CONVICT LABOR FOR ROAD WORK. 



27 



As has been stated, it is exceedingly difficult to secure reliable cost 

 data on the employment of convicts, but after a wide study of the 

 convict problem throughout the United States the following examples 

 of accurate and authoritative information have been selected from 

 a mass of generahties and superficial statements. They present re- 

 Hable comparisons of the efficiency and economy of the two kinds of 

 labor employed on the same roads in different sections of the United 

 States. 



Example I. From September, 1913, until August 26, 1914, guarded 

 convicts were employed under the supervision of the State highway 

 engineer on the Bisbee-Tombstone highway in Arizona. On the 

 latter date the convicts were withdrawn from the work in order to 

 provide employment for free labor thrown out of work by the condi- 

 tion of the copper industry which followed immediately after the 

 opening of the European war. The free labor employed to continue 

 the work consisted, therefore, largely of copper miners, and was paid 

 at the rate of $3 per eight-hour day. A comparison of the work done 

 by convicts during the month of July, 1914, and that done by free 

 labor on the same road during September of the same year, both 

 forces being employed under the same general superintendence, 

 shows a marked advantage in the use of the convict labor. The 

 daily average number of prisoners actually employed in the road 

 work in July was 77, and the daily average number of free laborers 

 actually employed during September was 71. A comparison of the 

 various items in Table 6 will show not only that the work was done 

 by the convicts at lower unit costs, which might be attributed to 

 the extremely high price of free labor, but the actual amount of work 

 accompHshed per individual in the same time was greater in the case 

 of the convicts than of the free men. 



Table 0. — Comparison of free and prison labor on Bisbee-Tombstone road, Arizona. 





July, prison labor. 



September, free labor. 



Acti\aty. 



Total 

 quantities. 



Quantities 

 per man. 



Unit 

 price. 



Total 

 quantities. 



Quantities 

 per man. 



Unit 

 price. 



Gradine: 



Solid rock 



Cubic yards. 



1,649.7 



961.3 



829.8 



389. 5 

 21.5 



143. 4 

 44.4 



84.1 

 39. 8 

 " 7.0 



Cubic yards. 

 21.42 

 12.48 

 10.78 



5.06 

 .28 



1.86 

 ..58 



1.09 



..52 



>.09 



$1,375 

 .,59 

 .81 



1.23 

 1.16 



6.0 

 5.46 



l.,52 



.46 



11.31 



Cubic yards. 

 981.6 

 521.6 

 937.9 



219.1 



3.0 



65.0 



37.0 



21.7 

 .53.0 

 »3.0 



Cubic yards. 

 13. 82 

 7. .34 

 13.21 



3.09 

 .04 

 .91 

 .52 



.31 

 .75 

 1.04 



$2.13 



Loose rock 



Bowlders 



Excavation: 



Solid rock 



1.515 



1.777 



2. 676 



Loose rock 



Concrete . 



1.066 

 9.44 



MasfT.ry 



DitchinK: 



Solid rock. 



6.53 

 2.64 



Earth 



.925 



Clearing and grubbing 



11.87 







' Acre;;. 



