United labor bulletin., 1912-10-03
LabelLeague Department
EDW j. HINES, Sec'y-Treas., p. O. Box 7so.
League meets lst Fridays month Club Building

I Icupation. These statutes still wayer in
an uncertain manner between the con-
ception of the wage as a privilege, com
mon to England and Germany. and the
wage as a right as it exists in France.
The development OF the idea of the right
of wage, fused as it is with the move
ment toward governmental work and
workshops, cannot fail to stand out sig
nificantly when viewed from the stand
point of the labor movement.
| In a word, the economic progress in
prison labor shown in recent legislation
| is toward more efficient production by
| the elimination OF the profits of the
lessee; more economical distribution of
the products by the substitution of a
preferred market, where the profits OF
the middleman are eliminated, in place
| of the unfair competition with the prod
ucts of free labor in the open market;
and finally the curtailment of the slave
system by the provision for wages and
choice of occupation for the man in
penal servitude.
In administration the adaptation of
these new principles presents many diff
culties and points the need of much
suited to the special locality. DR.. Harts
illustration from the Columbus reforma-
tory finds its counterpart in the horrors
that have been perpetrated at the Co.
lumbus penitentiary. The pen portraits
of Brand Whitlock in his Turn of the
Balance" exaggerate nothing in their de-
piction of the horrors of the convicts
in the shops, suffering from industrial
diseases as horrible as the poisoning or
which DR.. Seager has spoken, but forced
to work under the brutal contractor till
fatigue and anguish break them down
then the paddle and the water-cure
change them from men into brutes.
should hesitate SO to testify If the facts
were not a matter of court record in
case now pending in that great city of
Ohio whence came most of our inspira-
ton at this mornings meeting. This is
but a type, however. The convicts in
Alabama who tried to become my slaves
to avoid the mine-camp can be found If
you care to seek them; all along the
line the war goes on between brutality
and enlightened state control What DR..
Hart told of in Ohio is as true in many
other places. You have read of the
abominable conditions in Maryland. the
contracts in Connecticut which sell the
right to grasping contractors to punish
the convicts at their pleasure-but this
phase must soon belong to the past.
The National Committee on Prison La
Dor for two years has been investigating
the conditions, advising with state Off
cials. drafting legislation, organizing re-
form. Armed with constructive pro-
gram resulting from its studies and ex-
periments 1t will bring to the legisla-
lures which are to be elected this year
the encouragement which comes from
well-conceived plans based upon actual
conditions, and to the administrators
whom the new governors shall appoin
a synthesis of the available materia
upon which to work. 1t is not for sup
port from these men that we need ask;
they will be glad and ready to respond
it is from the public which this asso
citation represents. the public of the good
citizen, the church-goer, the preacher,
the taxpayer and the educator. Reform
is impossible of permanence until these
are fully alive to the problem and take
personal interest in aiding each COM
munity to make that adjustment upon
which permanent reform must rest.
What are the conditions in your COM
munity? What are you doing to i'm
prove them? Do you realize that as
citizen of state that continues the slav-
cry of its convicts you join in the re-
sponsibility for its existence?