Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-11-03
Prison L abor.

The next speaker was T.. stage
Within Ph. d. general secretary OF
tile National committee On prison la
b9r. He spoke in part as follows:
The earliest form of prison in this
was that OF an institution
owned b. an individual to whom the
state paid small sum for keep and
guarding of the prisoners whom this
worked al his own discre-
ton, deriving from their work what
Profit he might. We next see the
head OF the penal institution being ap-
pointed by the state but being paid by
individual manufactures for whose
profit he worked his prisoners. The
placing OF the warden upon a salary
basis under the state and the refusal
to allow him to participate in the
sales and profits of the labor of the
eonviets has followed in many states.
Probably the strongest force toward
the development Of the states function
IN the care of the prisoner has been the
leng and persistent agitation of or
ganized labor against the unfair COM
petition of convict goods upon the open
market As the control of the state
upon these prison Industries has be-
come greater the possibility of labors
being able to restrict the operation of
the penal institutions through control
of the state Legislature has become
greater and the history of most of our
states shows that today when labor is
once aroused to an antagonism to any
specific forms of commodity manu-
featured in prison sufficient power
fsa1 ha tn tb qhGliGh its
manufacture.
The competition complained of by
organized labor is often misunderstood
by the general public and the stand
point of the unions absolutely mis-
represented The quantity of goods
manufactured by the prisons of this
country has been shown to be small in
comparison with the great bulk of
manufactured commodities taken as
whole, but Commissioner Neill in 1905,
in his convict labor statistics. compares
the goods manufactured in the prisons
with the quantity of goods of similar
character manufactured outside the
prisons and makes clear that the COM
petition is worthy of note. Since then
the tend of prison industries has been
towards specialization in three or four
lines thus increasing the competition
to a point where it is not only apparent
but deadly. In this connection it must
be borne in mind that an Industrial
market is very sensitive and fiuctuates
in response to variations in the cost of
production of even very small quaint
ties.
If the claim of labor regarding COM
petition is not unreasonable maybe her
solution is not untenable. In New
York state by constitutional amend
ment in 1894 the labor unions secured
the passage of a state use" regulation
providing that the labor of the prison
ers should not be sold or leased but
that the state Itself should produce
what the state itself could consume.
Under this system the convicts in the
state of New York produce $1,000, 900
worth of goods annually which is con-
sumed by the state and the Subdivi-
sions of the state This movement
started in New York is spreading over
the country. In the legislatures that
met last year q made some provisions
for the states assumptions and oper-
alton Of its industries. while eight pro-
of Manufactured articles
and six established laws for the regu
lation Of prices and the standardiza
ton of the commodities manufaCtur-
ed Pesides New York, today Califor-
mia, New Jersey. Missouri and Wyom
ing provide for the states production
and consumption of the good upon
which the conviets labor. The feel
ing is abroad today that ii is the states
duty not only to provide labor for it's
convcts but that this labor shall be
of such a character in no way penaliZe
free labor and the free artisan that
while the prisoner should be in no way
exploited for private gain he should be
worked efficiently SO that his greatest
productivity shall result in the remu
neration Of the State or the full amount
of his cost to ii and his wife and child
ren shall be supported by the sweat of
his brow ON that standard of decency
which will ensure that his offspring be
NOT forced by economic pressure to re-
main in the criminal class in which
inheritance has placed them.
The national committee on prison
labor was founded to study the prob-