for fraud and corruption when
prisoners We're source of profit to the con-
iaCtofS. 1here was great opposition to the
making or THIS change, backed up largely
by the influence of the contractors nroft-
ing by the old system, and by some prom
lnent and well-meaning men who believed
that under the changed system the men
could not be kept busy and that insanity
10 nriSn
vast extent; also, that the expense to the
state would be increased The fact under
me oiu system was that IN ten years the
state mad a deficit of $3,1TU,WD. while Under
the new system under way for the mast
three years, 1t was believed that the prisons
VIII soon become entirely self-supporting.
put at present less money is being lost on
TINS account than formerly
He did not believe in using as much ma
cnihery as Is now the custom In even The
Ne" York prisons. He thought there should
De no machinery in prisons for increasing
production. He had also lately racon1
Inehded TO Gov. Roosevelt the payment
OF money due prisoners at the time of
theli diScharge in small monthly INSTALL
ments instead of in lump Now they
i'm squalder their money in short time
anu "oulC nave better chance for reform
II they could get it in installments
A Tax Prison-Mnde Goods.
Mr., McDonough also recommended a tax
goods going from one state to another. He
thought that would break M the usa of
such articles in the open market to the in
jury of workmen. The New York supreme
court had declared as Unconstitutional tho
ID" requiring the branding Of prison-made
goods He favored such a law and thought
1t was only branding the article as being
what IL actually is. Such brand would
result IN the boycotting of the article by
iaDor organizations.
Great Britain works her prisoners great
aeal as Is now done in New York state She
Keeps her prisoners at work on public
works, in building docks roads Sc Their
labor Is not allowed to compete in price in
the open market with the labor outside of
lne prisons The only competition is that
"hlch is naturally made by doing the work
and keeping 1t from being done by outside
persons -
In New York. he said the skilled work
men dld not object, he thought, to immi-
grafton. The carpenters rather favored i'm
migration, with the idea that the more
people there were the more houses would
be built. and in that way they would profit
by Inc presence of the immigrant. In New
YORK state there is law which provides
thdt only American citizens NAV he en-
ployed on public works, and citizens of New
y ork state are preferred for such work
wherever possible.
Mr. McDOnough hesitated to give bis
views of the subject of Immigration he
SAID. because he was a recent importa tion
having been born in ireland. He had on
another occasion said that he would prefer
leaving that question to people who had
been here a longer time. He knew of no
country that prohibited immigration and
he didn't see how this country could do it.
He didn't see how the educational test
would result in giving the country the best
class of citizens. for the reason that the
most troublesome rascals are the ones who
are educated. A man lately hung In New
York knew more about Latin and Greek
than any other man in the state.
Labor Laws Beneficial
He thought the labor laws had been very
beneficial to the working people of New
York They are working well. They have
no employers liability laws in New York
state, and had been unable to pass such
law at the last session of the legislature
Mr.. McDonough had tables showing that
labor unions in New York have increased
from 927 in the first quarter of 1897 to l 139
in the last quarter of 1893. The member
ship of these unions increased in that time
as follows: Men, from 1873, 249 to 1877 394
and women from .321 to 7,453. The aver
age quarterly earnings of the members of
these unions had increased during this
period for the men from $155O6 to S175.4I
and for the women 1t has decreased from
$500 to SS153. The unemployed among