The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-08-04


OF their own manufacture. Those still
engaged In direct competition with
prison-made brushes can: compete only
by giving better finish to the brushes,
or by selling them at cost and rely
ing Tor their profit on their better
grades.
Cont,pl Broom Market.
In broom and whisk making manu-
facturers employing free labor have
been subject to the greatest price-de-
pressing competition. It is favorite
prison product. the authorities turning
to 1t as an. occupation for convicts
which can be followed with the small
lest outlay of materials and machinery,
and one in which unskilled labor can
be used to make crude product at
product Of free labor.
The Chicago stockyards market for
wood-bound cooperage has been practi-
cally abandoned to the prisons. In the
making of saddle trees a similar con-
dition appears. 90 per cent of all saddle
trees being made in prison. In black
snake whips the prisons have been able
to drive out of existence practically all
the factories employing free labor.
This is also essentially true OF whip
lashes, quirts and other small articles.
In binding Irvine the effect has
been to cause an accurate measurement
to be taken of both the entire market
and the prison output, thus enabling
the manufacturers employing free la
Dor to ignore for the most part the
mn do hSy to
to say, when the annual consumption
of binding twine was practically no.
900 TONS this sold at a price which
would have ruined the factories en-
ploying free labor had they not
hghratively, stepped aside until the
prison product was absorbed ana then
sold their $4,000 tons at profit
Quality is Deprecated.
THE competition of prison-made
products, in some instances, forces the
weaker manufacturers to deteriorate
the quality Of their goods to meet
prison prices. In this way the price,
breaking power of the prison output is
augmented by the output of those
manufacturers who have had to debase
the quality of their wares to meet the
prison competition. This will be found
true to certain extent in boots and
shoes, binding Irvine. whips and some
other lines.
1T is the settled policy OF prison
contractors and prisons operated on
public account to sell their prison.
made goods outside the state Of manu-
facture, as far as possible. There are
local manufacturing and political rea-
sons for doing this It has been re-
peatedly pointed out by manufacturers,
and their statements are reinforced
by specific detail, that when this is
done 1t is clearly an act Of one state
to injure the manufacturing and labor
interests of another"
Rank a. to Grade.
The federal labor bureau has been
at some pains to discover whether
prison made goods ars the equal in
quality OF those made by free labor,
and with this purpose in view total
Of 92S comparisons was made between
goods made In prisons and similar
goods made elsewhere. In twenty five
of these tests the prison goods were
pronounced Superior, in GA. or more
than half, the prison goods were said
to be as good as those made by free
labor, In 266 cases slightly inferior and
in 124, inferior.
The value OF convict labor on all the
goods produced in the year covered by
the investigation, as distinguished
from the value OF the goods them
selves. was $11,916, 429-that is, had
the work of convicts been done by free
labor. the total amount of wages would
have Appropriated that figure.
Prison-made boots and shoes enter
Ing Into direct competition with the
product OF factories employing free
labor, are manufactured In rs pentten-
tiartes In seventeen states. The prison
factories in eleven Of the states are
equipped with modern machinery, and
last year their. output was 7,3s9,3b4
pairs of shoes and boots, which were
sold in the great jobbing centers of
the country.
Minnesota Jebber speaks.,
A Minnesota jobber.. is quoted in the
report and he has this to say:
We do not ourselves job prisonmade
shoes, because we do not believe in
the business. It is a gross injustice to
the shoe business to have that sort OF
condition at Saltwater, and we will
not be distributing agent for these
unfair shoes. The manufacture OF
boots and SHOES In the northwest is
comparatively new business Most OF
the manufacturers were originally
jobbers like ourselves, and started in
by making few shoes Of particular
Kind that they thought they were pay
ing too much for. Gradually they de-
ve1oped into manufacturers. The busi-
ness is. not over twenty or twenty-five
years old in this state. They have had
to train their. own labor-there are no
hereditary families Of >shoemakers to
draw on-hence the work done. while
good and solid, has not the attractive
finish Of the older centers OF the in
dustry. For this reason, and the fact.
that an expert superintendent and ex-
pert foremen were taken into. the
prison to train the convicts. the prison.
made HoOdS in this 9tato, ara 1ttAt an