Show CONVICT CONTRACT LABOR Tho meeting of the AntlCoiuict Contract Con-tract Association in Chicago yesterday marks tile beginning of a new method for the relief of both tho honest workingman working-man and the manufacturer from tho buidcns placed on them by this Infamous svslem of Hooding the homo markets with the prohtcts of convict labor In oery prison and penitentiary in the land convicts are employed in tho man 1 iifattuio of some staple commodity the Income from which is applied to tho I ox > cnsesof the prisons and tho surplus put into the State Treisury when a surplus sur-plus rcimins ome of lhc o Institutions are driving a flourishing lusms and pay largo dhidcnds to the State ns in the case of JMroit House of Corrcc tion In Dclt r cnch not only utilizes the labor oftlic criminal clement of the State but bids eagerly for the custody of prisoners from all the Territories Terri-tories ami Military Posts in order to swell its revenues from their loiter and I pay Iho surplus into tho State treasury ns a help to the taxpayers of tho Stile To prove just how this system of labor benefits any State time work of the prison in question is perhaps the best to explain On an average 1200 men are eotifined there two thirds of whom are from localities local-ities outside of the Sttte and for years tho prison has yielded a revenue yearly over all expenses of homo 50000 to the State which reduced to a per capita for all the tixpiers would bo an iinnml sum of a few cents To obtain this great relief 1200 honest anil upright mechanics are without work at the trades practiced there and the markets for the articles mimifactined there arc glutted with this cheap product and the prices arc forced down to a figure where the manufacturer must educe the wites of his men in order to keep city footing In tho market Not the leait of tho had effects of tins system is the forcing out of work of miny men in the cities where these prisons are situated and by decrees of unit and puvution forcing them Into criminal practices for a living which too often bring them inside the wills of the very prisons which have caused their downfall In all largo metropolitan met-ropolitan communities thero is a settled per conlige of the criminal clement and the existence of prisons is places of eon finement and punishment area necessity but the labor performed in them need not conflict with the interests of the working work-ing classes who lead honorable lives and feed the blood channels of the com inunity in which they live The recent studies and exchange of opinions on the subject of Penology which have occurred in various States tends to prove that the elicit of all prison labor which conflicts with that of men in tho ordinary walks of life is productive of untold ovil to working men while it brings no offsetting good to the convicts Yesterdays convention advocated very plin ible idea for tho employment of prison labor which seems to be well worthy of a trial Tvcry State and Territory Ter-ritory has its road laws by which citizens are bound to pay a road lax or work it out on the roads at a stipulated price per day Now if a nationil law could be frame I providing for the construction of military roads in a network all over tho country the roads to bo widtiUn < noel and in every respect highways of the first elass the convicts of tho inous States could bo employed upon them within tho lines of tho State m which the are imprisoned and thus ho coin polled to labor for punishment while tho country at large would be benefittcd ind the position of the honestlaboier much improved Theio ire many questions of right to be met and explained in such a case but its autation and discussion would soon show a clear road out of difficulty and the relief promised by I such a law makes it worthy of the most careful consideration The history of the sufferings of convicts in tho Southern States also proves that humanity too calls for some ameliorating conditions in the present slave system employed there md tho work of the Convention now in bession in Chicago may happily lead to u solution of tho whole dllliouUj |