CONTENTS. Page. 3 Mr. Henry Sterling, legislative representative American Federation of Labor, Mr. John J. Manning, representative of the Union Labor Trades Department, American Federation of Labor... Mr. E. Stagg Whitin, chairman executive committee of the National Com- mittee on Prisons and Prison Labor.. COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The committee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. Andrew J. Volstead (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee has before it this morning H. R. 10615, introduced by Mr. Nolan, authorizing the employment of prison labor for the production of supplies and their purchase by the Federal Government, and for other purposes. STATEMENT OF MR. HENRY STERLING, OF WASHINGTON, D. C., LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR. Mr. STERLING. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I am representing on this bill the American Federation of Labor. Their organization has been very much interested, from its beginning, more than 30 years ago, in the condition of prisoners in the prisons. A mark of civilization is the improved manner in which we treat the prisoners. Years ago the treatment of prisoners was brutal in the extreme and its improvement has been siow and marked with many struggles, before legislative bodies and elsewhere. 3 We have come up from the time when the prisoners were starved and beaten and maltreated, to a time in recent history when their labor was contracted to private parties. That would have been well if the private persons had not sought to make the last dolar possible out of their earnings. We have now a bill which proposes to pay the men in the prison the current or the prevailing rate of wages in the vicinity of the place where the prison is located, and to sell his product at current or prevailing prices. We deem that is nothing more nor less than justice to the prisoner himself. As matters stand to-day we take a man from the streets, forcibly, because he has stolen something from somebody, we put him into a prison and lock him up for the purpose of making a better man of him. We set him at work, to do some honest work. Although it is prison labor we do the best we can for him. And then we take the full value of his labor, either for our own profit or our own gain. Whatever he may earn, whatever he may produce, is not his own, but it belongs to somebody else; it is for their benefit and their gain. It has been used, and to some extent, is used yet, for private parties, for corporations. Now, consider for a moment, if you will, the perversity of a public conscience which can arrest a man because he has robbed so rebody, and then proceed at once to rob him of whatever means he may make; or, to put it more mildly, to appropriate the result of his earnings either for the State profit or for the profit of individuals or corporations. It seems to me, Mr. Chairman, that that will appeal to you at once as being wrong. We have brought in a bill to cure it, if possible, to pay the man an honest decent wage. The money is to go to his family or to himself if he has no family. The CHAIRMAN. I think I was responsible for putting into the law the provision for giving the prisoners some wage; but if it is proposed to give them the same wage as you give to the person in private life, would not the expense of maintaining the prison be so large that you would put a great burden upon the States? Mr. STERLING. We provided in the bill, Mr. Chairman, that that expense may be deducted from his wages. We provide that the ex penses may be deducted from his wages. The CHAIRMAN. What expenses? Mr. STERLING. The expenses of his maintenance. The CHAIRMAN. Of maintaining the prison? Mr. STERLING. Of maintaining him. That includes overhead, I suppose. The CHAIRMAN. Of course, that might not cover the expense generally. Mr. STERLING. It would if it included the overhead. Mr. IGOE. Do you draw a distinction, Mr. Sterling, between what you might call the morality of the State taking the labor and the private contractor being permitted to profit by it? Mr. STERLING. There is a very slight distinction there. Mr. IGOE. I think there is a very great distinction. Mr. STERLING. Whether the State gets it in money or gets it on public account and whether the State should make a profit out of the goods or not, is worth discussing. |