Milford chronicle., 1912-02-16
USELESS TRADES BALK
REFORM OF CONVICTS
Thousands of Men in Prisons are Taught
Women's Work.
JAIL THE ONLY PLACE JOBS AWAIT
In Nearly Half the States, Including Del
aware, Prison Labor is Sold to a
Contractor at Not More than
Fifty Cents a Day.

e Fifty Cents Day.
e In the February American Magazir
there is the first of a series of artiel'
o entitled 1.-The Man in the Cage, whiC
- is to deal with prisons and prisoner
One of the interesting facts brought oil
e in the first article is that thousands {
men prisoners in America are taugf
women's work and other trades whic
are absolutely useless to them when the
leave Jail and try again to earn a living
] Following is an interesting extract:
To-day there are, as far as can es
, innate, some ten thousand prisoner
learning needless trades in our variou
= prisons. Every one of these men is fore
ing some working girl outside into idle
uess, or a lower standard of living, o.
the lowest step of ALL And every one
of these men hates his work and the
State which has broken faith with him.
''Let us glance at some of the other
important prison industries. There is
the hollowware industry. In the prison
foundry the men may be taught to cast
these great black iron pots and pans,
! griddles, skillets and skewers, which
| formed the chief equipment in your
grandmothers kitchen, but which to-day
what with the growing popularity of
aluminium and agateware- are relegated
more or less to the homes of the poor
and to the more backward communities.
This is a difficult and dangerous trade
to learn. In its day it was a well-paid
trade. But the fierce competition of the
prison goods has simply destroyed this
industry so that to-day there is scarcely |
a single hollowware foundry in the Uni |
ted States outside the prison. l base
this statement upon the authority of the |
United States Bureau of Labor Goth
Ann. Rept, p. 120) and letter from j.
F. Valentine, president of the IrOnmOld-
ers' Union of North America. In order
to earn a living at this trade, as judge,
and warden and chaplain have promised
him, the ex-convict must return to
prison!
cor the prisoner may be taught broom
and brush making, another important
prison industry. This is not exclusively
a wOman's trade, nor is it mOnopolized
prison trade. 1t is worse. 1t is blind
workers trade, one of the very few oc-
cupations open to the sightless unfOr-
tunates. When the discharged convict
in this work he is taking the
bread out of the mouths of wretches who
are even worse OH Jnan ne IS. II
''The State of Minnesota trains its
prisoners to make binding. But the
.onvnct who hopes to earn his living
~ this trade will have to leave the State.
am informed by w. F. Foulk, State
of Labor, that there is Z
My one other binding twine plant in
he whole State, the International Flax
-wine Company, and letter from G. L. :
Rice of this company states frankly ?
hat the manufacture of binding twine !
5 not skilled labor, that two-thirds of the
york is done by women, and, finally, :
hat this company employs no discharged !
Onvicts.
Boot and shoe makingis another i'm Q
Ortant prison trade. But this, also is Il
apidly becoming feminized, the census j.
tatistics showing Bulletin Y, p., 10 !,
hat in the period of 1890 to 1905 there Y
'as an increase of only $1,000 wage =
arners in this industry, of which nearly 9
!, 600 were women and children. =
THE FIRST DAY. :,
1.-The first shock of arrest and i'm
risonment is, to the first offender. the
reat crisis of his life. He realizes, sud d
emily and vividly, that the state is not
lerely political abstraction out of a L
ing forgotten school-book, but a thing
live armed with jaw and claw. The E
feet of this is overwhelming. There G
YES no human animal more pentent
nd plastic than the first offender on his P
rst day in prison. On that day. of all P
avs, the state can mold him easily to a.
S civic needs. Turn him over to a man P
no believes in the bottom good in him
each him a trade whereby he may learn
} support himself honestly when re-
.ased give him a share in his earnings B
} that he may, even tho in prison, sup A,
Ort his innocent wife and helpless chill
ren-Or, if he is alone, save a bit of g..
apital against the blackest day in his -
hole life, the distant day Of liberation "
other words, give him work and hope. -,
le two things which all men need in u
'der to live, and you will have set him G.
4 the road to citizenship. Deprive him
work and hope and you will as surely >.
ave set him on the road to crimnality. g,
LABOR SOLD TO TRADES. W
This is so obvious a truth that one H
ould expect it to be very cornerstone OF
our penal system. But the mel &c
lcholy fact is that there are not ten 81
'isOns in the country to-day which teach
e prisons a useful trade, and scarcely til
le, so far as l know, which permits tn
m to make any reasonably decent pro-
sion for his dependent family and in pa
,arly half of the States of the Union CO
J is sold to a private trader, called a all
ison contractor, for an average of not at
uch more than fifty cents a day, At tn
st, the contractor is a business man, to
worst, a merciless SLAYER. Hehas alb to
lutely no interest, human or other, in fa
e prisoner and the prisoner has no in
yhts which he need respect.
''This is the heart of the prison prob 81
n as it tcOnfrOnts US in America to-day, he
HUMANITY OF PRISONERS. ed
Il might tell a thousand and one ~ ~
Dries to prove the prisoners essential ~,
manity under stress and strain how, %
r example, his word given to humane 3;
arden is rarely dishonored how, only ~ ~
It year, the convicts of Colorado built -
thout watch or guard, the most won D, D.
rful scenic road in the world, which n n
nds its way from Cannon City to Col E.
ado Springs, and not one convict broke c. C.
word-simply because Governor Sha- ~
'th and Warden lyman are men among 90
N. They say that in the convict camp a.