Martinsburg statesman-democrat. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1906-1921, 1913-10-31
CONVICT LABOR HAS
PENITENTIARY WARDEN
MAKES GOOD REPORT

where Can and viii Be Done in
Berkeley County - conViots VIII
Soon Arrive Here and Then the
Progressive Plan of Road Building
viii Be Entered upon--What Col
orado Has Accomplished.
At the last session Of the state
legislature a law was enacted requir-
ing conviets 10 labor on the highways
In addition those confined IN the state
penitenuary county prisoners. are
required to work out Their fines
Every county in the STATE has en-
forced the law, and the result IS that
many miles of roads have been built
or repaired during the past summer
and the prospects are that. before the
year has passed, that such improve
ments will be noticed as to elicit
praise from every taxpayer
This law has been tried in other
states, and the results have been very
satisfactory. The people are delight
ed with their new highways, and have
no desire to return to The old system
Berkeley county was the first to
ask for state convicts. Arrangements
have been made for their reception,
and, upon their arrival they viii be
given homes and provided for the
same as though they we're in the pen.
tentiary. They viii build roads
throughout the county at no cost to
the taxpayers and before they are
transferred elsewhere every mile Of
road in the county will be first-class.
The county court has entered upon
a progressive plan of road building
Every section of the county viii re.
ceive attention and the farmers VIII
be given something to which they can
point with pride IN later years.
The state Of Colorado has long been
working its convicts on the roads
he experiment proved so successful
that the plan has been made perman.
emf, and the result is that the state
now has hundreds of miles Of the
best roads in the country.
Hon. Thomas ]. lyman warden of
the Colorado state penitentiary, In
his 1912 report to the governor, says:
"Our largest item Of labor by the
convFcts was, of course, the road
work. The prisoners have been en-
pIoyed on the construction OF roads
in Mesa, Fremont, Larmier, Weld,
Boulder. Jefferson, FL Paso and Pue-
bio counties. They have built Isl
miles of good roadway, and a great
deal of this has been blasted out OF
solid rock-that in Mesa county be
ing the most difficult and heavy work
ever attempted by our men.
"Owng to the fact that it is I'M
D ssible to get from the various coun-
ties the cost of material such as ce-
ment, lumber, steel, corrugated cul-
verts, powder tools and suppl es 9th
err than actual labor used in road and
bridge building, we are enabled to
give you only the labor cost to these
different Counties for the work of the
men. This work has been done at
an average cost to the different coun-
ties of so cents per day per man, and
as this cost Includes Sundays and hol-
iidavs, the cost of the labor of these
men to the counties for the two
wears, or 731 days would be S36, 725,44.
We have worked Twenty-Five state
teams and the feed for these teams
co the counties $50 per month per
team. which would amount to Slo'-
$50; making a total cost to the coun-
ties for labor Of $46,S05.44. The av-
erage labor cost of the 157 miles was
$29s.12 per mile.
IL is hard to estimate The immense
value of thes roads for the reason
that the work IN the Mesa county
alone world have cost with free la
Dor. nos less than $4,000 per mile,
as the rock in places had to be blasted
for seventy-hve feet in order to get
proper road-bed. In this work II
was necessary to din holes twenty
five feet deep and TO drill three depths
before the road-bed was reached. So
you can readily see the magnitude OF
this work, The work in Ute Pass
county was done through solid rock
for six miles, all blasting The work
in Salt Canon and Parkdale Hin in
Fremont county, and Pingree Hi
Cherokee hAl and Thompson Canon
in Larmier county contained great
deal of blasting This necessarily
would have been very expensive work
had It been done with free labor and
the counties would have been forced