The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-01-06
STATE using
MORE labor
Increase Is Among Prison.
ers Ranks and Paid En-
ployes as Well
The rimes-News Bureau
Sir Walter Hotel

RALEIGH. Jan. 6.-While the
state highway and public works
commission is compelled by the
1888 law consolidating the state
prison and highway commission
to use as many prisoners as pos
sible in the construction" I'M
provement and maintenance Of
highways and roads, thus includ-
ing the construction and mainten-
ance of bridges, it is still using
about as many paid employees as
in the past, Chairman +. b. JEFF
fress said yesterday. During No
vember, the last month for which
definite figures are available. the
commission had 4509 regular paid
employees on its payroll, 1928
temporary employees and worked
SOTO prisoners, making total
of 1866 men all together.
In July, 1882, before the con-
solidation went into effect, the
commission had 1901 regular en-
ployes and 170S temporary en-
ployes on it's payroll and was
working 1900 prisoners, making
total of 1913 men employed
only TOP more men than are
being employed by the commits
sion at the present time, Chair
man Jeffress pointed out. The
smallest number of men worked
by the commission was in March,
1888, when it had only 1864 paid
employees and was working only
1882 prisoners, making total Of
only S466.
When asked if the commission
was disseminating its paid bridge
construction and maintenance
crews and replacing them with
crews composed Of prisoners,
Chairman Jeffress said this was
not being done now any more
than in the past.
1--WE have been using as many
prisoners as possible in bridge
construction and maintenance
work all along" Jeffress said.
"And We shall continue to do so,
since the law makes this manda-
tory. However. because bridge
work is a more highly specialized
line of work, we necessarily have
to keep a fairly large paid force
of supervisors and workers. But
bridge work is also seasonal, so
that one month we may need 500
men on bridges and the next
month only 200. In November
we had $50 men on bridge work,
of which 451 were paid employees
and POP prisoners. The December
figures are not yet available,
since all the reports from the
various districts are not in yet.
If the number of men in the
bridge department has been re-
duced. il has been because they
were not needed. | do know that
w used more men than usual in
October and November because
of the large number Of bridges
that had to be rebuilt following
the hurricane in the eastern part
of the state. Most of these
bridges have not been rebuilt,
with the result that not as many
men are now needed"
1t has long been the policy of
the commission to employ it's paid
labor, either for bridge work or
other maintenance work. locally
and this policy is still being fol-
lowed, Jeffress said. But this la
Dor is employed only for the dur
alton of the particular job in
hand with the result that they
are not kept on the payroll after
the Job has been finished.
ut is entirely likely that the
number Of employees in the bridge
department was materially reduce
ed during November" Jeffress
said. "But this reduction, If
made, was because Of a decrease
in bridge work and not because
of any plan to replace paid bridge
workers with prison labor. For
while we have been using as
much prison labor in bridge work
as we could and shall continue
to there is a certain amount or
this work that cannot be done by
prisoners and in which skilled
workers must be employed"