The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-03-13

many are studying the system as applied in other
states.
Colorado has been using convict labor for the
last seven years. So successful has it proved in
this state that others have modelled their laws and
plan of operation after those of Colorado and the
governors during their annual conference at Colo
RADIO Springs last August spent much time in
studying at first hand the wonderful highways
that Colorado has built by convict labor. Twenty
four governors made up a party for a trip of in
spection over the Colorado Springs-Canon City
highway and the Pixies Peak Ocean to Ocean road
in Ute Pass, two of the most perfect mountain
roads in the United States and two of the best
examples of the results of convict labor.
The Colorado spr~ings-Canon City highway is
one Of the best examples of scientific road building
IN the state; perhaps the country. For a distance
OF twenty miles or more south of Colorado Springs
the road winds around the foothills and mountains,
practically the entire roadbed having been cut out
OF the hillside and in many places blasted out of
solid rock. For the remaining twenty-five miles
to Canon City the way is over foothills and
through undulating country. Besides being q mar
vel in engineering, the road is one of the best
scenic and picturesque in the West, passing as it
does through Red Rock Canyon, Dead Mans Canyon
and many other mountain beauty spots. 1t cul-
inmates in the far-famed highway to the top of
the Royal Gorge and the unique and spectacular
Sky Line Drive, at Canon City.
The road averages eighteen feet in width and
is perfectly crowned and drained. Although it Of
fers a succession of climbs, so skillfully was the
engineering work done that heavy grades have
been eliminated and the motorist is confronted
with only one grade as high as six per cent.
Ute Pass is one of the historic gateways of
the mountain country and down it's sides centuries
before Columbus discovered America, the Ute In
dams had worn, with soft mocassined tread, a
plainly distinguishable trail. In building the first
road across the range to freight supplies to Lead
vile, Aspen and the other mining camps, the
white man followed the trail of the Indian. A few
years ago the main portion of this road between
Manitou and Cascade was entirely rebuilt by con-
vict labor. 1t has been pronounced a most splen-
did example of road building. 1t has a wide, we'll
crowned roadbed surfaced with disintegrated
granite from the mountain sides. Grades have
been reduced and although the road overcomes an
elevation of 1925 feet in a distance of FIVE miles
the climb is gradual and is easily negotiated. 1t
is over the Ute Pass road that the Pixies Peak
Ocean to Ocean highway enters the mountains
after striking straight across the plains of central
Colorado to Colorado Springs and Manitou. Thence
it continues westward through South Park over
Tennessee Pass down the valleys of the Eagle
and the Grand rivers to Grand Junction and the
Utah line.
Pueblo county also has employed convicts to ad-
vantage, and a notable piece of road is the stretch
Just north of Pueblo on the road to Colorado
Springs. Garfield county, on the western slope,
laSL year engaged oU oonVlcLS Tor a period or Tour
years, and they have just completed work on the
Pixies Peak Ocean to Ocean highway west Of Glen
wood Springs and are now engaged in rebuilding
the road through the Canyon of the Grand river.
Weld and Larimer counties, in northern Colorado.
also have many miles of splendid road to show for
the work of c~onvicts during the last two years.
Wherever tried, the results have been s~atisfac-
tory. This applies especially to the benefits de-
rived by the convicts themselves. Under the Colo
RADIO system, the convict is allowed ten days of
his sentence for each month Of labor on the roads.
This is in addition to the usual reduction for good
behavior. Besides. in Colorado. the employment
of convicts on the roads has been singularly sue
cessful because the cost Of building many of its
mountain roads would be almost prohibitive If the
state we're compelled to construct them under or
binary conditions The entire country has reaped
the benefits of Colorado's pioneering because 1t
has been able to open to travellers from all sec
lions of the country some of its most splendid
mountain scenery; 1t has furthermore set the e.
ample for many of the other states in the adoption