The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1900-12-15

BrOOms ...........'' ....... 195Uo
Total gains. 4l7.6l
In arriving at this result, absolutely
no charge is made against the industry
for plant, or maintenance of plant,
capital, fuel, light, interest, taxes, re-
pairs, nor for labor, except overseers.
And yet where none of these charges
are made against the business the best
showing that the state can make from
the sale of $77S59.89 is a so-called gain
of $6,417.61, to be applied to the expense
of maintaining the institution and for
feeding and clothing the inmates.
The views of the inspectors are ex-
pressed in the following extract from
their report:
The manufacturing departments show
fair returns, considering the advance
in all material used in the construction
of carriages, harness, brooms, etc. The
sales Of manufactured products have
been good, in the carriage depart
ment showing is better than for
several years; while the harness de-
partment shows a small depreciation as
compared with the past two years, due
to the fact that the warden has not
sufficient funds to enable him to take
advantage Of the discounts which come
to this department more than to any
other. The broom department, hither-
to of the most profit to the state, shows
marked decline, owing to the tluctu-
ating market of broom corn, and with
the present and prospective prices of
raw material, brooms cannot be manu-
featured and sold at a profit to the
state.
The report does not tell how many
inmates there were nor how many en-
ployed in each industry, but we have
shown sufficient to prove that the sales
| must have been made away. below
market price of goods produced by free
labor.
It will be noticed that shoe manufac-
| turing is not carried on in the Maine
penitentiary, but a further examinatio
of the report discloses the fact that
nearly all of the county jails have
workshops attached, and in three
county jails at least, the labor of the
inmates is applied to the shoe stock,
| such as heels, insoles, etc.
| Very little information is obtainable
about these institutions, but special in
formation discloses that in the York
county Jail at Alfred, the labor of the
inmates is sold to heel manufacturer
| for $500 per year for the whole lot.
| In order to make this labor available
the county invested the necessary
money to build a workshop, and the in
|
way to eat up the munificent sum re-
celVed for the labor of all the inmates.
The average number of inmates is
about sixty, so the county receives
about $40 per year per inmate, about
IL cents per week, or about ~ cents
per day, in return for which the county
feeds, clothes and shelters the prisoner
and furnishes the factory in which he
works.
The writer was informed with some
glee by citizen that you cannot find
many tramps around here since that
shop started.
This suggests how easy it would be-
II the contractor wanted more help. to
whisper to the sheriff, and then have
the sheriff notify all the deputies TO
run in all tramps' and that "the
tramp must be suppressed"
One word more. The contractor gets
the labor so cheap that he can offer a
slight reward for etra efforts, so that
If the laborer performed work the real
worth of which was $1.OO, the contractor
may give hin. % ccats
Ihls gives the prisoner a little to-
bacco money and stimulates production
greatly to lthe advantage of the con-
tractor.
OF course this method of conduct
ing the heel business has an evil ten
dency in its effects on legitimate pro-
duction. 1t is one of the many rami-
fications of the roots of the prison tree
: convict labor.
We still think that if all persons
thoroughly understood the evil wrought
by this poison tree, they would detrov
1T, root and CHARACTERIZATION Boot and
/ Shoe Worker.