Organized labor asks no special privileges in this matter, but wants simply that each free laborer be treated the same as every other free man; that he pay only his just share of the tax necessary to the maintenance of the state and its penal institutions; that he be subjected to only his fair share of the competition incident to the manufacture of any product within the penal institutions; that a system of employment be inaugurated and maintained in the penal institutions of the country that will educate and reform the convicts; that the products of all convict labor should be used entirely by the state and institutions of the state, where the convict is incarcerated; that the labor of the convicts should be so diversified that the burden will fall as equally as possible on all free labor within the state; that the exploitation of convicts or their labor or the products of their labor for the benefit of individuals be not permitted in any form; that a rate of compensation be allowed for the product of convicts based upon the labor costs outside prisons, and that, after deducting from the earnings of the convicts the cost of maintenance and other proper and necessary costs, the balance should be used either for the dependent family of the convict, the reimbursement of those who have been injured or suffered through the crime, of the convict, or kept for the use of the convict and given to him when he is released; that when a convict is discharged or paroled, a place be provided for his care until he is able to secure employment in the line he has been taught, and means provided to secure him employment. In all movements for the betterment of prisoners and the welfare of prisoners, organized labor has assisted. Every law enacted in the United States, changing and bettering prison conditions has either been initiated or strongly supported by the labor unions. The improvement of sanitary conditions in the prisons; the providing of dining rooms are all improvements largely due to the efforts made by organized labor. The adoption of the foregoing plans will make of the penal institutions of our country industrial institutions for the saving of morally sick men and women committed to them. The inmates of such institutions will return to the body politic with a corrected perspective due to a training under a state government that desires to reform as well as correct. They will again take their places in society not only willing, but able to do their share of the world’s work. This is the attitude of organized labor toward convict labor. TURNING BEGGARS INTO WORKERS BY O. F. LEWIS, GENERAL SECRETARY PRISON ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK