CONVICT LABOR FOR ROAD WORK. 21 
The only other important economic advantage of convict labor over 
free labor is that the force is absolutely dependable so far as numbers 
are concerned. Plans for work can be made in advance with a sure 
knowledge that the anticipated number of laborers will be on hand 
to execute them. There can be no tardiness in the convict camp 
such as is frequently the fault of free labor, and, furthermore, the 
regularity of the force enbles a competent overseer to develop the 
maximum efficiency of each man to an extent which is not possible 
with shifting free labor. 
But this latter quality which, in one respect is an advantage, in 
another is one of the most serious defects of convict labor. The 
constancy which makes the force dependable in attendance and 
which permits the overseer to provide each man with the work best 
suited to him, prevents altering the size of the force with changes 
in the requirements of the work. The force is constant and must be 
constantly maintained, whether the work justifies it or not. During 
the delays incident to the failure of road or quarry machinery, the 
belated arrival of road material, difficulties in acquiring right of way, 
the opening of new sources of road surfacing material, high water 
in quarries or gravel pits, and other unavoidable causes too numerous 
to mention, the whole or a part of the force must be maintained in 
relative idleness. On Sundays and holidays and during bad weather 
the continuous expense of the convict camp goes on. In addition to 
these losses the sick must be maintained though they are entirely 
unproductive, and this loss amounts to from one to five per cent. 
The above concerns the losses in the time of the productive 
labor of the camp, but part of the squad employed in preparing 
food and maintaining the camp is necessarily always unproductive 
in units of road work. The proportion of the force so employed 
varies from 7 to 17 per cent, and the average is about 10 per cent. 
Thus taking into account only the losses which can be anticipated 
with reasonable accuracy and omitting from consideration those 
which are incident to unavoidable failures in the work, the cost of 
maintaining one productive road laborer one working day will be 
found to be from 40 to 50 per cent greater than the maintenance 
cost per convict per calendar day. Table 4 contains data secured 
by representatives of this office relative to the itemized cost of main- 
tenance and the time lost for the above mentioned reasons. In a 
number of instances the figures given are necessarily estimates 
because accurate records were not at hand, but it is believed that 
they are the best estimates obtainable. The effect of the lost time 
upon the maintenance cost will be apparent at once by comparison 
of columns 9 and 16. 
Aside from the large loss through enforced idleness there are a 
number of other causes of inefficiency due to the very fact that the 
