The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1910-10-14
FREE LABOR wins
Problem of the Convict Worker
Nearing Solution.
TO BUILD PUBLIC ROADS,

Recent Legislation In Several States
Does Away With Prison Factories.
Movement For Reform In This d.
rection Spreading.
The problem Of convict labor-that
much vexed question which has been
so fruitful a cause of controversies
finding a solution at last. Before long
the prisons of this country will cease
to be factories. competing industrially
with citizens. says the Brooklyn Eagle.
Free labor has won the fight.
No longer will the jailbirds of Vir
ginia devote their activities to the
making of boots and shoes at Rich
so much a day to a big company en-
gagged in that branch of industry
Henceforth they will crush rock, with
the help of machinery, and build pub
| lie highways.
Such is the new law. In Georgia
likewise, in obedience to recent legis-
| lative decree. all convicts have been
withdrawn from competition with free
| labor, and their employment will be
! restricted In future to the making Of
| roads
Convicted evildoers In the south are
used largely for farming on tracts ac-
qured for the purpose by the states,
| the produce being sold and the pro-
ceeds turned into the public funds
| Thus in Georgia and elsewhere in that
section of the country the agricultural
malefactor has been accustomed to
compete with the citizen farmer. to
the considerable detriment Of the lat
ter From this time on, however. he
will not be permitted to do so in either
of the two states above mentioned.
These are merely steps in a move
ment which is rapidly spreading all
over the United States. Illinois and
Washington have recently adopted the
same radical measure of reform, and
it is beyond a doubt that a majority
of the other states of the Union will
follow their example before very long
Illinois has been using her convicts
TO make furniture. shoes. brushes. bas-
kets and stove hollow ware From this
time on. however. they will operate
rock crushing plants which have been
established at Joliet and Chester,
where quarries are located convenient
Iy in the peighborhood of the peniten
tiaries.
In the state of Washington the prin
cipal employment of criminal Offend
ers has been in the manufacture of
iute bags for wheat, but under the
new law their activities will be applied
wholly to solving the good roads prob
lem.
Meanwhile many other states have
the same problem under serious con
sideration, the question at issue being
whether the prisons shall continue to
be operated as factories for the pro-
duction of various kinds of merchan-
disc competing with the output of free
labor.
The penitentiaries of many states
within the last few years have been
equipped with improved machinery,
thus converting them into first class
factories. But the prison manufac-
turer, employing what is in effect slave
labor, at an extremely low cost, is cas-
lily able to undersell all competitors,
either driving them out of business
or forcing them to reduce prices and
wages.
The seriousness of this competition
may be judged when it is considered
that an army of over $4,000 workers is
regularly employed all the year round
in prison factories of the United States.
These operatives will produce $685.
OOOO 900 worth Of goods during the pres
ent year.
/ Among the most obvious effects of
! prison labor are loss Of employ ment by
/ large numbers of people, serious re-
/ duction of wages and a lowering of
/ the quality of goods produced by citi-
zen workers. incidentally dreadful
hardships are inflicted upon laborers
of that class which deserves the great
est sympathy and consideration. being
made up principally of widows, or
phans and other almost helpless indi-
viduals who can earn only pittance at
best. Convict labor has thrown them
cut of work by thousands.
1t has taken a long time to work out
this convict problem. Experience has
shown that enforced idleness democrat
ICES prisoners. The nonproductive
labor of the old fashioned treadmill,
now happily obsolete, was equally OBJ
iectionable. As for the modern prac-
tice of leasing malefactors to contrac-
tors at SO much a head per day, 1t is
a system that gives rise to many
abuses. At best it is modified slavery
the convicts being sold to the highest
bidder.
The true solution of the problem
seems to be found under the system
known as public account" by which
the labor of the convict is employed
exclusively for the benefit of the state
or its civil subdivisions. The move
ment to carry this idea into effect Is
rapidly spreading. and before very
long II is certain to be adopted in one
shape or another by every state Of the
Union.