Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-10-20
The P rison Labor Prob elIl|

The convicts in contract prisons are
as a rule brutalized beyond al hope,
Of reclamation. and they are turned
out athS the end Of their sentences
penniless, friendless. hopeAess; prey
to all the evil winds that blow, prac-
tically doomed to crime again; in
short, habitnal criminals, the costli-
est; wretchedest, and most shameful
products Of our whole penal system.
Nor do the evils of the contract
system end with the convict himself.
The goods which he manufactures
also go. out into he<world, hearing
its curse with them. They spread
'tuberculosis wherever they go; they
reduce, BY cutzthroat competition the.
wages of thousands of free working
men and women; they throw other
thousands. out of employment; and
they demoralize honest industry. at
every point. III
Finally, the states III which the
contract system prevails by depriv-
ing the con4ict's helpless family of
his earnings not only increase the
burden of dependency and destitu-
ton, but drive home to the minds of
many honest 8men and women the
cynical conviction that government
which will play at such game is
really a worse thief than any of its
cohvicts. And this conviction in the
long run, costs society very DEAR
e To such evils does the contract
system, as it fourishes today in most
states of the Union, give rise, North
as well as South. No better device
for the society can possibly be i'm
agined. It's history is one long rec
ord of corruption and cruelty. 1t
corrupts,, the convicts and the keep
-ers., 1t corrupts wardens, boards of
control, legislatures, jufies, govern
ors. Within the last two years it has
eauseaenel less than a dozen scandals
in as many different states. = Michir
gan, Indiana Ohio. Illinois, Wiscon=
sin, New Jersey. Rhode Island, Flori-
da, Georgia, Alabama, Texas all
have witnessed such a miserable evil
dence Of it's corruptive powers that
every sense Of every decent man and
woman has been. shocked. ~
This is one system of prison labor,
which you may,aif you will, saddle
upon your state. That you will do so
with you eyes open, is simply un-
thinkable.
The Public Account System.
Some. states, instead of turning
their prisoners over to a private con-
tractor, set up in business them
selves, manufacturing and selling
their goods in. the open market pre-
cisely like the ordinary private man
ufacturer. This is called the Pubic
Account. System -
Actual experience with this system
shows that under it the convict is
driven as, mercilessly, his family
starved as callously, and competition
with free labor is as bitter as under
the contract system.
The state of Minnesota, for exam
pie, has a large binder tWine plant at
Saltwater, employing several hun
dred convicts. 1t produces eight mil
lion pounds of Irvine every year,
worth over 800, 900 and showing.
a profit of over $125,OOO annually.
Yet the convicts who produce this
profit for the state average a mere
pittance for themselves or their
starving families: and One-third of
them are married. Who shall count
the number of criminals. of prosti-.
tutes, of tramps and Migrants that
this great plant has produced? =.
- In the course Of an address deliv-.
cred recently at the Minnesota Com
servation and Agricultural Congress,
the Rev. c. B. Crane said: what
are you doing with that strong bind
er Irvine. You are binding burdens
grievous and heavy to be borne upon
the backs of worse than widowed
women. You are binding the hands
of little children to tools Of labor in
our factories. when they ought to be
in the schools and Fairgrounds of
your state. You are weaving snares
for the feet Of the conyicts' daughter.
thrust out unprotected upon the
slippery pathway of life. and you are
breeding contempt and anarchy in
the hearts of these conyicts that will
wreck itself in new crimes when the.
law sets them free. : ~ s0s,
The Public Account System is a
shade better than the contract sys-.
tenn. it Is true. but q new state, un-