The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1906-08-09
Serious roads Are Being Made the the Free Working
People Of the Country.
ROBs THEM. on CHANGE no WAKE AN HONEST LIyING
Should the Honest Ioaer Be Made Suffer May Have En-
poyment the Vital Question Of the HouMrs Our
Legislative Halls.

The question of the competition
\ of convict labor and its effects on
the free workingman outside prison
walls has long been the subj ject of
discourse among members of labor
organizations, and the universal
consensus of opinion has been that
the convicts. of the various States,
instead of being employed at the
trades which conflict with honest
labor, should be employed upon
the public roads, thereby compet-.
ing with nobody and producing
results for the general good.
In recent years the question has
been brought closer to home, and
in the numerous newspaper reports
of the excellent management of the
various penal institutions OF the
country have shown consider
profit over and above the cost of
their maintenance, there has been
proven to the worker that a dan
gerous line of competition exists
and that the seeming profit has
been at his or her expense.
1t is an impossible theory that
treemen can nEcompete with convicts
in the matter of s1ab Dor, for the very
simple reason that. freemen cannot
and will not live as convicts. Even
Hthe great and gruesome indiscrimi-
4 4\nate immigration evil pales into in
Significapce beside this growing
wrong. The twelfth annual report
}f Commissionerfof Labor Charles
| =. Neill, ust issued at Washing
lfton, deals largely with this hydra
headed evil, and shows conclusive
ly toswhat an extent prison labor
IS wronging the free worker and
robbing him of the chances of
making an honest living.
The report bristles with tables of
figures, giving the number of con-
vlcts, their costs, the value of their
output, etc. But as these figures
are all several years old, being the
figures for the fiscal year 1904,
they should at this time be un-
profitable, because, to any student
OF the subject of the baneful influ-
ence of convict labor, later figures
are easily available. But the gen
eral deductions drawn by the
agents of the Bureau of Labor are
worthy of consideration.
The report is frank. 1t saws
that manufacturers agree in con
sidering convict labor as an unfair
and ruinous competition, demoral-
lzing the markets and business
stability, compelling the reduction
of prices below a fair margin of
profit and often~even below the
cost of production Wages, it is
stated, are forced to the lowest linz
it in vain effort to lower the cost
OF production to that of the prison
contractor. In some cases a dete-
rioration of duality of material
used, and in others an entire aban-
donment to the prisons of the
manufacture of certain grades of
goods became necessary.
eThe greatest objection, how
ever, to the employment of convict
labor is that it ordinarily displaces
inexperienced and unorganized Ia
Dor; that is, that class of poor peo-
pie who are unable to leave their
homes to enter factories, or cannot
absent themselves a,detinite period.
but who, nevertheless, require for
their sustenance the slight amount
OF money that they might be able
to earn while remaining at home,
and between the intervals of house
hold work, nursing, etc., can make
a little money that will materially
benefit their existence.
The facts operate in ansentirely
unexpected manper, inasmuch as
the employment, of convict labor
creates a demand for goods that
are not producible by the the mex
perlenced sewing machine opera
tors, and this has worked a terrific
hardship against that class of la
borers which belong to the lowest
class of wage earners and who are
deserving the greatest consideration
pelng made UP principally OF
widows, orphans and other helpless
individuals who have not had the
opportunity to better themselves.
and who, by birth and education.
are without the inclination to dc
/ SO.
1t is believed. that the only way