CONTRACTING CONVICT LABOR.
Mr. JOHNSON offered the following:
Whereas, The present system of letting out the labor of the convicts of our Penitentiaries under a contract to the highest bidder has established in this State and under the authority of the State in the State and under the authority of the State a class of cheap labor;
Whereas, The employment of said convicts in various important manufacturies of this State at the nominal contract price paid by the highest bidder, establishes an unfair and injurious competition between the factories and workshops in which such convicts are employed and the factories and workshops in which free and respectable men are employed;
Whereas, The low and merely nominal prices paid by the contractors for the labor of said Penitentiary convicts materially influence and lower the wages ot the free laborers and workingmen employed in similar workshops and factories;
Whereas, The very fact that the labor of a convict criminal and felon should be permitted to enter into competition with the labor of a free and respectable citizen, and diminish his ability to provide for family and educate his children, is humiliating to the free laborer, and an injustice and a wrong to his family;
Whereas, It is the duty of the State to protect both the material interests and the dignity of the citizens; and
Whereas, The pretext of making our State Prisons self-sustaining by letting out the labor of is no excuse for injuring the private rights and lowering the wages of honest citizens;
Resolved, That the great wrong engendered by the present system of letting out the labor of the convicts in our Penitentiaries under contract to the highest bidder should be remedied as soon as possible;
Resolved, That a Special Committee of five members of the Senate be appointed by the President of the Senate to devise means and plans to have the present system of contract convict labor abolished; and at the same time to utilize the labor of the convicts in such work and employment as may contribute to the maintenance and pecuniary support of the Penitentiaries, but will not interfere with or enter into competition with the labor and compensation of free laborers and citizens.
Mr. JOHNSON said:
MR PRESIDENT-In offering these resolutions not only give exoression to my own sentiments, but I voice the sentiments and opinions of a majority of the people of Indiana, and especially of those who are most interested in their adoption-the laborers and workingmen of the State.
The pernicious system of letting out to the highest bidder the convicts of our Penitentiaries to work in various important branches of industry has grown to be so obnoxious to a majority of the citizens, its obvious injustice to manufacturers employing and compensating only free men and honest laborers, and the cruel wrong thereby inflicted on the latter, whose wages it diminishes and whose families it robs of their comforts-all these evils resulting from the system have of late attracted such general attention, and so loudly call for redress, that I felt the duty incumbent upon me to offer these resolutions, and lay the matter before this honorable body.
This is not a party matter, it is a question in which the great mass of the people, the laboring and working classes, are interested, and which they want looked after and properly solved in this Legislature. All parties, indeed all fair minded and unprejudiced men who examine the question and the official reports concerning the workings and results of the system, come to the conclusion that it should be changed or entirely abolished. The contractor's price for coopers is forty-five cents per day for each man; chair makers and furniture makers are let out for from thirty cents to forty-five cents per day; shoe-makers for thirty-eight to fifty-three cents per day, while the contract price for cigarmakers is only thirty-five cents per day. At these figures contractors secure the services of many hundred able-bodied men, and make them work fully as hard and fully as long as the same class of free laboring men works In similar shops and factories. What is the result? The manufacturer employing convict labor can manufacture his furniture, his shoes, his cigars, and his barrels at from 30 to 60 per cent cheaper than his competitor who employs free and honest laborers whom he must pay $1.50 or $1.75 a day, and frequently by underselling him drives him entirely out of the market. And who is the main sufferer? It is not the wealthy manufacturer who sees his sales decreased and his fat income diminished by the contractor's competition, but it is the Poor and hard-working laborer who has to live and support his family, to educate and bring up his children, and whose wages are often without this unfair competition, already scanty enough and inadequate for the payment of rent, clothing, provisions and wood. No, no, Mr. President, the laborer's wages should not be cut down by a felon' cheap labor, and an honest man's wife and family should not be deprived of their little comforts, much less the necessaries of life, because a wealthy contractor is lucky enough to secure a hundred criminals' labor for a nominal and ridiculous price. I appeal to this Senate to seek the remedy and to apply it to this enormous wrong. And therefore, I now move the adoption of the resolutions which I have had the honor to offer.
Mr. SPANN heartily seconded the resolution.
Mr BELL hoped the resolution would be adopted on its merits, and would be satisfied with the selection of the proposed Committee by the Chair.
Mr. VAN VORHIS proposed to amend by inserting the words, "and inmates of Reformatory Schools and Benevolent Institutions," after the word "Penetentiaries" in the first resolution. The labor of pupils and inmates of these institutions is let out in this contract way, which is an outrage on the pupils as well as the laborers of the State.
Mr JOHNSON accepted the amendment.
Mr. YANCEY favored the resolution because it was pan of his platform. He favored the protection of honest labor, and insisted that labor institutions that employ labor should be protected.;
The resolution was adopted, and the Lieutenant Governor made the Committee to consist of Messrs. Johnson, Foulke, Faulkner, Lindley and Ernest.
