The Saint Paul globe., 1904-12-18
NEWS OF THE CITY

a u -s =
done by the convicts. Whatever work.
house labor has been used in Como park
has been uniformly valued in the official
| reports of the workhouse at 81 per day
| and thus they make it out that in the
term of seventeen years the prison labor
| employed in the park was worth over
| 500, 900. AS matter of fact it was long
ago demonstrated by practical tests that
! the value of the prison labor as compared
with free labor, was not more than from
/ 10 to Is cents a day. according to the
| price of the latter. The reason for the
| enormously exaggerated estimate placed
upon it by the workhOuSe superintendent
| in his official reports is presumably the
! fact that as the workhouse has no legal
| right to be in the park its officials feel
| it necessary to justify its location ana
retention there by promulgating the fc-
! ton that its labor has been and is OF
| great value to the park.
Would Gladly Use Labor
It is needless to say that if this labor
could be advantageously employed by the
! park commissioners they would gladly do
so. 1t was used as far as possible IN
the early stages of park improvement, in
the rough work of grading and the IKE,
but in recent years it has been but little
used except in grading boundary streets
! outside the park, or in gravel pits ana
such work.
In 1908 and since the board abandoned
its use inside the park almost wholly Tor
the reason, among others, that the free
| laborers in the park took such deep Of
| fense at some newspaper talk describing
! them as workhouSe conVictS, WHICH was
repeated by visitors in their hearing, that
they threatened to throw up tnelf JOBS
if the conyicts were employed in the park
AS one free laborer is worth at least ten
of these convict tramps the park board
did not choose to run the FISK or losing
| the services of these self-respecting Work
h fiTcr longer
this degrading imputatlon
Several Good Reasons
There are other good reasons for the
| little use made of the prisoners IN como
park. The predominant one is tnaI tnelT
labor is only available for certain llmlted
kinds of work not at present offered.
For it is only supplied and can only be
worked in gangs-often of eighty or more
men, kept close together IN compacI
masses, under the waIcn OF 90 aaanth aaI'th
is a heavy Wheelbarrow load Tor theSe
delicate chevaliers dindustrie- They are
allowed to move it only a few YARDS ana
must then dump ito be moved again
when the whole gang is moved forward
to a new base This play has perhaps
to be repeated several times bef9rei the
! material reaches its destination; All tnelr 1e
movements are handicapped by similar
restrictions Add to this that eaen con
Wet does the least possible work IN the
longest possible time, and we nave lhe
explanation why II uSudhy tdhcS tt - -
twelve times as long for them To gee
through, a job as the same nnnpeF OF
free iaborers; and nseyery. case lhey 90
if so badly that it has to be done over
again. The chief reason 1oI me ~
Droach to worthlessness of this KIND OF
prison labor is that the WorkhouSe hood-
lIIrnS are sentenced for Such snort terms
usually from thirty to Sixty DAYS plal
there is no time to overcome lneH co.-
stitutional aversion to work OF 70 traln a1.n
them in the habits or methods of eHeet1Ve
industry. s.,ss -.
But even the comparative Worthless-
ness and otherwise objectionable characler
of this workhouse labor, would not pre-
vent the park board from employing II II
| if if was available for the kind OF WORK
| now done in Como park: 0ppoiTtuillales ~ nlndes
may very likely occur for its use IN piaces
remote from contact With -VlsltorS, N3iete i Z
compact masses may be empioyed u II
grading, ETC., but none such is oHefed At
In the last seventeen years the city has
expended $4,000 on common tree lapor or
| in the maintenance and Improvement OF
! Como park During the same time til9
! workhouse prisoners have been employed
! in and around that park for total OF
103, 1861 days labor. At 10 cents a DAY
this would foot up $loSSS IN setenoeGItI y .o5'Id
! amount to $15,507 in that period. Inns
would be an eXtravagant estimate OF @ tne
| contributions of the workhouse to the
OO~--0
park in the seventeen years.
Injury Done Park by WorE<house
Over against this on the other side of
the account is to be placed the injury
done to the park by the presence OF a
prison for thieves and tramps with ali
| its degrading associations in one Of the
| most conspicuous portions OF the park
! And that nothing should be done to ag-
gravate that injury the workh0uSe has
recently been surmounted by lofty spire
visible for miles aTound-apparently Tor
| no other purpose than to invite public
attention to this prison as the chief pride
and joy of Como park.
But this is not all One of the, frst
things done by the Workhouse board
after the unlawful location of that IN
stitution in Como park was to cut down
twenty acres of beautiful native trees TO
| make room for a cornfeld and potato
patch By this atrocious act of vandal-
! ism that board destroyed park property
! the value of which cannot be estimated
in money. None of the present directors
| were on that board. But II had the same
superintendent as now Owing to MS
| efficiency and thorough knowledge of the
! business he was intrusted by the direc-
| management of the institution. They
| have always had such complete conf
! dence in him that his suggestions have
been law and gospel to them, and they
| have accepted without question his valu-
| ations of prison labor. 1t is a fair pre-
| sumption that it was upon his advice
I that this twenty acres of native forest
| growth was cut down in Como park
For this barbarous DETACHMENT of one of
| the priceless beauties of that noble park
| the workhouse labor otherwise employed
| upon it, even if its value was estimated at
| his fabulous figures, would not compen-
safe in hundred years to come.
History of Workhouse
Como park. consisting then of 256
acres, was purchased in 1S72-3- The en-
thusiasm which inspired its purchase had
| died out with the hard times which, fol-
| lowed. It had come to be regarded as
such a piece of foolish extravaganza that
about 1875 a bill was passed for cutting