The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-01-29
.DaIlUle[s LABOR
eOaTRlCT system.

eSOdtSuSe0 from uFAt p~ke.S
buyer offers = higher price for our
slaves II y hard to refuse such a
financial blessing. The urgency with
which the buyers press the effort to
make the contract shows either solici-.
tude for the financial welfare of our
State and the better physical and
moral welfare OF the conyicts or for
their own pecuniary advantage, We
may Judge which from the fact that
in about nineteen states they are
woi king contract labor and that be-
ginning win q capital OF szo,0uo they
now have q capitalization OF $.ov,-
QUO.
What trade Is it they are teaching?
Here II fa,tmaking shoes. Good trade.
But are the contractors VINO do so
large a part Of this trade gong to pay
sx-convicts S1.s0 to 500 day wnen
they can get convicts for forty-two
cents. with the privilege of logging
work out OF them
Compsts With Women.
What trade is to take the place
Of this? Making shirts, overalls.
binding twine and knitting. That 10
woman's work, done by women and
sought by women. The difference is
that able-bodied men are hired for
$3.50 week to do what the women
in free shops get $11 week for do
ing. 1t is said that over ten thou
sand men In prison are now COM
peting on these terms with free wom-
en- who are struggling to maintain
themselves and families.
But let us not forget the profit
sharing feature. From our State loud
~ proclaiming the benefits OF the
profit-sharing system. the warden
SAYS 4 am pleased to tell the pris-
oners that all over 1000 shirts a
month they make will be divided
among them. That's good. The re-
suit OF dividing thee profits gives an
average OF Is cents per month to each
person! Many of these men have
families outside. How far does this
well, you say, they are convicts and
wives of children, and couyfcts. they
have brought 1t on themselves; who
Is responsible for them? | answer.
only few who think what the Te
things mean and who almost In an
individual way are trying to give
sorpe help. some hope to these de-
spairing souls, to save them from.
lives of crime and deaths of infamy
ana nopeleSSneES.
DR.. Mason asserted that there are
many people In prison not half SO
bad as many who are outside prison.
wallis There are many behind the
bars, he said, who have done less
to rob and defraud their fellowmen.
TO make the struggle for existence
harder and to take the very bread out
| of the mouths Of the poorest people.
done less OF such things, | say, than
many a man revered In business ana
political circles and standing high in
social life has done by business acu-
MEN. by lobbying for legislative helps
and by an interruptions use OF power.
But | am not here to Judge tnes~
men. Their, judgment is heing writ
ten In their own cpnsciences, in their
| hearts and In their characters. Their
reconpense will come without any
help from me. l am not here to re-
form these men. To them my words
would seem the habbling of n fool or
the raving of q fanatic.
Il am here to try TO persuade all
Virginia people to take these able
business men for what they are and
refuse to enter into partnership with
them in their greed for gain and con-
tempt for fallen humanity. II we do
that our offense is rank, It smells
to heaven
vireinia's Responsibility.
1.-THE responsibility for the physical
and moral welfare of our prisoners is
on us of Virginia. We cannot share
1t with the profit-sharing companies
from Boston or Chicago. To do 80
is to share with them the guilt of
trading In human bodies and souls,
human opportunities, human hearts
and human horcs for this world and
the hext. Ard trading them for what?
gum as paltry to the seller as the
thirty pieces of silver for which
JudPs sold his Lord and as profitable
to the buyer as the wealth OF the
world 10 TO the one who barriers his
conscience, his soul. his eternal life
fors gold"