The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-12-26

list Of other indoor occupations, at
one time~or other and IN one state
or other, during a long period have
driven home to them through con-
tract prison a lesson in pOiltlcai
which many good people not
wage-workers, viewing the question
sentimentally rather than practically,
could have little opportunity to learn.
Only & faint impression may be gam
ed when one reads in an encyclopedia
work on abstract economies such a
dictum as: THE price OF the surplus
Of a commodity in a market Is n
price Of the entire stock" III a deep
and lasting impression is received, as
from a Knockout blow, by a force OF
free dollar-a-day girl shirt waist
makers when they are discharged be-
cause the goods turned out from their
employers factory cannot compete IN
market price with goods Of the same
manufacturer by twenty-cents-a-day
convicts. On this economic point. the
New York Commissioner OF Labor
has thus quoted a shirt manufacturer:
Gall goods are sold by commerctalism,
and the lowest price makes the price
for all as long as the cheaper article
is on sale" In his report for 1910,
the Commissioner Of Labor for Mis-
souri, gives the idea clearly when he
says: "A bad feature for the outside
man ufacturer Is that convict goods
can be and re sold to dealers and
jobbers at figures slightly below thei
own. Therefore. it is very plain that
all prison-nade articles stan a bet
ter chance Of selling first, and the de-
ma.nd must exceed this output before
the jobbers and dealers car begin to
handle the products OF h regular
tax-paying factories employing honest
wage-earning men and women"
In Missouri alone IN 1909 the out-
put OF convict b shops was valued
at ~$4,7oS,1o2. Now it is by far b
lesser factor in the problem for that
State that nearly seventeen
free Industrial W~age-earnerS were In
tina year thrown out Of work through
the contract labor Of that number OF
prisoners with a loss to free b Of
$75S.00O in wag as computed by h
Commissioner. The portentous actor
to society was the decentralization OF
the markets through the prison-labor
goods. with n consequence to
the free-labor manufacturers, neces-
stating low wages for their employees
and perhaps the temporary Or even
closing Of factories. When one re-
members hat the ase OF Missouri Is
the case OF every State tolerating h
convict contract system. IN all TWEEN
ty-nine a year ago, he may see the
enormity Of the wrong one in b
United States to the wage-workers
who are not convicts and to the man
ufacturers who are not privileged TO
have their goods made by conyicts IN
prison factories, with the advantages
Of free-rent, power and heat and an
utaxed plant
Left to themselves, the free manu-
facturecs in an industry can In a gen
eral way so conduct it as either to
minimize the occasional waste from
oVer-production Or to Overtake the
market on the occurrence OF a short
age in production. In the course Of
years they can MAINTAIN approximate
" an equilibrium Of trade. resulting
on the whole In fairly steady work
for the wage-earners and average
gains to the investors in the business.
But, to a umbe of industries, Of all
the circumstances which vitiate the
natural course OF free production.
prison labor has long een one Of the
most hurtful and vexatious. Fully
thirty years ago the stow manufac-
turers Of New York. in petitioning
the Legislature to do away with the
iron mOlding in Sing Sing represented
that as a body they could. If the State
took its hands off them. provide for
average annual consumption Of their
goods at renunerative prices, without
serious f~luctuation in their scale OF
wages or their number Of employees.
Contract prison contracts, however,
made the total output and its market
prices ruinously Uncertain. In New
York the contest between the two
classes OF metal manufacturers. free
and prison, ran through decades. It
was largely the efforts of the molders
union associated with other labor or
carnations. which brought about the
constitutional amendment of 1895, by
which was introduced what is now
known as the state use" system. put
ting an end in New York to contract
prison labor.
A b~arbarOus social abuse certain
to arise from the establishment Of
contract prison labor lies in securing
h needed laborers. It would not
do to have the contractors suffer
through want of employees! A sig
nificant light was throWn on this
phase Of the subject la testimony
given at Washington before q sub
committee OF the House of Represen-
tatives three years ago, relative to q