CONVICT LABOR FOR ARID 



LANDS. 



BY E. H. PARGITER. 



Under the above heading, in the July number of the IRRIGATION 

 AGE, was published a criticism by Mr. C. B. Parker on Senator C. H. 

 Dietrich's proposal to employ the convict labour of the penitentiaries 

 of the States on the construction of canals and reservoirs needed for 

 the irrigation and pettlement of arid lands in the Western States. In 

 this article Mr. Parker takes exception to the proposal, mainly on the 

 ground that there is to be had an abundant supply of free labor, thou- 

 sands of men ready and willing to come and do the work; and that the 

 claims of these men to be given whatever remunerative employment 

 there is going must not be lost sight of or subordinated to other 

 claims, in the otherwise reasonable and praiseworthy endeavor to im- 

 prove the conditions under which our convicts at present labor. He 

 also points out the most obvious difficulties and dangers to be met and 

 overcome in safeguarding a large number of desperate criminals, and 

 in preventing their escape or finding opportunities for further crime. 



It has been well said that whenever it is proposed in America to 

 undertake or attempt any new enterprise, in which Americans have 

 had no practical experience, they look around the world to see where 

 such an enterprise has been attempted or is being best carried on; they 

 then make a thorough study of its ways and workingsito ascertain its 

 good points and also its defects and failures, if any; and then, when 

 starting it in their own country, try to go one better by continuing to 

 avoid possible defects and by improving on previous methods. Now 

 in this matter of the useful and profitable employment of prison labor 

 on great public works, such as a large canal constructed in arid and 

 almost uninhabited lands, North India furnishes us with examples in 

 point, and so we can turn to it in our search for experience. This ex- 

 perience goes to show that under certain conditions there is ample 

 room, and there is a good opportunity for the useful and profitable 

 employment of convict labor as well as almost unlimited free labor on 

 such a work. The requisite conditions are, first, that a large amount 

 of unskilled labor can be concentrated at one place and kept at work 

 there for a considerable time; and, second, that a site and materials 

 for housing them economically while at work at that place can be 

 secured. On the large canals of North India these conditions are 

 found at and near the head works of the canal. Here its channel is 

 widest, and in deep digging giving a very large quantity of earthwork 



