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

for long term prisoners in order that
their financial showing shall be I'M
f, proved and that they may get appro-
priations for new buildings, on h
ground Of their being entirely or par
tally self-supporting. This is very
commendable!' The Maryland peni-
Tertiary is one Of the shirt trust fac
tories. The process of legally put
ting poor and ignorant black men to
work in the Southern mines as con-
! Wet laborers has all the look Of a
villainous form Of CONSUMPTION: Of
1850 convicts in the Alabama mines
on January 1, 1911, less than 10 per
cent we're white. The writer re-
declares that Of 2.591 persons i'm
prisoned in 1911 in the New Haven.
Conn.,. county Jail, fully 1900 had
not committed any crime at ALL"
Nearly 400 had been sentenced for a
fam,1x ro OF the peace 9etSss.u G"stre .a. lows
and the like"); 1,115 for drunkenness
("for the most part conv1va1s who
had had one glass too 1877
for t~respassing on railroad property
can onense which most OF IS have
committed in the curse Of a cross
grancy (Which means, as a rule. an
unemployed workingman looking for
a job"). The real purpose. h writer
asserted, in combining these men in
Jail was to grind out profits for the
prison contractor. The New Haven
county Jail is one Of the chair trust
factories:
needle trades in the United States, it
may be asked. ave seen their jobs
taken from them through prison la
bor-just as the employees Of four
shirt factories in Baltimore, after the
panic Of 1907, were discharged, DOOM
ed f0 i61onaaS whom tho firm am
ploying them transferred their sewing
machines to the Maryland peniten-
tiary. to give the prisoners work at
full time? How many industrial
wage-workers have seen the places Of
their employment close through their
employers inability to compete with
a manufacturer working convicts-
just as was the case of q chair
making company. which, after thirty
years in the business. was forced to
discontinue turning out a certain
grade Of goods made for it by free
employees at $3.50 to SO a day, In
competition with convicts at 80 to so
cents a day? How man poor, I'M
fortunate blacks and whites ave
known while at work in prison or
to be punished as la~w-breakers, but
to be worked for a combination Of
prison keepers and slave-drfving
prison labor cOntractOrs-just as ma
be the case today whenever the
temptation and the power exists for
t~reacherOus authority and unscrupu-
lous greed to seize and exploit weak
ness and helplessness? Thousands,
even tens Of thousands Of American
citizens have in one or other of these
avs been mercilessly and Infamous
ly robbed OF their labor, Of their
time, either of which means so much
Of their very lives. All these sufferers
had relatives, or friends, or fellow
workers who witnessed their cruel
and unjust fate or heard the story Of
it, and these, with the victims. have
no doubt wondered, in r~ighteously
justice and mercy and Christianity,
while such shocking evils couh be
tolerated by society.
Is there a confirmed criminal class
in this country. skeptical Of purity in
the law and benefcence in it's institu-
tons? Is there a growing defiance
Of the public officials? Is there a
widespread conviction among the
loWly that to be poor is to be legiti-
mate prey for cunning arch-thieves
cloaked in legal authority or en-
dowed with legal privileges, even to
that OF jaihng the victims Of poverty
and working them like slaves?
When one recalls to mind the
enormous numbers OF poor people
who have suffered in some form from
the blunders or the criminalities pos
Sible under our prison labor systems,
something OF the answer to a per-
picking question which law-abiding
wa ask one another Is sug-
gested. The question Il. Who are
the mob-makers that suddenly ap-
pear in our cities in times of popu-
lar excitement Who are the missile
thrower and violent shouters of in
cendiary phrases, Usually n to
the ~unionists. that during a lockout
or a strike make for the thick Of the
crowds, to act contrary to the wishes
and instructions Of the union? To
what extent ma lawless outbreaks
be due to the irrepressible sense Of
wrong done him by society ranking
in the breast Of here one man and
there another. feeding the latent mob
spirit to fame up with the oppor-
tunity Of manifesting 1T in public? It
| Is 10 be amAmbare that On Iap.,a.--