The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-01-26
By BURCK

In 70 institutions the prisoners work hours
a day and under. In &c they work between 8
and 10 hours. In five they work from 10 to IL
hours and over. We must bear in mind that
these are statistics only from the 104 leading
prisons examined by the Department of Labor
Statistical Bureau, and that these facts do not
take in the work on the chain gangs and the
other 300 lock-ups in this country.
Injuries.
In the Monthly Labor Review of March, 1929
it was stated that 1.-The use of convicts in prison
industries has subjected prisoners to dangers
that affect health, safety and even life and in
some cases to greater hazards than free labor
is subject to, the labor is forced and there is
less incentive to protect the workmen against
injury
Several cases have arisen in which conyicts
engaged in prison manufacture have received
permanent injuries for which no relief was
granted There are only two states Maryland
and Wisconsin that have accident compensation
laws for convicts.
Refuse Parole.
Edgar Wallace brought out before the Com
mittee on Labor Hearings in the House of Rep
resentatives that ceases have been known where
men have been refused parole not because of
any wrong they may have done but because of
their value to the contractor, that men have
peeH ie1uSeu parole because tney worked SO
WELL"
Mr.. Manning said at this hearing that "in
the files of my office is an affidavit of an in
mate of the penitentiary of Ga who was cut
ting shirts He served his full four years be-
cause of his work, and that man was taken into
the cutters union of New York City"
Such things happen only too frequently. All
this is done for the sake of profit for the prison
officials or for the private contractor or for both
Falsifying of Labels
John j. SonSteby, representative of the United
Garment Workers, said that labels of all kinds
are put on shirts and overalls. For instance,
Custom made shirts, made for John Brown and
Co. Podunk, such and such a state. That shirt
labeled in that way is boxed and shipped to that
retail concern and sold in the local community
as though it had been made especially for that
particular retailer We have dozens of labels
of that kind In Illinois and other states"
Union labels are constantly being forged and
sewed onto convict made goods. In ST. Louis
union members suspected that the United Gar
ment Workers officials were selling the union
label to the factory contractors. There was a
strike sometime back in the shirt industry most
of the shops were fighting and there was con-
tinual influx of union made products with the
local union label Where did they come from?
Prison made shoes are put on the market by
IiieSS SIdIUeIS marked ~. .. MurSOn Army
Last" and are sold at huge profit to Army
and Navy stores as excess army goods
The warden Of the Indiana State Prison.
Michigan City, Indiana, gave his permission to
the Commonwealth Manufacturing Co. to mark
shoes from the factory prison as United States
Army Munson Last Work Shoes
Convicts Used as Strike Breakers.
One of the important uses of prison labor is
"strike breaking" A concern will make arrange
ments with a prison to produce articles The
workers in his free labor factory" strike He
Immediately ships his raw materials to the
prison, and the situation is solved for him. The
convicts break the walk-out. There is no way
to get the prisoners to support their fight An
example of this was seen in the District Of
Columbia. The workers in the National Pants
organized to fight for better conditions The
boss Immediately threatened to send all the
material To- prison in Virginia where he had
a contract for the labor of the inmates The
boss won The workers realized that it was a
losing fight. They could not get to the convict
workers for support.
(To be continued)
TOmorrOW's article will deaI ~nacifico1t,,t ,,;t~