Speaking before a subcommittee of the committee on labor, in the house of representatives, in March, 1910, Mr. Thomas F. Tracey, representing the American federation of labor, said, in part: “The labor organizations of this country, as typified by the American federation of labor, have not, are not, and should never help in the advocacy of anything that would put prisoners in idleness. We want those who are the outcasts of society, and who are confined in prisons to be allowed to do work--such work as will be beneficial to them; but we do not believe that, when these men are confined in prisons, instead of their labor being put in the direction of either grinding out dividends for stockholders of concerns of this kind (prison contractors), or making profits for the state, their efforts should be rather in the direction of educating them and reforming them to lead better lives.” The foregoing sentiment represents the altruistic attitude of the American labor movement. What reason is there for an expression of labor’s attitude? People who have a selfish purpose to serve have directly and by innuendo charged labor unions with selfishly endeavoring to keep all prisoners in idleness, so that no products from convict labor would be manufactured. Organized labor has never been guilty of such an endeavor, and its attitude has been intentionally and insistently misrepresented by those who knew better. That the inmates of penal and reformatory institutions must have employment if the object of their confinement is to be attained, is admitted by all. That this employment will, in some degree, compete with free labor, is also true. That at the present time this employment of convict labor does compete with free labor, and compete in a demoralizing way with it, is recognized by all who are informed. People who do not come in contact with prison labor or the products of prison labor, do not realize what the competition of the convict labor means. Organized labor believes that the employment of convict labor should be so diversified that the burden will be equally distributed among all free labor, and reduced to such a minimum that the members of no trade or occupation can justly complain. The two dominant ideas in prison management heretofore have been simply retribution and economy. The possibility of reforming convicts who are within prison walls--reforming them by useful, educative labor--is a comparatively new idea, and not accepted by all those in charge of convicts. Organized labor believes in reforming the convicts and returning them as soon as possible to society, mentally and morally sound and willing and able to take their places in the rank of wage earners. It costs money to train morals or to do educational or reformatory work. It takes effort, time, money, and interest to diversify employment among convicts so as to render such employment educative and beneficial to the convicts, and, at the same time, not unfair to free labor.