The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-05-15

Prison contract labor is one of the most damning
indictments against the capitalist system. Under
this internal system unfortunate victims of a rob
Der society are speeded to death by the greedy ban
dts who contracts from the prison officials
Thousands of convicts are now employed under this
system The prison contract labor trust is immune
from the pressure that is sometimes brought to
bear on employers of labor that is sentenced to
life of slavery, but outside the walls of a peni
Tertiary
Not alone is prison contract labor an indictment
Of capitalism but it also points the accusative fin
ger at the official leadership of the trade union
movement While those reactionares and the EN-
ploying class put their heads together worrying
over waste in industry, the human wrecks of the
capitalist system who have found their way into
the penitentiaries are competing with so-called
"free" labor outside. And the product of those
prison hell holes sold on the market in compe
titiOn with union labor!
What should be done about this? A good union
man will Immediately suggest trade union action
Why not have the transportation workers refuse
to haul prison manufactured goods to the mar
kets? Or why not compel the prison trust to pay
union wages to it's slaves? Why not attempt to
organize the workers in the disributive industry?
Thus watchful eye could be kept peeled for pro
these ideas occurred to the executive council of the
American Federation of Labor. No, that would
mean work and fight with the state and perhaps
the federal authorities
When the question of prison labor came up be
fore the executive counvil of the federation, the
legal department was called in and nice scheme
to solve the problem came forth. A model state
law was drafted, prescribing that convict labor
shall be employed in manufacturing such articles
as are to be supplied to the various departments
of the state government, or its institutions, or to
political divisions of the state No goods produced
by convict labor shall be sold in the open market
This is the gist of the proposed state law as re
ported by the Washington correspondent of the
working class news agency, the Federated Press
The f. 7. man commenting the law naively
remarks: wherever this measure is enacted, the
prison contract labor evil is automatically killed.
except in far politicians in the states violate
it's spirit by letting contracts for the making of
goods, in prisons for state use" Except" in this
instance is the rule. That's the Internal trouble
with all those laws passed in capitalist legislatures
even when by miracle they do favor the workers.
The powers of administration are in the hands of
the capitalists and they see to it that business
goes on as usual
The prison convict labor trust can settle down
joyfully to the business of grinding dollars out of
the sweat and blood of the prisoners, knowing that
the comfortable officials of the executive council
of the American Federation of Labor have no more
intention of fighting to abolish prison convict la
Dor than they have of fighting to abolish wage
labor. And if the unexpected happened the prison
trust has the supreme court to fall back on.
The longer this unholy process continues, the
better it is for the sobssterhood of fake prison
reform. This kind of toothless propaganda will
sit lightly on the fat bellies of the labor leaders
and the sob sisters, male and female will not be
wanting coffee and doughnuts