rofits? Competent men can be secured as
superintendents to carry on this work. Some will say, that it will open
up too many avenues to jobbery; that the superintendents will get to
stealing from the State, and in the end the State will not get as
much benefit as under the present system. This seems like begging the
question. If these superintendents, after a time, become thieves, treat
them as thieves, and give them a term in the penitentiary. This kind of
medicine will soon cure all cases of jobbery. Again, prisoners should be
assigned tasks according to their ability. All men are not alike equally
skilled in the same kind of labor. All these things should be taken
into account. No prisoner should be forced to carry a burden that is
oppressive, in order to fill the coffers of avaricious contractors.
Again, I ask that there be some humane person, whose duty it is to see
that these helpless men, whose lips are sealed, are not oppressed
by this damnable contract system. Let us treat these unfortunate men
humanely, and never forget that, if stern justice was meted out to those
who had the control of convicts, as officers, guards, or contractors,
many of them would be doing service for the State, clad in a suit of
stripes. The penitentiary of Missouri is self-supporting, with the
exception of the officer's pay-roll. At each session of the Legislature,
an appropriation of $140,000 is made for this purpose. There are over
one hundred officers on the pay-roll. The records show that it requires
nearly a quarter of a million dollars annually to pay the expenses of
this institution.

Crime is an expensive luxury!

During the past two years $347,000 have been paid into the treasury as
the earnings of the prison. The goods manufactured are sold chiefly in
the State of Missouri. This brings convict labor, which is very cheap,
into competition with the labor of the poor, but honest man on the
outside. The average labor value of the convict is forty-five cents
a day. How is it possible for laboring men on the outside, who have
families depending upon them, to support themselves and families on an
amount, that will enable business men, for whom they work, to engage in
business and compete with this cheap convict labor? This is the great
argument against convict labor. The convict must be given work or he
will become insane. To bring this cheap labor into conflict with the
toil of honest but poor men on the outside, is unjust and cruel