The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1911-01-14
Millions Stolen In Needless
Fees BY Rapacious Deputies
A 1
SAYS TRAMP A NO. 1

imaginary offense. The white woman
got her cook.
Elm the steel works in Alabama
a. workman and his wife were found
who had been travelling in search of
work, the wife in mans clothes be-
cause she could travel better that
way. They were sentenced as tramps,
sold to the steel works on the con-
Wet scale system, and only then was
the Woman's sex discovered. The case
made such a scandal that it has gone
as lar as congress. and has been one
OF the powerful arguments for the
abolition of convict labor in the
South. 49,
If this universal system of graft,
which is the curse of the United
States, could be wiped out, the tramp
problem would be solved instantly.
once eliminate the fees and not a
deputy in the land will have an incen-
tive for making a needless arrest,
while his salary will make it incum-
bent on him to arrest wherever the
conlmunity's safety requires it.
But, as it is, the United States is
the worlds greatest and most shame
full factory for the production of
tramps, hoboes, crooks--and de-
bauched officers OF the law"
THE moral ruin effect by these
nolsome ja1ls," explained A. No. 1
does not end there, unless the VIC
tim is completely handed over to
the forces of destruction before he is
released from confinement. It is
hard to kill the instinct for good in
many men, however debauched they
may appear. The average mechanic,
feeling himself forever disgraced by
his imprisonment, and partly recon
c1led to his doom of a future exis-
tence In the hades of poverty, shift
lessness and vice, does not tamely
resign himself after he is free No
man with mans spirit can.
Blackmailed Out of Jobs.
he reels, sooner or later, that this
open, Dig world is ample enough for
MIN to find fair play, and he has
Drains, skill and strength enough to
win pack his old place in it, Plenty
OF suoh men, weeks or months after
ward' pull themselves together, get a
Joo and earnestly strive to make good
at their old employments, regarding
the foulness of their Imprisonment
as an incident they want to forget.
IL is then that the worst feature of
the whole accursed system comes in
to play.
Some hobo, some crook, who has
been with the decent workman in
the pen, crosses his path. He makes
the appeal to him from the freemas-
onry of the road.
why 30, it's good to see you
again, and me so hard up. Can YOU
help friend, now that you're max
in good?'
The mechanic knows that it Is
blackmail. If: he gives, he will be
pursued by others, for such desper
ately striving workmen are the fat Of
the land to the ,blackguards out of
jail. If he doesn't, he knows that
MS employer will be notified of his
prison record and will discharge him
Some of them make fight; others
succumb on the spot, for they know
the 1nevitableness of their destruc-
ton whatever they do.
The Familiar 'Touch."
Il was working in a store window
carving potatoes at $40 a day in the
west when one of the fraternity rec
ognlzed me. He saw his opportunity
and loafed about until came out on
the street. Then he made the fami-
liar touch Oh, yes; he knew r
knew him. Didn't 1 remember tho
jail in California where we were to-
gether? [ remembered it and him per-
1ectly, and said so. Well-why
then' of course, must give up the
oollar ne demanded. What if !
didn't? His face assumed the ug1v
scoWl that goes with the familiar
threat, as he rejoined that he'd see
my boss In the store and in two
m1utes make me lose my Job. ANY
such information had been discounted
at the time when I contracted to
serve as the window attractions: in
tact, 1t was just that kind of infor-
nation which had secured me the
place. So I looked the blackmailer
square in the eye and laughed at
him. That was one time when the
.blackmair of the road failed, for he
hadn't the nerve to enter the store
When I urged him to.
But the average mechanic has no
such advantage. He must sell his
skill and his presumed honesty where
ne can, and when the presumption
of honesty is destroyed EMPLOYERS
are liable to dispense with his skill.
The brand of the Jail. once put up-
Oh the average man, dOoms him for
ever to the terrible alternative of
road and prison, prison and road.
until humanity has wasted another
member and a. i,1rv IF stropoors ,-;o
a verdict in accordance with tha Co.,
oner's instructions"
BARRIERS, ATTENTION.!
The following notice has been sent