The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-09
WILL WORK CONVICTS
coRDAer COMPANY NOT DIS CoNuERlEn BY c0UN%AL
 AuTT0N,
An ofacial Declares That Matter VIII Be Placed in Different Light Before Aldermen-Taik
 of Labor.

Notwithstanding the discussion on the floors of the Montgomery City Council Monday evening, officials of the s6labama Cordaxe Works in North Montgomery are not deterred from their purpose tc employ forty State convicts in their plant after January 1st.
 | It will be remembered that Alderman
 John F. Kohn. proposed an amendment | to the license code imposing an annual | tax of $1000 on factories working con- victs. It was admitted that this was q prohibitory license and that 1t was aimed at the Cordage Works, which has recent ly contracted with the State for the lease of forty convicts with which to operate l It's plant.
 After some discussion Council finally referred the Kohn amendment to joint committee consisting of members of the standing committees on finance and pub lie works to report at the next regular meeting.
 'The proposed prohibitory license by the City Council against the employment of convicts in the city will not change the plans of the Cordage Company" said an official of the company. we have a contract with the State for the labor and we propose to execute it. We have gone entirely too far with our plans to aban- don the project. and we feel sure that after the representation we will make to the Joint Council committee. we will find no opposition in the Council"
 '.rhe gentlemen in discussing the mat ter" he continued, seemed to think that Montgomery has a large cotton mill pop ulation, which Is not the case. To re- cruit labor, paid agents have to be sent out to the farming districts and to other cotton mill towns. If the company waits for help to apply for work itAcould never turn a wheel. The free labor now oper- ating the mill is not at all antagonistic to their displacement, and when given the choice of leaving now. for other mills are remaining till the company is ready to install the other labor. they have in- variably asked which would be to the interest of the company and when in- formed that 1t was preferred that they re- main, they readily elected to do so." s+
 This official of the company said that one of the mills in West End cannot run all of it's machinery for want of labor and it's superintendent had agreed to take all families applying from the Cordage Works.
 The superintendent at the other mill at West End said that he could easily take on the entire force of the cordage com pany. as a surplus.
 It was pointed out by the Cordage Com pany official that at times thene are sick and needy among cotton min people everywhere. and that many charitably disposed persons are working among them in Montgomery.
 half mile of the cordage plant, he said, and consequently no white schools and churches are in that vicinity. All these privileges, he said, are enjoyed in the West End district, and if the cotton mill population of Montgomery was concern trated at West End, they could be far more economically looked after.
 The location of the proposed stockade and prison, Is on the boundary line of the new territory taken in by the city, and is so far removed from any community that, he declared, objection could not possibly be made to 1t as an eyesore.
 ''The enforcement of the child labor law" this official said. ''wlll have a ten- dency to make cotton mill labor scarcer than it is now, as many families are re- turning to the farms, and F cent cotton will undoubtedly call them in the same direction.
 The employment of convicts in cord age factories is no new thing, as many of the Northwestern States are operating plants with their labor for the manufac- ture of binder twine."
 At the State convict department yester- day 1t was said that the State would not undertake to force the Cordage Company to comply with its contract if a prohibi- tive license was imposed.
 When this suggestion was made to an official of the Cordage Company last night he replied:
 We made that contract in good faith and We expect to execute 1t. We will be- gin working convicts on January 1.