The Review, Vol. 1, No. 12, December, 1911

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
The Review will be glad to print authoritative statements from other persons holding other views on the prison labor problem.—Editor.]
In speaking to the subject of labor’s attitude toward convict labor, I speak from the standpoint of organized union labor, and through it to the free labor of our country.
I speak particularly for the United Garment Workers of America, a union whose membership is largely composed of women and girls, and which is subjected to more competition with convict labor than almost any other union or trade.
Organized labor has taken a positive stand and has an attitude toward convict labor. That attitude is practically no different from the attitude of other citizens who have given the subject careful thought and who are not financially interested, directly or indirectly, in the labor of convicts.
I have found whenever labor men, manufacturers, sociologists and other financially disinterested people have discussed the question there has been an almost unanimity of opinion.
The attitude of free labor toward convict labor finds expression only through the means afforded by the labor unions. Unorganized free labor is what the name implies, and has no authorized person to speak for it. Organized labor’s attitude toward convict labor is, therefore, the only one capable of being crystalized and expressed.
Free labor is unalterably opposed to convict labor as it is commonly understood to-day, viz.: The competition of the products of convict labor with that of free labor on the open market. Free labor favors prison labor for the purpose of keeping prisoners employed, training them for their duties as citizens when they are released, and making products for the state and the state institutions.