The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-03-13
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cessful escape. Communities no longer fear to
have our convict camps established near them.
We have made manhood as well as money by this
healthy, hearty outdoor labor. We have built the
prisoners up both physically and morally. Men
discharged from our road camps do not have the
prison pallor, the physical weakness and the
hesitating, ~hang-dog appearance of the typical dis
charged convict. They are bronzed, sturdy, heal
thy, efficient laborers and are in demand as such.
ABOUT 20 per cent of those we have sent out upon
the completion of their sentence have made good.
The other 20 per cent have mostly found their way
back into prison elsewhere. &
In his last biennial report Warden lyman had
the following to say with reference to the fnan-
cial side of convict road building:
Our largest item of labor performed by the
convicts was, of course, the road work. The pris-
oners have been employed in the construction of
roads in Mesa, Fremont, Larimer, Weld, Boulder,
Jefferson, Ell Paso and Pueblo counties. They have
built 157 miles of good roadway and a great deal
of this has been blasted out of solid rock-that in
Mesa county being the most difficult and heavy
work ever attempted by our men.
lowing to the fact that it was impossible to get
from the various counties the cost Of material,
such as cement, lumber, steel, corrugated cul-
verts, powder, tools and supplies, other than &C
tual 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 diff
ferent counties of 80 cents per day per man; and
as this cost includes Sundays and holidays the
cost of labor Of these men to the counties for the
two years, or 731 days. would be $36, 725.44. We
have worked twenty-one state teams and the feed
for these teams cost the counties 500 per month
per team, which would amount to $40, 088; making
a total cost to the counties for labor of sac, sos.
The average labor cost for the 157 miles was
$2aS.12 per mile.
1T Is hard to estimate the immense value of
these roads for the reason that the work in Mesa
county alone would have cost, with free labor, not
less than $4,000 per mile, as the rock in places
had to be blasted for rs feet in order to get a
proper roadbed. In this work it was necessary to
drill holes rs feet deep and to drill three depths
before the roadbed was reached. So you can see
the magnitude of this work. The work in Ute
Pass, In Ell Paso county, was done through solid
rock for six miles, all blasting. The work in Salt
Canon and Parkdale Hill, In Fremont county and
1ngree Hill, Cherokee Hill and Thompson Canon,
in Larimer county have been very expensive work,
because of the blasting. This necessarily would
have been very much more expensive had 1t been
done with free labor, and the counties would have
been forced to pay big salaries for drillers, bias
tiers, powder men, masons and cement workers.
Not counting what the contractors profits might
be and not including any skilled labor, except
blacksmiths, cement workers and masons, and es-
timating the cost Of free labor at 81 per day, by
eliminating Sundays and holidays, we may count
1872 men working 210 days at 50 per day which
would give us a labor value of 1851, 040. We have
worked an average of twenty masons and cement
workers. which would have cost the counties SIS
per day, and would have amounted to SCI, 900. We
have averaged five blacksmiths, whose labor is
estimated at 81 per day and this would have
amounted to 1920. Estimating the value Of 81
teams at $3.50 per day per team for 610 days. II
would have amounted to $32. 025. At a low figure
the value of the labor of these men and teams
would be worth to the counties s266, 1856. Add to
this a depreciation of state equipment, 50, 900 and
the interest on state equipment $4,000 and you
can see that this labor has been worth to the diff
ferent counties $270,285. The difference between
what the free labor alone would have cost the
~public-namely, $270,2S5-and what the labor Of
our men actually cost them shows a labor profit
of $2S3,479,56. However. this labor did not com,
pete with the free labor of the state, for the rea-
son that the counties could not otherwise have.
afforded to do this work"