The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1907-03-21
PROTESTS AGAINST
CONVICT LABOR.
President Gompers Ever on Alert for Welfare Of
Toilers and General Public.
THE SITUATION in MINNESOTA.

Organized labor i'll Minnesota
has been making 4 stubborn fight
against fearful odds to prevent tho
Installation Of a harvester plant in
the minnesota prisons says the
Labor World, organized labor fail
Ell because the politicians who get
their vote from the farmers con.
Sldered that competition by cheap
convict labor would do more to
destroy the harvester trust, than
legislation to destroy the trusts.
Word reached President Gompers
last week that the Minnesota legis
lature was cnacting some hostile
legislation to labor, and he very
promptly sent theI following un-
anSwcraDle argument to Governor
John y. Johnson, with the request
that he exercise his veto power in
hehalfof not only labor, butsocicty
in general:
1t has been called to my at
tention that there is now pending
III the legislature of Minnesota. a
bill which has for it's purpose the
installation of a plant for the
carrying on of a large industry in
the pcnitentiary of your state, the
work contemplated to be perform
ell by convicts under the contract
system.
"Our friends inform me that
they have thus far been unable to
prevail upon the legislature that
the course contemplated is not
only inimical to the interests of
labor, but also of employers who
employ free working men,, and 7
am therefore impelled to appeal to
you, that, should the Legislature
fail to appropriate the importance
OF the injury contemplated by
passing the bill, that you will de.
feat its enactment by the exercise
OF The gre1t power vested in your
veto.
"No matter what the industry.
as soon as convict labor under the
contract system comes IN com
petition with free labor the effect
is not only the deterioration of the
conditions and the standard of life
of the free workmen employed in
that industry, but it also tends to
Increase the number of unemployed
free men therein. 1t also has a
similar effect, even though not to
so large an extent, upon ali labor.
The position which labor takes
upon this subject should be clearly
understood. We recognize the
economic wisdom and the human
purpose i'll finding employment for
those confined in our penal institu-
IONS but we protest against the
labor of society's derelicts and un.
iortunates being made a source of
profit for the state or it's contrac.
tors to the detriment of the in
mates of the state and of the peo-
pie generally.
owe particularly protest against
that policy being pursued by any
one or more states for their own
profit or the profit of their con.
tractors by dumping the products
OF convict labor upon the markets
OF the states in which the people
have either partially or wholly
solved that problem for themselves
eff states which now inconsid-
cIately and inhumanly encourage
crime for their own profit of con-
tractors were compelled to sell the
product of their convicts within
their own states, they would soon
be confronted with the condition
that would compel Il better system
to protect their own people from
that evil.
incidentally, 1t may be noted
that there has always been, and is
now, proporionately to population
larger number of men convicted
OF crime in those states which pur.
sue the contract system of labor as
compared to other states. where
the convict labor system is faire1
to the people and more humane to
the convicts. And it is addition
ally Interesting to know that where
a practcular industry is carried
on in penal institu ion, very
much larger number of men are
arrested, charged with, and con.
victed of crime of that particula,
Industry. In other words. the