The Washington weekly post., 1900-08-21
CONVICT LABOR.
Discussion Of the Old Qaesties Revived by
Iaui.iaua'. Recent Action.
Fron he ChIe.Eo Jsurnal

From the Chicago Jsurnal
Louisiana has passed an act abOlishing
the leasing OF convict labor 10 contractors
"a practice that the State has known
since lsss The great scandals AMI abuses
OF the old system. ard the attacks Of or
gauized labor backed by the Prisons Re
forn. Association. have brought about the
change.
-Four systems Of dlsp0sing OF contract
labor are in use in the various States.
The public account system, by which the
State furnishes the material and then
sells the goods: the contract system, or
leasing Of convict labor. the piece price
system, by which outsiders supply the ma
terial and sometimes the machinery, ana
the State manufactures the articles. and
the system by which the COnyicts them
selves are leased out. clothed and fed BY
the lessee, and receive scarcely any fur
theT attention from the authorities.
Louisiana proposes to employ One-third
OF her convicts on public works, particu-
larly roads and lsyees, and TO utilize the
labor Of the remainder on cotton and su-
gar plantations 10 be owned and operated
BY the State, or the plan adopted by Mis-
sissippi and Texas.
Up TO the year 1886 Illinois was cursel
by the practice OF leasing contract labor,
authorized by statute, but in that year
a constitutional provision was adopted
that Hereafter It shall be unlawful for
the commissioners of any penltentiaTy or
other reformatOry institution In the state
20 let by contract TO any person. persons.
or corporations the labor Of any convict
confined within said institutions" We
have also a statutory provision under
which no such labor can be performed
outside the walls OF the penitentary, eX-
cept labor for the State.
IL Is notorious, however, that. notwith-
standing these provisions, free labor en-
ployed in COOperdge. furniture, sadd.eTy
and harness. boots and shoes. and other
industries in Illinois comes into direct
competition with the products of the pen
itentiaTies. This is accomplished under
the guise Of the ''piece-price plan" by
which the product Of the convict labor
is sold, instead of leasing the conyisl
himself.
The efforts of Louisiana and other
States toward reform in this direction
will be futile. while cOnvict-made goods
can still be shipped into those States
The Importance of this phase of the qUes-
tion has already been recognized in Con-
gress. As recently as January s. 1890. Rep
.resentatiYe Cochrane, of New York. in.
troduced a bill to protect free labor from
competition with prison labor: prohibit
the transportation Of goods manufactured
in prisons between the States, and pro-
viding that all such goods be labeled
Convict made" Doubts have been cast
on the constitutionality Of this measure,
but il is a step in the right direction.
The best solution yet proposed seems
to US that by which the convict will be
kept employed as much as possible on
permanent public Improvements, and
where his labor is utilized in other direc-
tions he should be permitted to receive
fair wages, to be given 10 him on his re-
lease from prison, or paid out TO those
who were dependent on his earnings be-
fore he was deprived Of liberty