Evening star., 1933-08-06

chinery and tools as we'll as supervision.
Similar to this is the piece-price system,
whereby an outside contractor pays the
penal institution fixed rate per unit
Of output.
The State account system provides for
assumption Of entire responsibility. It
acts as contractor itself and sells the
output in the open market and in COM
petition with free labor. Allied Is the
State-use system. wnereunder goods pro-
duced are not sent into the channels OF
free trade, but are consumed by the
State itself or local governmental units.
The lease system formerly was in use,
but no prisoners working under 1t were
found in the current survey. This sys-
tenn provided for the farming out OF
prisoners, the lessee providing housing
care and protection. and utilizing the
services of the convicts.
The manufacture of $4,000 900 auto
mobile tags last year was under the
3tate-use system. The value OF these
tags was $2,30O,0O0, meaning that this
volume of business was closed to prl-
vate enterprise. Under this system a
State does not necessarily issue to its
own automobile registrants all the tags
made within the State prisons. 1t often
sells to municipalities Of, other States.
The principal accounts under the State
account system was furnished by the
manufacture Of binder twine, which
reached a value Of more than $4,000, 600.
Modern Trend for Prison Labor.
The manufacture of clothing has long
been one of the principal activities OF
prison labor and last year 22,000,000
shirts we're made in the jails. Many
of these are made on the State-uSe sys-
tenn, the output being sold to Govern
ment authorities For example, the
uniforms of street-cleaning white wings
constitute a typical prison clothing
manufacture. Textiles and textile prod
ucts last year were made to value OF
SO 200, 900. In this sum is included the
cotton duck, made largely in Federal
prisons This is practically all ABSORBED
by the Government authorities, but
other textile products such as childrens
play suits, dresses, gloves, mittens, dress
shirts and handkerchiefs go into the
channels of commerce.
A good deal of furniture is manufac-
tured in the prisons and few other
products include highway markers, mar
ness, aluminium ware, electric switch
boxes. toys and whips.
Alabama leads in the value OF prison.
made goods, with an account of $685.
600, and Georgia is second, with s4,-
962 900, although other States have
more prisoners In general, the South
ern States employ prison labor to a
greater degree than those Of the North.
How effective the campaign against
competition of prison labor has been in
reducing the volume of goods going into
the open market is shown by a compari-
son of output under the various systems.
Last year s25.1s9 600 worth of goods
was made under the systems which keep
the products out of competition, while
only S6.06000 worth came under the
contract system. In 1928 the former
classification accounted for but S15.-
331 900, while the contract group ran
up to Sl8,249,000, leading all other
classes for that year
It is expected that the tendency will
be increasingly to employ prisoners on
farms raising their own foods. making
their own clothes. and in work which
will not directly affect the open mar
ket Penolcgists agree that it is i'm
perative TO have some sort Of work for
prisoners to perform. but the import
ance of keeping convict products of
the public markets also is recognized.