What of Prison Labor? I am asked.
As a Social-Democrat I am convinced that the prison problem is rooted in the present system of industry and trade, carried forward, as it is, purely for private profit without the slightest regard to the effect upon those engaged in it, especially the men, women and children who perform the useful, productive labor which has created all wealth and all civilization.
The pernicious effect of prison contract labor upon "free labor," so-called, when brought into competition with it in the open market, is universally conceded, but it should not be overlooked that prison labor is in itself an effect and not a cause, and that convict labor is recruited almost wholly from the propertyless, wage-working class and that the inhuman system which has reduced a comparative few from enforced idleness to crime, has sunk the whole mass of labor to the dead level of industrial servitude.
It is therefore with the economic system, which is responsible for, not only prison labor, but for the gradual enslavement and degradation of all labor, that we must deal before there can be any solution of the prison labor problem or any permanent relief from its demoralizing influences.
Prison Labor Problem is Ancient.
From the earliest ages there has been a prison labor problem. The ancients had their bastiles and their dungeons. Most of the pioneers of progress, the haters of oppression, the lovers of liberty, whose names now glorify the pantheon of the world, made such institutions a necessity in their day. But civilization advances, however slowly, and there has been sound progress. It required five hundred years to travel from the inquisition to the injunction.
In the earlier days punishment was the sole purpose of imprisonment. Offenders against the ruling class must pay the penalty in prison cell, which, not infrequently, was equipped with instruments of torture. With the civilizing process came the idea of reformation of the culprit, and this idea prompts every investigation made of the latter day problem. The inmates must be set to work for their own good, no less than for the good of the state.
It was at this point that the convict labor problem began and it has steadily banded from that time to this and while there have been some temporary modifications of the evil, it is still an unmitigated curse from which there can be no escape while an economic system endures in which labor, that is to say the laborer, man, woman and child, is sold to the lowest bidder in the markets of the world.
Prison Labor Preferred to Free Labor.
Why is prison labor preferred to "free labor"? Simply because it is cheaper; it yields more profit to the man who buys, exploits and sells it. But this has its limitations. Capitalist competition that throngs the streets with idle workers, capitalist production that reduces human labor to a commodity and ultimately to a crime-this system produces another kind of prison labor in the form of child labor which is being utilized more and more to complete the subjugation of the working class. There is this difference: The prison laborers are clothed and housed and fed. The child laborers, whose wage is a dollar a week, or even less, must take care of themselves.
Prison labor is preferred because it is cheap. So with child labor. It is not a question of prison labor, or of child labor, but of cheap labor.
The system of manufacturing for the use of the state, county and municipal institutions, adopted by the state of New York, is an improvement upon those hitherto in effect, but it is certain to develop serious objections in course of time. With the use of modern machinery the limited demand will soon be supplied and then what? It may be in order to suggest that the prisoners could be employed in making shoes and clothes for the destitute poor and school books for their children and many other articles which the poor sorely need but are unable to buy.
The case may be summed up as follows:
Prison and Child Labor.
First. Prison labor is bad; it has a demoralizing effect on capitalistic trade and industry.
Second. Child labor, tenement house and every other form of cheap labor is bad; it is destructive to trade and industry.
Third. Capitalistic competition is bad; it creates a demand for cheap labor.
Fourth. Capitalistic production is bad; it creates millionaires and mendicants, economic masters and slaves, thus intensifying the class struggle.
This indicates that the present capitalist system has outlived its usefulness, and that it is in the throes of dissolution. Just as feudalism developed capitalism and then disappeared, so capitalism is now developing Socialism, and when the new social system has been completely evolved the last vestige of capitalism will fade into history.
The gigantic trust marks the change in production. It is no longer competitive but co-operative. The same mode of distribution, which must inevitably follow, will complete the process. Co-operative labor will be the basis of the new social system, and this will be done for use and not for profit. Labor will no longer be bought and sold. Industrial slavery will cease. For every man there will be the equal right to work with every other man and each will receive the fruit of his labor. Then we shall have economic equality. Involuntary idleness will be a horror of the past. Poverty will relax its grasp. The army of tramps will be disbanded because the prolific womb which now warms these unfortunates into life will become barren. Prisons will be depopulated and the prison labor problem will be solved. Each labor-saving machine will lighten the burden and decrease the hours of toil. The soul will no longer be subordinated to the stomach. Man will live in complete life, and the march will then begin to an ideal civilization.
EUGENE V. DEBS