The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-01-07
Contract ithStarCloth-
ing Co. Be Signed
Tomorrow.
TEACHER co.
BID is LOWEST
Shoe Contract Will Terminate
May Five Hundred Male
Prisoners, With All Women,
Will Learn New Trade.
Others Go on Pub
~ lie Roads.

Overalls will be made in the Vir-
GINA PeIitentiary by convict labor, on
contract. for Ave years from May I.
1918. replacing the manufacture OF
shoes. now carried on by the Thacher
Shoe Company. The last named con-
Germ. which has been the contractor
for many years, will end its connection
with the State. and Will operate big
factory In Richmond. employing free
labor.
1t is understood that the contract
will be signed tomorrow afternoon by
the board of directors of the state Pen
itentiary on the one hand, and the
Star Clothing Company. of St Louis
and Detroit, on the other hand. This
concern is the highest bidder. Offering
figure slightly in excess of so cents
per day for the 500 men and the wo-
men who will be employed on contract
after May 1.
Income Not Reduced
This will mean. when figured out.
just about double the sum now received
from the Thacher Shoe Company. In
other words. the 500 men who will
work for the Star Clothing Company
will bring in an income of about the
men employed in the shoe shops at
present. The old contract with the
Thatcher company required the payment
of only AZ cents per day for men and
% cents for women.
Members OF the board have evident
~ taken a last laugh on some of their
critics. Sundry shoe manufacturers.
breathing out threatenings and slaugh-
ter, have proposed Injunction proceed
ings to prevent the contamination or
any contract for the prison labor. At
torneys are working on legal papers
to stop an extension of agreement with
the Thatcher Shoe Company, under the
impression that the board desires to
renew that contract
Thacher Is Lowest.
All this time the informed have
known that the Thatcher Shoe Company
Is the lowest bidder. and has had at
no time ghost Of a chance to get
the contract for convict labor The
bid it turned in is taken as evidence
that il did not expect anything from
the board, since it involved a figure
so low that it was not considered for
an instant.
So the labor of the protestants has
gone for naught. 1t is not unlikely,
however. that some efforts will be
made to attack the agreement, which
will be signed in this city tomorrow
on what ground il can be assailed, IS
not known.
Under the convict road force law.
as amended by the Legislature at its
last session. all male prisoners in the
penitentiary. after May /. 1918. are to
be subject to work on the highways
of the Commonwealth But such long
term and desperate men as the super
intendent shall deem unsafe to be so
employed. together with the women
prisoners. may be employed on a con-
tract in the penitentiary for not ex-
ceeding FIVE years All tasks for the
prisoners are to be fixed by the super
intendent-
II is stated that the Thacher Shoe
Company will hereafter watch all dis
charges from the prison. including
those whose terms have expired. those
pardoned and those paroled. and offer
them work IN the new shoe factory it
is building here. II will thus have
first call on shoe workmen. many OF
whom have reached the proportions of
skilled men