The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1909-07-29
STATE STILL HAS
PRISON CONTRACTS.
System of Convict Labor Would
Have Disappeared Had Dem
Ocrats Had Way.

lOdu1- pAdtlo oiS OShis hieaNS hOA q ~
newal of the old prison contract for
convict labor. This is the direct re-
suit of the failure of the Republican
majority in the lower house of the
last Legislature to meet party obliga-
tons. The Senate passed bill pro-
viding for gradual abolition of all
these contracts, but the Republicans
in the House not only defeated the
measure, but did not present any bill
of their own on the subject.
The Republican party, like the
Democratic party, and, in fact, every
party that had ticket in the field in
1908, pledged itself in its platform to
put an end to the old system of hiring
out the labor Of convicts to contract
ors, most of whom manufacture ar
ticles that come in direct contact
with outside labor.
Every labor organization in Mis-
souri, and every other State for that
NATTER is opposed to the contract
system as it now prevails in Missouri.
The Republican politicians in the
House were not lacking in informa-
ton, either, as to how their party
was pledged on this subject, or as to
the hostile feeling of organized labor.
But they shelved the Senate bill and
lput in the rest of their time defeating
genuine home rule bills that they had
promised to enact into laws during
the 1908 campaign if the people gave
them the power to do so,
| Now these politicians are exceed
ingly anxious that nothing shall be
said about the contract system of
working convicts, so long as the re-
|sponsibility of defeating a measure
| that proposed its abolition rests upon
their shoulders.
| Contracts Expire in December.
Most of these contracts will expire
the last of December, and unless
they are renewed the State will have
. some 1900 idle convicts on its hands
to feed and otherwise care for and
: nothing for them to do. Senator
Lanes bill, the one passed by the
Senate, provided for eventually utiliz-
ing convict labor in the manufacture
OF clothing and other necessarieS
} used by the State eleemosynary insti'
, tutions and almshouses.
Had his bill received the sanction
? of the Republican House, within three
years there would not have been q
a single convict employed by CON
: tractor. Not only this, but the elee.
= mosynary, penal and charitable insti
tutions would have been furnished
lclothing for the inmates, furniture
ETC., at the actual cost of production
This would have been big item tC
every locality in the State There
was also a provision in this law under
which counties could have secured {
limited number of convicts and EN-
ployed them on public highways.
But the Republicans of the House
q Ignored their party pledges and lief
conditions so that there is nothing elst
" for the administration to do the lattel
" part of the present year, but entel
: into new contracts for convict labor
Governor Wants Price Increase.
Il II is said that Governor Hadley ha
in view an increase in the price tn
J, contractors must pay the State TO
$ convict labor. The present rate is G.
= cents day for ablebodied men, ant
$ the State does everything else, includ
b ing the furnishing of power and fire
proof shop buildings free. Some ar
: of the opinion that the Governor wi
:" stand for 81 a day for able-bodie
9 men.
. There are two sidcs to this ques
8 ton, however, and one of them wi
+ be consent on the part of the cor
n tractors to such a heavy increase
. Most of the latter threatened to NOV
i out of the prison five years ago whe
|. Governor Dockery stood firm for a
!. increase from so cents to 60 cents
= day.
9 1t required lot of time and man
% conferences before these contract
IS were closed, and in the opinion
y former Warden Hall, so many COZ
Z cessions were made to the contrac
Il ors in order to get them to enter I'M
!. the 60-cents-a-day contracts that ii
!" State would have done better undo
II the old contracts.