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VOLUME I, No. 12.DECEMBER, 1911
A MONTHLY PERIODICAL, PUBLISHED BY THE
NATIONAL PRISONERS’ AID ASSOCIATION
AT 135 EAST 15th STREET, NEW YORK CITY.
TEN CENTS A COPY.ONE DOLLAR A YEAR.
T. F. Carver, President.
Wm. M. R. French, Vice President.
O. F. Lewis, Secretary, Treasurer and Editor Review.
Edward Fielding, Chairman Ex. Committee.
F. Emory Lyon, Member Ex. Committee.
W. G. McClaren, Member Ex. Committee.
A. H. Votaw, Member Ex. Committee.
E. A. Fredenhagen, Member Ex. Committee.
Joseph P. Byers, Member Ex. Committee.
R. B. McCord. Member Ex. Committee.
By John J. Sonsteby
[This address, which we print in large part, was read by Mr. Sonsteby at the recent Rhode Island state conferenceof charities and correction. It seems an excellent statement from the standpoint of organized labor.
The Review will be glad to print authoritative statements from other persons holding other views on the prison laborproblem.—Editor.]
In speaking to the subject of labor’sattitude toward convict labor, I speakfrom the standpoint of organized unionlabor, and through it to the free laborof our country.
I speak particularly for the UnitedGarment Workers of America, a unionwhose membership is largely composedof women and girls, and which is subjectedto more competition with convictlabor than almost any other union ortrade.
Organized labor has taken a positivestand and has an attitude toward convictlabor. That attitude is practically no differentfrom the attitude of other citizenswho have given the subject carefulthought and who are not financially interested,directly or indirectly, in thelabor of convicts.
I have found whenever labor men,manufacturers, sociologists and otherfinancially disinterested people have discussedthe question there has been an almostunanimity of opinion.
The attitude of free labor toward convictlabor finds expression only throughthe means afforded by the labor unions.Unorganized free labor is what the nameimplies, and has no authorized personto speak for it. Organized labor’s attitudetoward convict labor is, therefore,the only one capable of being crystalizedand expressed.
Free labor is unalterably opposed toconvict labor as it is commonly understoodto-day, viz.: The competition ofthe products of convict labor with thatof free labor on the open market. Freelabor favors prison labor for the purposeof keeping prisoners employed, trainingthem for their duties as citizens whenthey are released, and making productsfor the state and the state institutions.
Speaking before a subcommittee ofthe committee on labor, in the house ofrepresentatives, in March, 1910, Mr.Thomas F. Tracey, representing theAmerican federation of labor, said, inpart: “The labor organizations of thiscountry, as typified by the American federationof labor, have not, are not, andshould never help in the advocacy of anythingthat would put prisoners in idleness.We want those who are the outcastsof society, and who are confined inprisons to be allowed to do work—suchwork as will be beneficial to them; but[Pg 2]we do not believe that, when these menare confined in prisons, instead of theirla