The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1913-08-29
CONVICT SLAVERY
Status of Thousands of People
In Penal Institutions.
COMPETE WITH FREE LABOR.
Prison Made Goods Should Be Used by
the State and Not Placed on the Open
Market-Duty of the Several States.
Attitude of the Unions.

| Market-Duty OF the Several states.
Attitude of the Unions.
Slavery exists today. Thousands Of
persons, black and white, confined in
the penal institutions throughout the
country, are legally slaves, sold to bust
ness interests for exploitation. Such
is the contention of the national COM
mittee on prison labor, which has been
working for number Of years study
ing this problem. and which a year
ago announced through DR.. e. Stage
Within now chairman of its execu-
tive committee, that these conditions
were universal and should be eradi-
Gated.
A convict remains the property of
the state, according to all but three
of the state constitutions. The excep-
lions are Rhode Island, Vermont and
Maryland. The freeing of the slave
by his master under negro slavery
finds its counterpart in the pardoning
power vested in the governor in the
case of a criminal. He, the MASTER
can make the convict slave free man
again at his will.
/ Few people today realize that this
is the actual status of thousands of
people confined in our penal institu-
lions.
The convict factory exists practical
ly throughout all the manufacturing
states. Many of our prisons are
great bastiles, inclosing within their
limits two, three and sometimes a
dozen factories. In the management
of these factories the contest between
civil and private production has been
going on apace. Certain industries
have been developed in them to such
efficiency that they have become pace
i makers for the free factories outside
their walls.
i The surplus products resulting from
4 efficiency developed in the productive
end of the penal institution must find
market either in the general compel
tive market or in transfer to some
other supplementary institution or de-
partment connected with the penal in
stitution. The transfer of commodities
between institutions and departments
of coordinate control Is governed by
the same fundamental principle as the
transfer within the prison itself.
J, The only wonder is that with the
demand of the public for the adoption
of sane business methods in our gov
eminent we have come so slowly and
) to such limited degree to apply prop
ositions which to the business man are
, automatic. In twenty-three states all
the surplus product reaches the open
, market in sixteen states part of it
does, while in nine none of it does
!, The facts have been brought out by
sworn testimony that at the New Ha-
ven jail the contract under which the
convicts work contains a clause pro-
viding that if the convict does not
work satisfactorily to the man who has
leased him he may be punished. For
} the convict's labor and the right to
punish the contractor pays less than 10
} cents a day and manufactures chairs
sold in the markets of New York city
} What local manufacturer can compete
with such producer?
} Under the pressure of prison life the
great prison factories of Maryland
} have likewise become pacemakers for
the laborers throughout the country.
} Yet who wants to compete with them
who can successfully? With labor
} worth from 81 to $1.50 day. with
shop rents free and often with light
! and heat thrown in. the prison con-
tractors have an opportunity to make
net profit while selling their goods
cheaper than the free manufacturers
can produce them, even though he
pays his employees wages in the sweat
shops which forces degradation and
immoral living.
Offset this proposition with the prac
teal business situation which exists in
the so called state use system.
The unions, unfortunately, have been
credited in the public mind with OPP
position to any labor on the part of
the convict. yet the fact is that the
unions have forced the issue upon the
public attention 1t was through their
} representative. John t. McDonough,
that they forced the New York consti-
tutional convention in 1894 to accept
the proposition despite the protest of
} Joseph II. Choate 1t was Elihu Root
who cast the deciding vote for the
union program, but there is some
doubt whether the conservatives would
have let the reform go through If
1t had not proved to be the only way
to secure the popular and union vote
back of the adoption of the new con
stitution. 1t is the unions that are
making the strong fight throughout
the country and aiding in every way
the national committee on prison labor
to bring about reforms.
what are you going to do about itP'
remarked the political boss of New
Haven. Conn. when the investigation
uf the civic federation proved that the
city was selling its convicts for