The Newtown bee., 1904-01-29
EDITORIAL, INK. DROPS.

EDITORIAL INK, DROPS.
 Eleven years ago the editor of THE BEE joined hands with other news | paper men in advocating the employ ment of convicts on the public high ways, and we are still of the same mind. In this connection we were pleased to note an editorial in the New York Tribune, the other day, on this important subject. The Tribune said:
 Good roads are worth all and more than all that they cost under the oper- ation of the law, which provides for State and county cooperation in New York. But if there is way of lessen ing the expense without impairing the quality of the work or harming any interest, it ought to be adopted. The consequence would be not reduction to the amount of money applicable to the purpose, but an increase in the number o: miles improved. There is reason to believe that object might be attained by the employment of convict labor, with great advantage to public and prisoners. In some Western and Southern States this policy has been increasingly pursued within the last few years, and official reports of it's success are not contradicted by other testimony. During the last summer the experiment. was made in Schenec- tady County, to the satisfaction of the local authorities, as we learn from an interesting account of it in "The Mu- nicipal Journal and Engineer" After an investigation of the subject by a committee of the Board of Supervisors, contract was made ith the town of Glenville for the macadamizing of a particularly bad :piece of road, and in the course of seven months, with an average force of 20 prisoners from the county jail, two and a half miles were put into excellent condition. The specifications prescribed by the State where State aid is furnished, were strictly followed, but the county and town bore all the expense, which, how. ever, was not greater than their share would have been under the provisions of the Higpie-Armstrong law. One guard to eight prisoners was found tc be enough, the men, as a rule, were cheerful and industrious, and the citi
 zens suffered no annoyance or appre hension. Occasionally a convict was indisposed to exert himself, but he soor changed his mind after being put or short rations. The committee made it point, when prisoner became no ted for faithful service and good be- havior, to give him employment al current wages when his sentence ex. pired. The official report frankly comedies that some questions were not completely solved by this brief expert ment on a small scale, but in genera. the results fully justified the expecta tions aroused by similar operations in other parts of the country. It has long been a grave and at times really distressing question how to find em ployment for prisoners without put ting them into harmful competition with free labor. To keep them in idleness is cruelty to them and g heavy burden on the community Road building is work which needs tc be intelligently supervised, tut other wise requires little skill. It is not work in which craftsmen would dislike to see convicts employed. It is more likely to be congenial than obnoxious to the convicts themselves, since ii gives them some of the advantages o1 liberty, while at the same time it tends to eradicate criminal propensities. The chance of escape is small, both because of the watch kept and because a man under sentence for compara lively light offence is not inclined tc accept such risk of having his tern of imprisonment extended. Undoubt- edly the plan is subject to some objec tions, and it is possible that they might prove more serious in this State than they have been found to be in the West and South, though we see nc reason to accept that hypothesis. Ali all events, the question is deserving o1 attentive consideration, for it seems t( contain at least partial solution o1 an embarrassing problem and to bt adapted to the promotion of grea1 public improvement.
 | WEST CORNWALL.