Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1899-05-27

Ildu lHelT DaSt1leS ana their dungeons.
Most of the pioneers of progress, the
matters OF oppression, the lovers of lib
erty, whose name now glorify the
patheon of the world, made such IN
stitutions necessity in their day.
But civilization advances. however
slowly, and there has been some pro-
gress. 1t required five hundred years
to travel from the inquisition to the
injunction.
In the earlier days punishment was
the sole purpose ofimprisoment. Of
tenders against the ruling class must
pay the penalty in prison cell, which,
not infrequentlv, was equipped with
instruments of torture. With the civ
ilizing process came the idea of the
reformation of the culprit, and this
idea prompts every investigation
made of the latter day problem The
inmates must be set to WORK for their
own good no less than for the good
OF the state.
1t was at this point that the con-
Wet labor problem began and it has
steadily expanded from that time to
this and while there have been some
temporary notifications of the evil,
it is still an uninitigated curse from
which there can be no escape while an
economic system endures in which la
bor that is to say the labOrer, man,
woman and child, is sold to the low
est bidder in the markets of the
world
More than thirty years ago Prof
E. c. Wines and Prof. Theodore w.
Dwight, then comnlisso nsrs of the
prison association of New York, made
report to the legislature of the state
on prison industry in which they
said:
Upon the whole it is Our settled
conviction that the contract system
of convict labor, added to the system
OF political appointments, which nee
essarily involves a low grade of Off
cial qualification and constant
changes in the prison staff, renders
nugatory to a great extent the whole
theory Of our penitentiary system.
Inspection maybe correct isolated
abuses, philanthropy may relieve iso-
lated cases Of distress; and religion
may affect isolated moral cures; but
genuine, radical, comprehensive, sys-
te.natic Improvement is impossible
The lapse of thirty years has not al
fected the wisdom or logic of the con-
clusiOn. 1t is as true nov as It was
then. Considered in his most favorite
light, the convict is a scourge to HIM
self, q menace to society and q burden
to industry; whatever system OF con-
,,,c+ 1Dhn,- hn t%-aI will ,,1+t
mately fail of it's purpose Of reiOrma-
ton of the criminal or the relief of III
dustry as long as thousands of free
laborers" who have committed no
crime, are unable to get work and
make an honest living. Not long ago
l visited a penitentiary in which a
convict expressed regret that his SEN
tence was soon to expire. Where was
he to go AMI what was he to do?
And how long before he would be sem
fenced for a longer term for greater
crime?
The commission Which investigated
the matter in Ohio in 1877 reported
to the legislature as follows:
"The contract system interferes in
an undue manner with the honest in
dustrv of the state. 1t has been the
cause of Gripping many of our manu-
facturers; it has been the cause OF
driving many of them out of business;
it has been the cause of large per-
centage OF reductions which have
taken place in the wages of our me-
chanics, it has been the cause of pau
perizing a large portion OF our labor
ers and increasing crime to a cores
ponding degree; it has been no benefit
to the state; as a reformatOry meas
ure it has been a complete, total and
miserable failure; it has made total
wrecks morally Of thousands and
thousands who would have been re-
claimed from the paths of vice and
crime under n proper system OF prison
management, but who have resigned
their fate to a life of hopeless degrad-
it has not a single commendable tea
ture. Its tendency is pcrnicious in
the extreme. In short, it is an insur-
mountable barrier in the way of the
reformation of the untortunates who
are compelled to live and labor under
its evil influences; it enables class Of
men to oct rich out of the crimes com
mitted by others; it leaves upon the
fair eScutcheon of the state a relic o.
the worst form of human slavery; II
is n bone of ceaseless contention be
tween the state and its mechanical
and industrial interests; it is abhorrec
by all and respected by none except
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