The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1911-11-03

penitentiary you can get 1t In the
open field of labor, and consequently
there is a new hope born in him
which is bound to make him a better
man and make him a better citizen
than he would be II such reward
were not extended to him. And 1t is
on that account that feel that every
state ought to pass law giving this
time, this Communication, to every
prisoner who will work upon the pub
lie roads, and they all want to work.
Now there are some states that
haven't this law that have had sad
experiences in the construction of
roads. A governor came to my state
and said, II understand that you can
work convicts without them escap-
ing" WELL" said, you can if
you have the right laws" He said,
"We found in our states that it cost
money to guard the prisoners more
than it would take to construct the
road by contract labor, and conse-
quently we have abandoned it,"
asked him if he had a law which
gave the prisoner some motive, some
inducement, some hope, for his work
If he worked faithfully upon the
road. He said, mo, we put them
out and we have got to have suffici-
ent guards, and consequently we have
a guard, over every two or three men
and the result is the expense is too
great" I told him of the law which
we had passed in our state and the
success we had. \ /. will say this, that
unless you have a warden who is in
sympathy with the prisoners, and
who tries to assist them in every way.
it might not perhaps be great sue
cess even in those states. But there
is one thing certain, we have tried it
out in our state and we find it worked
admirably. w have had fewer es-
capes than ever before; we find our
road work is progressing; and it is
excellent work.
A short time ago attended the
opening of what is called "The road
to the top of the Royal Gorge" in our
state. We have there on the Arkan-
sas river in the Grand Canyon of that
river very narrow gorge, about half
as wide as this room, and the noun
tains on each side are almost per-
pendicular, rising to a height of 25,-
900 feet. 1t could easily be bridge,
but they have never felt that the
scenery should be desecrated by
bridging. But the warden of the pen.
itentiary undertook the construction
of road-there is a fiat place on
the top of that gorge, probably six
or eight acres, and he felt that if a
road could be constructed up there
so that the people could look down
into that chasm or into that crack
in the mountains, that it would be
great place for tourists to go, and the
scenic beauty of the gorge would be
shown to advantage, and so he took
his convicts and built that road. He
kept the time of the men, the num-
Der of hours they worked, and calcu-
lating it at $500 per day, which pay
labor gets in that portion of this
Union, he found that 1t would have
cost, if it had been constructed by
pay labor, thirty thousand dollars,
but the total amount that it cost him,
including everything, was simply &c.
10000. (Applause.)
Now, when you consider what ben
eft the state is getting-it might be
that convicts can be hired out and
more money put into the treasury
and make the institution self-sustain-
ing. It~often happens that you can
contract them out to a shoe factory
and have them do the work within
the prison walls and thereby the state
would get benefit from it, but they
cannot get the kind of benefit they
would in the construction of a road.
The cost is small and the work Is
better, but if you let to contract la
Dor these men without any hope of
reward, with the treatment which
they get from contractors, under the
spur of trying to get as much work
out of them as possible, you will find
that not only will you have less re-
sults-probably more in the way OF
direct return to your treasury, but
far less considering the great advan-
tage to the state the roads would
make in the construction thereof.
And therefore when you eliminate
and take into consideration the. ques-
ton of dollars and cents. If it Is wise