The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-03-05
In LdbOr'S
Field.

Prison Labor and Prison Products"
was the topic of discussion at Assembly
halls yesterday afternoon Those who
participated in it We're Coils Lovely, gen
Rral vice president Of the National Shoe
makers union; Rev. David Morgan, H.
J. Skelllngton, general agent of the
BhOemakers, and Rev. George +. Bigelow,
of Chicago.
The remarks of these gentlemen ELECTED
frequent applause. The hall was we'll
filed with a most appreciative audience.
Mr.. Coils Lovely said that in these days
of keen business competition the subject
of prisOL-made goods was most i'm
pOrtant. 1t was as important to the con-
Bumer as It was to the producer-.the
worklngman in freedom-and above all it
was important to humanity.
Zone might imagine" said the speaker
that a few prison-made goods might not
materially affect union labor But there
were many prisons. At saltwater 1900
pairs Of shoes were manufactured daily,
This was the product of 300 conVicts
working at this trade. The state received
10 ents a day for the use of each convict,
q revenue to the state of $3.50 daily. The
expense to the contractors is 1914 cents
pair of shoes. No manufacturer could
make shoes for less than 80 or 40 cents
pair.
1.-THE penitentiary of Indiana turns out
1900 pairs of shoes daily. The conditions
in this penitentiary are horrible. When
ever a convict cannot or does not, per-
form g. certain amount of work each day
he is put in a cage and for eighteen hours
a day for eight days strung up by the
wrists. When he comes out from this
torture he will do his best to perform
task which a free laborer would think
impossible. But with the Indiana convict
1t was a life or death matter.
AT Jefferson City, Mo-, in the penti-
Tertiary there, the convicts make 5000
pairs Of shoes daily. The state Is allowed
30 cents a day for each convict. This not
only means sharp competition among
dealers, or manufacturers who employ
free labor, but it means several hundred
workingmen thrown out of employment
What is true of the shoe workers. interest
is also true Of other trades. Next come
the garment workers. Many garments
are made in prison and sold in compe-
tition with free labor. In other words
work Is taken away from free men until
they, in turn, become criminals in order
to live. 1t is true that the Indiana legis-
lature has passed a law abolIshing con-
Vict labor. But the contractors in the
boot and shoe interests were shrewd
enough to make a contract for ten years
Those contracts have eight years yet to
run.
THE boot and shoe workers label guar
antees protection against convict-made
goods. 1t is no use to attempt to disguise
the fact that prison labor turns out a
good quality of work The contractors
are good business men"
Mr., Lovely cited the fact that in the
penitentiarles the contractors did not
want long OF short term convicts to
learn the part of a trade which they do
learn on these goods. The long term men
are Indifferent to punishment, and when
the snort termers are employed thew so
out so soon as they have become at all
prohclent. Quite often the name of q
local retailer was stamped on prison
made goods. This was rank deception.
ReN. David Morgan, who followed Mr.
Lovely. said that he had given ten years
study to this question. Prison labor had
driven many men to want. Wages of
shoe workers could not be raised while
such competition existed. The speaker
graphically traced the history of prison
reform from the treadmill down to the
time when the shrewd Yankee saw thar
there was money I'm making the convicts
manufacturers. The United States lie
said, had been the first country to utilize
for pecuniary profit the work of convicte
SiNty-siX per cent of these prisoners were
American bern. Eighteen per cent were
porn In the British possessions and II
~ OSiiHdiiN' Ninety per cent CT
them mad common school education
But 80 per cent of them were unsl1illed
iaoorers. Eighty-six per cent of all
crimes committed were crimes against
property-or poverty; want of the means
to live. Greed had driven many men into
the penitentiarN.
me speaker said that there were strone.
eple-DoGled men working for So a week
ne mad known men to come out Of RI.
penltentiary, seek work, fail to find #
ana commit a crime for the purpose n,
getting back again where they could al
least live. Sixty per cent of convicts re.
turned to prison this way. Take the
Dinalng twine industry at Saltwater, foI
instance ne said, what good does the
binding Irvine trade do any one? Tber<
were out TWO OF these plants in the
united states. man could have mr.
hope of securing work in either of them /,
Mr.. Morgan closed with an ELOQUENT ne
roration in favor of reformatory process
es, paying high tribute to the EInoire
reformatory, New York. There the in.
mates were thoroughly taught one o.
thirty-siX trades
III. j. Skef1ngton, agent of the boo
and shoemakers, told of the condition.,
of that industry as they existed in Mas
sachusetts. Shoemaking was the principl.
business of thirty or forty towns in tina
state. He said 1t was a fact that wher
man was brought up for sentence II
court, If word was passed along the line
that the man was shoemaker, he in
Variably received long term in the peni
Tertiary. He could be coined into dollars
This statement had been made publicly
by member of the house of representa-
uVes and had never been denied. II