Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1887 — CONVICT LABOR. [ARTICLE]

CONVICT LABOR.

Views and Deductions of Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of Labor. Washington Special, July 25. The report of the Commissioner of Labor, Carrol D. Wright, on convict labor in the United States, gives a mass of figures from each State and Territory. There are four different systems, the report says, in vogue throughout the country—the contract convict system, the piece system, the" public account system, and the lease system. The first system is most prevalent. Under it more convicts are employed and more goods manufactured than any other. The prison officers generally advertise for bids for the employment of convicts, the highest responsible bidder securing the contract. The piece price is a modification of the contract system, the contractor having nothing to do with the convicts. The contractor furnishes the. prison officials with material ready for manufacturing, and the offiicials return the completed work at an agreed price for each piece. The public account system consists in working the convicts by the prison officials for the benefit of the State. The lease system is that by which the convicts are let to* contractors for a specified gross sum. The returns show that there were employed at productive labor, during the time covered by the investigation, 42,799 convicts, divided as follows: Contract system, 15,425; piece system 4,90<; public account system, 11,888, and lease system, 8,793.' Concerning competition with frfee labor, the report says: “It is perfectly evident from information derived from the tables that the competition arising from the employment of convicts so far as the whole country is concerned, would not, of itself, constitute a question worthy of serious discussion. The product of the prisoners is but fifty-four hundredths of 1 per cent, of the total mechanical products of the country. The whole prison population of those institutions in which productive labor is carried on if but one in a thousand of the population of the country, and those engaged in convict labor but one in 800 of those engaged in free mechanical labor.” Lest one might naturally suppose that there was no such thing as convict competition with free labor, the next few lines are quoted: “These facts, however, do not invalidate the claim that, locally, and in certaig industries, the competition may be serious and of' Rimh prnpnrtiLwC ar to claim the most earnest attention of legislatures.” While the Commissioner is particularly cautious about expressing a decided opinion on any point, it is surmised that he is in favor of hard under labor the public account system as it keeps prisoners employed and does not come so much as the others in competition with free labor. “This plan, then,” says the report, “has justice in it affecting Jail people alike. It has humanity in it, because it allows every effort for reformation without any entanglement or interference through forms of labor. It has morality in it, because it removes affectively the whole question of convict lsbor agitation, not only from the minds of the workingmen and manufacturers, but from the list of questions agitating the public.” A valuable part of 'Mr. Wright’s report is an appendix giving an abstract of convict-labor laws now in force in different States and Territories.