The Pulaskian., 1915-03-05
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cessful escape Communities no longer fear to have convict camps established near them. We have made manhood well money by this healthy hearty outdoor labor. We have built the prisoners up both physically and morally. Men discharged from road camps do not have the prison pallor, the physical weakness and the hesitating hangdog 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 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 Tynan 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- have been employed in the construction of roads in Mesa, Fremont, Larimer, Weld, Boulder, Jefferson, Fl Paso and Pueblo counties. They have built 157 miles of good roadway and great deal of this has been blasted out of solid rock-that in Mesa county being the most difficult and heavy work attempted by
 Owing 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 ac- tual labor used in road and bridge building are enabled to give you only the labor cost to these different counties for the work of the This work has been done at average cost to the diff ferent counties of 32 cents per day per man; and as this cost includes Sundays and holidays the cost of labor of these to the counties for the two years, 731 days would be $36,725.44. We have worked twenty-one state teams and the feed for these teams cost the counties $20 per month per team which would amount to $10,08S; making a total cost to the counties for labor of $46S05. The average labor cost for the 157 miles $29S12 per mile.
 "It is hard to estimate the immense value of fD~ county alone would have cost, with free labor not less than $25000 per mile, as the rock in places had to be blasted for 75 feet in order to get proper roadbed. In this work it was necessary to drill holes 25 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 El Paso county, done through solid rock for six miles, all blasting The work in Salt Canon and Parkdale H in Fremont county and Ingree Hill, Cherokee Hill and Thompson Canon in Larmer county have been very expensive work, because of the blasting This necessarily would have been very much more expensive had it been done with free labor, and the counties would have been forced to pay big salaries for drillers, bas- ters 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 $2 per day. by eliminating Sundays and holidays, may count 132 men working 210 days at $2 per day which would give us labor value of $161,0 ,040 We have worked an average of twenty masons and cement workers which would have cost the counties $5 per day and would have amounted to ,000. We have averaged five blacksmiths, whose labor is estimated at $4 per day and this would have amounted to $12,220 Estimating the value of 21 teams at $2.50 per day per team for 610 days, it would have amounted to s32025. At a low figure the value of the labor of these men and teams would be worth to the counties $266285. Add to this depreciation of state equipment $2,O00 and the interest on state equipment $2,O00 and you can see that this labor has been worth to the diff ferent counties s270,285 The difference between what the free labor alone would have cost the public-namely. $270,285-and what the labor of our men actually cost them shows labor profit of s23347956. However this labor did not com pete with the free labor of the state for the req son that the counties could not otherwise have afforded to do this work"