4 BULLETIN 414, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



PUBLIC-ACCOUNT SYSTEM. 



Under this system the private contractor is eliminated entirely, 

 as the State, in addition to maintaining its own penal institution, con- 

 ducts all of the industries in which the convict labor is utilized, and 

 maintains its own selling organization to dispose of the product. The 

 principal difference between the piece-price system and the public- 

 account system is that in the latter the profit derived from convict 

 labor goes to the State instead of to the private contractor. This 

 system is now followed in whole or in part by the following 19 States: 

 California, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, 

 Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolma, North Dakota, 

 Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wis- 

 consin, and Wyoming. 



STATE-USE SYSTEM. 



The only difference between this and the public-account system 

 lies m the disposal of the product, as under the public-account sys- 

 tem the product is sold and imder the State-use system it is 

 limited to the use of State institutions. This system is more widely 

 followed than any other, and is now in effect in whole or in part in 

 the States of Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, 

 Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mary- 

 land, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New Hamp- 

 shire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, 

 North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, 

 Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. 



A smaller measure of competition with free labor is involved in 

 this system than under those already described, and it encroaches 

 in a lesser degree upon the field of the private manufacturer. The 

 serious objections to the system are that the State institutions 

 require a great variety of articles, while the demand for each indi- 

 vidual article may be quite limited. Obviously, the State can not 

 equip its penal institutions to manufacture all of the articles used 

 by State institutions, and if it devotes its efforts to the production of 

 a few of such articles the demand may not be sufficient to furnish 

 full-time employment for the convicts. 



PUBLIC-WORKS-AND-WAYS SYSTEM. 



This system, which has been gaining ground in recent years, 

 involves the use of convict labor in the construction and repair of 

 pubhc buildings, pubhc highways, breakwaters, levees, drainage and 

 irrigation ditches, and similar works rather than in the production 

 of marketable articles or merchandise, and it is under this system that 

 the prominence of convict labor as a factor in highway improvement 

 finds its place. It can be seen readily that under this system there is 



