The Saint Paul globe., 1899-02-19

been solved when a system was intro
duced wherein manufactures of differ
ent kinds were introduced in the pris-
ons. ard the felons were made to learn
and work at different trades. The sup
porters of the system pointed out with
truth that several very important ENDS
We're gained. In the first place the
cCnVicts were made self-Support1ng.
Tie cost of their keeping was taken,
indirectly, off the state. The felons
were taught trades which would ena-
BILE them to make an honest living after
leaving the penitentiary- How many
I might ask of the hundreds who
learn to superintend one OF the Shoe-
making machines at Saltwater, ma a
vacancy at one of the same machines
in any of the factories of the state upon
getting their discharge? So long as
diversified trades were taught the sys-
TEN had an influence for good and to-
ward reform. which cannot be SAID OF
the plan at present in vogue.
"AH of this goes to show how very
little social economics are understood,
and how it is only after many blunders
that we can come to the truth. How
only after exhausting the possibilities
of error we cease to err. That the
cost of keeping the conVicts Is taken OH
the state is true, but the cost is palo
by some one, as all should know, ana
it is paid by the honest labor with
which convict labor comes into com
petition, Warden Wolfer to the con-
tra1-v. notwithstanding. Convicts work
inc at an average of say thirty-five
cents a day produce shoes which are
mt in the market side by side with
those made by free labor at an average
of few cents over two dollars a DAY.
The prison contractor has thus mar
gin of over $1.50 per day per laborer
against outside rivals. He could still
sell at a profit while they sell at
loss The consequence is easy to fore
cast. The free laborer must adjust
himself to meet enslaved competition,
and he is assisted in his adjustment
by the pressure upon his employer IN
stead of taxing the whole community
for the support of the convicts in the
shoe shops. the ShoemakerS OF the state
are ingeniouslv compelled to pay for
their imprisoned co-workers- In llilnols
the free coopers must pay for the con-
yict coopers. In Missouri the free sad
dlers support the immured saddlers,
and so the vicious circle Is completed
along the whole lire of industry.
"It is an actual fact, which will be
found true in all save Isolated in
stances, that wages are lower than
they were thirty, twenty or ten years
ago. especially in the shoe trade, and
that the number of idle men is cor
respondingly larger, in spite of the fact
that Bradstreets, ,Dun's and Wall street
reports all agree that the past year
was the most prosperous one In the
history of the country. And we can
see how this must be true. The av-
erage price paid for prison labor in
Minnesota is about 45 cents a day, and
the number of convicts employed is
Sust about sufficient to leaven the
whole lump of free laborers in that
particular trade. And these are, after
all. only isolated instances. The whole
domain of industry is affected by this
criminal labor. 1t does not need that
the percentages of felons to honest men
should be larger.
"Some years ago held position with
a firm in Chicago that kept a standing
order, for unlaundered shirts, with a
New York concern that held the op-
ton on the prison labor of that state.
These shirts we paid SO a dozen for
and made them a leader at 20 cents
each. We sold, on an average, fifty
dozen a month"; which our order called
for; other concerns, no doubt, had
similar contract with the same firm
Do you mean to tell me that our-and
others-saleS of 600 dozen convict-made
shirts a year had no effect upon the
trade of Eastern shirt manufacturers.
From personal conversations with their
representatives 1 am satisfied that 1t
was the means of reducing the wages
of their operatives from Is to 35 cents
q dozen. and then they were compelled
TO ask $3.50 dozen for a similar shirt
"If there is enough prison output to
make any appreciable effect on the
market. the honest product must come
to the price set by the dishonest prod
uct. The markets are sensitive and
sympa athetic and they govern wages.
The end of it all must be that free Ia
Dor will approximate nearer and near
er in pay and treatment to prison Ia
Dor. II we keep on in the vicious road
in which we are now travelling. An
other case in point. Had the con-