Evening journal., 1911-08-14
WORKHOUSE
UNDER FIRE
DR.. Robin Says Prisoners are
0ve3WOrked and Under
fed
CONDEMNS THE LABOR
SYSTEM AS PERNICIOUS

DR.. Albert Robin medical director
at Hope Farm the Delaware Anti-Tu-
berculosts Society's sanitarium. and
also ply stcian- in-chief Of the tubercu-
losis diApensa-y. yesterday through
The Star made public a long letter
dealing With the W0rkhouse situation
and upholdinG what Upton Sinclair
has charged against the institution.
DR. Robin. rensrrtng to the food, says
in his letter.
That the prisoners are underfed
is shown by the low cost Of mainten-
ance 10 which by the way, the prison
reports point win pride At the
present high cost Of food II is diff
cult to maintain q person on eight
cents a day"
DR.. Robin speaks of a prison in
Massachusetts where good food is
given the prisoners, and continues
That the prisoners Of our County
Workhouse are overworked is hardly
open to question. since the very sys-
tenn of their employment IS one Of ex-
ploitation The principal object is to
derive as much revenue from the pris-
oners as possible. The prisoners are
hired out to a contractor who has
no particular interest in their welfare
and looks upon them merely as
sources of profit Consequently, con-
ditions differ little in this respect
from those prevailing in any of the
large sweat-shops. The workers are
huddled together in one large and
rather poorly ventilated room, are
driven to work to their utmost by
guards or foremen and are further en-
couraged to Oyerwork themselves by a
bonus that is, TO receive some pittance
for his work prisoner must exceed
she task from which the state derived
the profit.
"A more pernicious system of
grinding out profits from prisoners
could not be devised. and is only akin
to the swstem of overtime work re-
sorted to in all sweat-shops AS a
purely punitive measure this system
will pass muster with any of the
hard labor methods employed in the
middle ages, but if the aim is at cor
rection We fail to see how such bru-
talizing exploitation can help the re-
form However, from the standpoint
of tuberculosis, this sweat shop sys-
tenn of keeping our prisoners employ
ed cannot but help the spread of in
lection by undermining the vitality of
the inmates on the one hand, and by
the close association of the prisoners
on the other"
DR.. Robin said there are only two
ways of eliminating the white plague:
"One, to raise the resistance of the
individual by a proper mode Of life,
and the other is to prevent infection.
He suggested isolating the tuberculo-
sis inmates in separate wing OF the
present building or in a separate
building especially constructed for that
purpose.
Albert Rothschild, of the firm of
Oppenheim and Company, manager OF
the workshops, declares that the shops
are not run on the lines Of the social
ed sweat shops" He gave figures
showing the area Of the shops and
claims there is no huddling together
and no bad ventilation. He called at
tention to the fact that the prisoners
only work eight hours a day and not
at all on Saturday afternoon. He said
that no silent system exists in the
shops and that no man is ever pun
ished for talking.
John Goodwin, who served time in the
prison for attempted bribery at an
election and who was pardoned ow-
ing to the development OF consump-
ton, has written a letter from New
York declaring the workhouse is ''the
most corrupt-run prison in the United
States" and he Is anxious to help Sin
clair in his campaign to reform con-
ditions there. While the workhouse
trustees ignored Sinclair's letter at
their recent meeting on the ground
that IL was a personal letter 20 ].
Frank Ball. the secretary. who is
away, it is believed the subject Will be
taken up Immediately upon Judge
Balls return.
Notwithstanding what Mr.. Roths-
child says, several members of the
Legislature during an inspection of the
workhouse a few months ago were pre-
vented by a guard from talking to a
boy prisoner, and the boy was scold-
cd for talking to the Assemblymen.
Later Warden Crawford had the boy
taken from the shop to centre" where
the Assemblymen talked to him.