Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1900-05-17
corepondence New York Eyenlns ros..

valuable Contribution, IL some re-
spects, to the report of the In
dustrial Commission on Prison
Labor" is the brief part which deals
with what is not prison labor at all,
but the labor of conviots outside of
prison. The tone Of what appears in
the report on this head shows that
public opinion is moving forward; for
1t was only q few years ago that the
Idea of employing a convict on any
thing outside of prison walls was de.
nounced as barbarous, whereas today
the most intelligent and practical
reasoners regard this sort of employ
ment as step in the direction Of
humanity, while the associations Of
barbarism cling chiefly about the old
system.
A quarter-centuiy ago, the public
controversy about convict labor turned
upon the question whether certain con-
tractors should be permitted to set UP
shoe shop, or broom factory, OF a
stove foundry inside of prison and
lease the labor OF the convicts at. say,
30 cents day. The persons who cham
pioned this plan were for the most part
philanthropic citizens, who argued that
idleness was the worst fate to which q
convict could be condemned, and,
hence, that the contract system must
be q beneicent thing. We're not the
unfortunate men given something to
keep mind and hand busy ali the time,
and hence to keep both out of mis-
ehiefY Was not the State or the county
compensated for the care of the con-
victs by getting this daily pittance for
the labor Of each Sone9
The chief opponents of the plan were
the labor unions. They contended that
the labor of the convict at thirty cents
day was thus brought, into direct
competition with the labor of the
honest journeyman, shoemaker, or Groom
maker, or stove-founder, who needed
one or two dollars day to support
himself and his family; and that it
was bad policy for the State to make a
profit for its treasury by utilizing the
labor OF its worst class of inhabitants
at the expense CT its best class. To
this the philanthropists responded
Mechanically by showing how small
a percentage Of the States population
were in prison hence how small, neces-
sarily, the competition with free labor.
Assuming that the free laborer was also
q taxpayer, they argued, he ought to
feel gratitied at being relieved OF a pai {
of the burden Of the cost of the penal
institutions. 1t did no good for the
free laborer to answer that the concern
tratiop Of contract convict labor upon
one industry made the competition with
free labor in that particular industry
pretty formidable, or that the saving
in taxation to each individual work.
ingman was scarcely aEpreciable. Who
ever found fault with the existing sys.
tenn was regarded as foe to convict
labor of any sort; and there the con
troversy hung until somebody dis
covered that great cruelties were prac-
ticed in sundry institutions In order to
satisfy eSacting contractors, whose in
terest was not one of humane feeling
for the convict, but a mere considera-
tion OF the dollars and cents to be got
out of the contract, and a demand for
certain average Of labor daily as tribu-
tary to this.
When revulsion of public feeling
came, it bore fruit in the piece. price
plan and the ate-account plan. Here
some of the evils Of the old contract
system were done away with, the
State, instead Of the contractor.
having control of the convict IS
time and directing his labor. Still
practice of employing convict labor
which seemed to be- overlooked by
everybody who did not come directly
into contact with the conyicts them.
selves: namely, the incessant confine.
ment OF the prisoners within the walls
OF the institutions No matter what
form their labor might take, no matter
whether it was done for public or for
private account, no matter how much
or how little the plan might bring con
vict labor into competition with free
labor, the fact remained that the con.
viots were leading an abnormal life,
and that the work of permanent re,
formation, which is, or ought to be,
one OF the chief objects kept constantly
In lew when criminal is removed from
association with his fellew-men, wa.
retarded thereby. Every physician O
experience in prison practice is ready
to bear witness that he has, in Ger
tain sense, to study his profession anew
in order to adapt himself to the pecu
liar conditions in which his patient
live. Suppose an ordinary village com
munity to be suddenly swept Inside o
grim stone enclosure, which the sun
chine penetrates only through marrow
barred windows, where the atmospher
itself in spite Of every care taken I,
procure good ventilation and sanitar,
drainage and sewerage, is more or les
confined, and where there is an endles
monotony of action and food and rest
will any one pretend that a year il
such surroundings would not produc
. marked change, and for the worse
In the condition of the people? Natur
never intended human beings to lea,
such a life, any more than il intende,
them to live always underground o
always half-submerged in water.
by degrees there has crept into tn
understanding Of good people MOTTO
that nature, after all, is prett
sensible and satisfactory teacher. Vine
mans reason gives way, they n
longer condemn him to grim and for
bidding Bedlam, but to home 10 th
midst OF park. where he can wal
about in the sunlight, and breathe
life-eiving air, and feast his eyes on tn
coiors of trees and grass and flowers
and hear the music, of the binds. 1t /
now universally realized that the effec
OF such an environment is wholesome
and that environment has great dei
4. to do with restoring the proper balanc
Y OF the mind. We see the same ide
Il carried out in another way in the fresh
air charities, where the children of th
slums, and In some cases their mother
also, are taken for few days ever
year into the country. There is no pr,
tence.that this makes them over at ono
into new beings, but it al least give
Whatever is good in them chance [
expand. 1t is quite as much an encouI
sgemens to their moral health as
ma ~ -. r