The Workingman's Advocate

CONVICT LABOR.

Now that the legislatures of most of the states are in session would it not be advisable for our workingmen in the various states to get up petitions for the modification or the abolishment of the contract system in the several penitentiaries of the union. Under the present system much injustice is done to the outside mechanic, against whose labor the cheap labor of the convict is brought into competition. This is a subject that legislators cannot afford to sneer at, for the day is not far distant when, if the system is not so modified as to approximate somewhat to the value of outside labor, a cry will go up from the people demanding its entire abolition.

This question of convict labor is now occupying the attention of nearly all our trades unions, and is being very generally discussed by men whether of trade union proclivities or not ; for men of all trades are beginning to see that it is not so much the education and reformation of the convict that is the moving principle as it is the cupidity and avarice of mean and unscrupulous employers of labor. This utter disregard of the interests of the working people is beginning to raise a storm of indignation that, when once aroused, will not be easily assuaged. The working people of this continent are slow to move, they prefer to suffer the wrongs that be while there is a shadow of a hope of reformation. But those in power should remember that there is a point at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue, and when that point is reached a people become, as it were, seized with a frenzy and hurl from power those who have refused to listen to their appeals.

We are not of those who counsel rash or unwise measures, but we would be false to our teachings were we to refuse to listen to the logic of events. Our industrial classes, both mechanical and agricultural are groaning under the weight of federal and state taxation. The farmer is not compensated for his crops nor the mechanic for his labor, and yet when we look over the list of frauds carried on in our state prisons we find they embrace the most lucrative of our industries, and when we add to this that hundreds of convicts are in comfortable quarters in the state penitentiaries, and clothed and fed at the expense of the state, while as many of its citizens are compelled to go idle while their families are in want, we cannot refrain from expressing our fears for the future.

Similar causes gave birth to communism and anarchy in other lands. Let the legislatures take heed in time, and so far as they are concerned remove all cause for a resort to communistic or agrarian principles.

The present system of convict labor is a grievance of greater magnitude than is generally supposed by those in power, and as it affects the bread and butter of many a man's family, may at any moment raise a tide of popular indignation that would sweep from its path all opposition. We say, let us be wise in time.

Desirous of doing justice to all, whether agreeing with us or not, we insert, in another column, a communication from Mr. H. J. Walls, of Cincinnati, in reply to our article of last week, on the "National Labor Union," to which we propose to reply at length in our next issue. At present we will simply say Mr. Walls misconstrues our views.