The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1906-08-09

INC 1lcS olhliSnidIi ouCSluC- prison
walls has long been the subject 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.
III recent years the question has
been brought closer to home, and
i'll the numerous newspaper reports
of the excellent management of the
various penal institutions of the
country have shown considerable
profit over and above the cost of
their maintenance, there has been
proven to the worker that 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 compete with convicts
i'll the matter of labor, for the very
simple reason that. freemen cannot
and will not live as convicts. Even
N the great and gruesome indiscrimi-
lnate immigration evil pales into in
tignificapce beside this growing
wrong. The twelfth annual report
'|f Commissioner of Labor Charles
4. Neill, just issued at Washing
Ifton, deals largely with this hydra
| headed evil, and shows conclusive
| ly towhat 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-
V1ctS. 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 I'M
profitable, because, to any student
of the subject of the baneful intlu-
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
Slderlng convict labor as an unfair
and ruinous competition, democrat
ling 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 linn
1T in vain effort to lower the cost
OF production to that of the prison
contractor. In some cases dete-
rioration of Quality of material
used, and in others an entire aban-
donment to the prisons of the
manufacture of certain grades OF
goods became necessary.
| sThe greatest objection, how
lever, to the employment of convict
labor is that it ordinarily displaces
inexperienced and unorganized La
Dor; that is. that class of poor peo-
4 pie who are unable to leave their
homes to enter factories. or cannot
absent themselves a, definite 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.
mold work, nursing, ETC., can make
little money that will materially
| benefit their existence.
j The facts operation an entirely
unexpected manper, inasmuch as
the employment of convict labor
creates Il demand for goods that
are not producible by the the mex.
perienced sewing machine opera,
tors, and this has worked terrific
hardship against that class of la,
porers which belong to the lowest
class of wage-earners and who arc
deserving the greatest consideration
being 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