whitin - prison labor (1912)

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Prison LaborAuthor(s): E. Stagg WhitinSource: Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York, Vol. 2, No.4, Organization for Social Work (Jul., 1912), pp. 159-163Published by: The Academy of Political ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1171977 .

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PRISON LABORE. STAGG WHITIN

General Secretary,National Committeeon Prison LaborHRISTIANITY has brought no greater change into the

world than the overthrow of slavery. The greatest warof modern times had human slavery as its inciting cause,yet behind the dark bastilles we call our prisons, penitentiaries,reformatories, workhouses and refuges there still hides theenemy of our social progress, the economically vicious slavesystem. The abolition of the evils inherent in this system,comprising as they do the exploitation of the helpless, theperversion of state functions, the gnawing of graft and the cor-rupting of politics, appears no limited task, even to the mostlight-hearted of reformers; to undertake to work out the recon-struction, the peaceful reformation of this system throughoutthe length and breadth of this land is at least to grapple withfundamental issues.

Its dealingswith the criminalmark, one may say, the zero point inthe scale of treatment which society conceives to be the due of itsvariousmembers. If we raise this point we raise the standardall alongthe scale. The pauper may justlyexpect somethingbetter than thecriminal, the self-supporting poor man or woman than the pauper.Thus if it is the aim of good civilization to raise the general standardof life, this is a tendencywhicha savagecriminal law will hinderanda humane one assist.Thus speaks Hobhouse. The level of the convict to-day is,economically considered, slavery. He is the property of thestate and during his incarceration the economic value which isin him may be disposed of by the state to those who desire tolease it, or he may be worked by the state as it sees fit.The leased convict is always exploited. The state-workedconvict may be made to work either to pay for his keep, tosustain his dependents, to reform his ways or to bring revenue(633)

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ORGANIZATION FOR SOCIAL WORKinto the state treasury. Work he must and by the sweat of hisbrow he must learn that society has rights to be protected andhe duties to perform. The conditions under which this trainingis given need not debase the state, his disciplinary authority, inthe performance of its function. While we raise the level ofthe convict and force up the level of industrial society we mustforce up likewise the moral standard of the master who hascharge of the discipline. Negro slavery was more demoralizingto the free man than to the slave; convict slavery to-day demora-lizes the community and the free individual in just the sameway. It is an old saying worthy to be believed of all men thata state cannot exist half slave and half free.

The abolition of slavery in our prisons does not mean a jaildelivery, nor does it mean even an indiscriminate pardoning byover-enthusiastic governors of large numbers of depraved anddiseased men who are now incarcerated. From a slave theconvict must become a ward and as a ward he must be disci-plined, corrected, developed, trained through daily chores,through honest work, with ever the hope of the brighter futurebefore him when he can again assume the position of citizenand praise and bless the state that has trained him. Simplewas the process of the abolition of slavery as pointed out byLincoln when he said:Free laborhas the inspirationof hope; pure slaveryhas no hope; thepowerof hope upon humanexertionand happiness is wonderful;theslave master himself has a conception of it, hence the systemof tasksamongstslaves; the slave whomyoucannot drivewith the lash to breakseventy-five pounds of hemp in a day, if you task him to break ahundredand promisehim wageforall over, will breakyouone hundredand fifty. You havesubstitutedhope for the rod, and yet perhapsitdoes not occur to you that, to the extent of your gain in the case, youhave given up the slave systemand adopted the free systemof labor.

The movement which this thought represents is sweepingover the country, finding its expression in many states. It ischampioned by Wilson in New Jersey, Harmon in Ohio, Mannin Virginia, Hadley in Missouri, Johnson in California. Thelegislatures are responding, commissions are investigating, gov-(634)

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PRISON LABORernors are conferring. As an outcome of the discussion at thegovernors' conference at Spring Lake the southern governorsmet in May in special conference upon it and the gover-nors in the West are soon to follow this example. But what isthe actual status ? Whither are they leading ? To point themovement in a few brief phrases must suffice here. Economi-cally two systems of convict production and two systems of dis-tribution of convict-made goods exist: production is either bythe state or under individual enterprise; distribution either islimited to the preferred state-use market or is made throughthe general market. In the light of such classification the con-vict-labor legislation of recent years shows definite tendenciestoward the state's assumption of its responsibility for its ownuse of the prisoners on state lands, in state mines and as opera-tives in state factories; while in distribution the competition ofthe open market, with its disastrous effect upon prices, tends togive place to the use of labor and commodities by the state it-self in its manifold activities. Improvements like these in theproduction and distribution of the products mitigate evils butin no vital way affect the economic injustice always inherent ina slave system. The payment of wage to the convict as a rightgrowing out of his production of valuable commodities is thephase of this legislation which tends to destroy the state ofslavery. Such legislation has made its appearance, together withthe first suggestion of right of choice allowed to the convict inregard to his occupation. These statutes still waver in anuncertain manner between the conception of the wage as aprivilege, common to England and Germany, and the wage asa right as it exists in France. The development of the idea ofthe right of wage, fused as it is with the movement toward gov-ernmental work and workshops, cannot fail to stand out sig-nificantly when viewed from the standpoint of the labormovement.

In a word, the economic progress in prison labor shown inrecent legislation is toward more efficient production by theelimination of the profits of the lessee; more economical distri-bution of the products by the substitution of a preferred market,where the profits of the middleman are eliminated, in place of(635)

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ORGANIZATION FOR SOCIAL WORKthe unfair competition with the products of free labor in theopen market; and finally the curtailment of the slave systemby the provision for wages and choice of occupation for theman in penal servitude.In administration the adaptation of these new principles pre-sents many difficulties and points the need of much carefulstudy and detailed application suited to the special locality.Dr. Hart's illustration from the Columbus reformatory finds itscounterpart in the horrors that have been perpetrated at theColumbus penitentiary. The pen portraits of Brand Whitlockin his Turn of the Balance exaggerate nothing in their depictionof the horrors of the convicts in the shops, suffering from in-dustrial diseases as horrible as the poisoning of which Dr.Seager has spoken, but forced to work under the brutal con-tractor till fatigue and anguish break them down-then thepaddle and the water-cure change them from men into brutes.I should hesitate so to testify if the facts were not a matter ofcourt record in a case now pending in that great city of Ohiowhence came most of our inspiration at this morning's meeting.This is but a type, however. The convicts in Alabama whotried to become my slaves to avoid the mine-camp can be foundif you care to seek them; all along the line the war goes onbetween brutality and enlightened state control. What Dr.Hart told of in Ohio is as true in many other places. Youhave read of the abominable conditions in Maryland, the con-tracts in Connecticut which sell the right to grasping con-tractors to punish the convicts at their pleasure-but this phasemust soon belong to the past.The National Committee on Prison Labor for two years hasbeen investigating the conditions, advising with state officials,drafting legislation, organizing reform. Armed with a con-structive program resulting from its studies and experiments itwill bring to the legislatures which are to be elected this yearthe encouragement which comes from well-conceived plansbased upon actual conditions, and to the administrators whomthe new governors shall appoint a synthesis of the availablematerial upon which to work. It is not for support from thesemen that we need ask; they will be glad and ready to respond-(636)

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No. 4] PRISON LABOR 163it is from the public which this association represents, the publicof the good citizen, the church-goer, the preacher, the tax-payerand the educator. Reform is impossible of permanence untilthese are fully alive to the problem and take personal interestin aiding each community to make that adjustment uponwhich permanent reform must rest.What are the conditions in your community ? What areyou doing to improve them ? Do you realize that as a citizenof a state that continues the slavery of its convicts you join inthe responsibility for its existence ?(637)


whitin - prison labor (1912)

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