| Show CONVICT LABO t The platform adopted by the Independent Workingraorls party ot this county is inmOst In-most Respects a broad and ab6 document There aro one or two ideas in It that do not thoroughly uccbrdf however with the principles prin-ciples of true economy For example the clause condemning the employment of prison llbor l in production on tho ground that the Working of convicts throws honest laborers and mechanics out of cmrlo mentis ment-is a serious error The work of convicts does lessen tho work of workingmen to this extent It relieves re-lieves them of the Jabor that is necesiny for the support of the convicts and campels the convicts to support themselves This merely shifts the burden to the shoulders of prison labor and relieves free labor to that extent from the necessity of supporting the crimiaals If workingmen want work simply they might as well do the work of other paeple us well as that of prisoners j and perhaps many other people can bo found outside of the prisons who are willing to quit work and let some one else support them The work done by convict labor is not likely to injure even a single class of work ingmen and it Is simply impossible for convict labor to injure the workingmen or the people as a whole The case is exactly the same as any other laborsaving device it lessens tho labor of the citizen that must otherwise be performed by him for the support sup-port of the idle j convict What the mechanic me-chanic pays for the support of prisoners is 3 a year let us say equivalent to one days work A slight improvement he makes in his niethQd of working or in the tools he uses enables him to earn 3 more a year with exactly the same labor as before nnd it is clear that his payment of 3 in taxes for the support of tho convicts will leave him lIB bettor offthan before ha made the improvement im-provement Now if each of one hundred I mechanics make a like improvement a L convict can be supported among them simply sim-ply by tho gain they had made in the productiveness pro-ductiveness of their labor But precisely the same result would be accomplished by setting the convict work and compelling r him to support himself and precisely the same benefit would accrue to the mechanic by relief of the 53 tax Nevertheless some people fear that the I convict if ho makes cheap shoes will throw tho shoemaker out of work This is unlikely un-likely as tho demand for shoes Is so great and increases with each reduction in their cost but it strong and just view of the case to imagine that convict labor would throw every man out of employment and do all our work for us then sUrely no one would grumble at that result It is the pay the result that we want not tho work And if the convicts can be made to do the work or part of It while the citizens citi-zens enjoy the results it is so much labor saved to the citizens When sewing nufcaines were first used tailors declardl tlielriliving was gone but so far was this from tho fact that the number of tailors increased many fold as the sewing machines came into use When railroads come into a country teamsters thinic they will havo nothing to do but they soon learn better The threshing machine does not deprive farm hands of work but makes It profitable to cultivate naw farms and so on indefinitely Every laborsaving device raises tho wages of tha laborers Thtf reason Is that human desires de-sires are unlimited and money saved by the substitution of laborsaving machines for hand labor is at care expended in pay mug wages for some other necessity or luxury lux-ury The money is suit to be spent mostly as wages for something Men are not thrown out of work by machinery nor by convict labor but are at once given something better to do sad at once recoil higher waces Money deposited in banks Is not Idle but at work paying wages for nearly all articles are finally reducible to the wages paid in their production It would be a great mistake on the part of the workingmen work-ingmen to Insist that convicts should either stand idlo or do work with no money in it for fear of throwing others out of employment employ-ment There is no danger and hardly a possibility of that let the convicts support themselves |
