CONTRACTS AND CONVICT LABOR.
Mr. SMITH. of Tippecance, offered the following resolution:
Whereas, There is a great complaint on account of the unjust and ruinous competition arising from the contract system in vogue in our State Prisons, by which not only free competition in the awards of contract of Prison labor is destroyed, but worse than this, and far more ruinous, the labor of prisoners, fed, clothed, and housed by the State, is put on the market at an average of fifty-three and one half (53 1/2) cents per day of nine and one-third (9 1/3) hours average for the year, thus throwing the manufactured products of this slave paid labor, associated with the best machinery and skilled management, on the market to ruinously compete with the manufacturers by free labor, self-clothed, self-fed, and self-housed laborers who are taxpayers, faithful to all the obligations of citizenship, guilty of no misdemeanor unless it be, in that they are the heads and members of families whose fortunes it is to eat bread honestly earned in the sweat of their brow; and,
Whereas, This is an opportune time to commence the investigation which must lead to Prison labor reform; therefore
Resolved, That we instruct our Committee on Prisons to carefully investigate this matter in its various phases and ramifications, and report to the House at an early day the result of such investigation, in order that this House may promptly and intelligently apply the remedy to this crying evil.
Mr. SMITH, of Tippecanoe, said: Mr. Speaker, I desire to say a few words on this resolution, and I begin by quoting an expression of the resolution, "this is an opportune time" to consider this question. To day we elect the Directors of both Prisons, and before they enter upon the duties of their office we make the move in a new departure. One not only new, but radical in its purpose. We have no reflection as to the outgoing officers or anything to offer by way of reprehension. They may have worked faithfully the policy they were elected to carry out. The Committee will at an early day, give us the reports as to whether the contracts have been let in a free and impartial manner and as to whether, under cover of legal forms, they have violated the[?] truth and made free competition a farce. We are not here today to arraign the past (till the Committee report), but to work and act for the future. We are here to lift our voice up in the interest of free labor against the slave labor of our Prison system; to call for the complete deliverance of the State from a system that strikes down the laborer, whose only crime is to [?] obedient to the [?] of fortune, he "eats his honestly-earned bread in the sweat of his lace." That strikes down the system that [?] it reaches out its hand to aid [?] yet, in the face of all the lessons page: 94[View Page 94] of the past, we are perpetuating this system simply ringing the changes on the charges for manufactures made by convicts and thrown on the market by the State, and manufactures made by convicts and thrown on the market organized by monopolies: still it is the same when unwashed-competition of slave with free labor. It is not enough that under one form within the past ten years certain industries of a sister State were ruined, and that now under the other from every quarter the cry from oppressed labor comes up to the council halls of the Nation and almost every State. This is not the time to outline a plan of Prison labor reform. After the Committee is made it might be time to act intelligently and promptly. But, Mr. Speaker, we deem it entirely proper to say that in any event we shall at no distant day lay before the House a scheme that will be both radical and corrective. Till then we have said all that it is wise and prudent to say.
Mr. WILSON, of Marion, moved an amendment to instruct the Committee on Prisons to prepare a bill, and report the same to the House, to provide for the relief of free labor from competing with convict labor, and to provide for some way to make convict labor self-supporting.
Mr. JEWETT said: I had thought before I came here that some steps should be taken in this direction, and if there is nothing in the resolution which reflects upon the present Prison managers I shall heartily support it. It seems to me that there is something wrong in allowing Prison labor to be brought into competition with free labor. I have my opinion, which is that convict labor could, and ought to be used in maintaining the highways of Indiana. It seems to me possible for the Prison Committee to devise some means of using this convict labor on the public highways, and as I said before, it after the resolution is read again, if it is as fair and honest as it seems to me to be, it is one that ought to receive the hearty support of every member on this floor.
Mr. SHOCKNEY said our present convict labor is self-supporting and has been for some time. We have a great number of men in our Penitentiaries and they must be employed in some way. I think that as Legislators we should look to the interest of the State and not to the interest of individuals.
Mr. SHIVELEY was in favor of any bill that would protect free labor from the odium cast upon it by coming into competition with convict labor.
Mr. GIBSON did not favor the resolution, and stated that while the persons, who employ this convict labor made more money on their product than other manufacturers they did not place the products of this convict labor upon the market at reduced prices, or at prices lower than other manufacturers. He thought it was not practicable to employ this convict labor in constructing and maintaining our highways as had been suggested by the gentleman from Scott [Mr. Jewett]. The expense of guarding these men while work and building jails to confine them in would make such a thing impracticable.
Mr. SMITH, of Tippecanoe, accepted the amendment [Mr. Wilson's].
The resolution as amended was adopted by yeas, 83; nays, 9.
Mr. SHOCKNEY offered a resolution authorizing the Committee on Prisons to prepare a bill and present it to this House, fixing the maximum and minimum price at which convict labor may be employed.
Mr. GIBSON moved to lay the resolution on the table. This motion was agreed to.
