Kill A Liability, Create An Asset
Use of Convict Labor Will Complete Our State Highway System and Unlock A Treasure House of Scenic Beauty
A family secret is out. Jack Neylan, of the Board of Control, let it out. He says that "Stern has gone nuts on convict labor." This classic phrase carries good news to automobiledom.
Commissioner C. F. Stern, of the California Highway Commission, has a bill before the Legislature to allow convicts to build State roads, more especially mountain roads. He believes that this is good business and sound statesmanship. He wants everybody to think as he does about the matter. Stern is contagious, and if you stop to listen to him you catch his enthusiasm.
As we are firm believers in this doctrine, and are willing to see all automobile owners "go nuts on convict labor" in road building, we print the essential paragraphs of Assembly Bill No. 547:
Extracts from Assembly Bill No. 547.
Section 1. The department of engineering of the State of California may employ, or cause to be employed, convicts confined in the State prisons in the construction, improvement and maintenance of the State highway system, provided for in the "State Highways Act," approved March 22, 1909, and in the construction, improvement and maintenance of any other State roads in California.
Section 5. The State Board of Prison Directors is hereby empowered and directed to adopt a special rule applicable solely to convicts employed as herein authorized and contemplated, whereby convicts so employed shall be granted additional good time allowance conditioned upon their loyal, obedient and efficient co-operation with the State, but such additional good time allowance shall not exceed one day for each two calendar days that the convict is absent from the prison.
Section 7. This act is hereby declared to be an urgency measure within the meaning of section 1, article IV of the Constitution, and is deemed necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety.
The following is a statement of the facts constituting such necessity: It is necessary for the earlier completion of the State highways now in course of construction, more particularly of those portions thereof which will render accessible the isolated sections of the State, for permitting the department of engineering to materially reduce the cost of the improvement of the same by the use of a class of labor which will not replace free labor, but will enable the department of engineering to proceed at once with extensive work which would otherwise be impossible for lack of sufficient funds, and, finally, for the prosecution of such work during the spring and summer of 1915, which, if postponed until ninety days after the final adjournment of this session of the legislature, would be delayed another year on account of the winter season in the mountains.
In a recent note. Commissioner Stern quotes competent testimony in support of his bill, as witness:
Dear Mr. Briggs:
Herewith is a copy of my Convict Labor Bill—also a brief discussion of same, which may interest you.
I have a letter to-day from Warden Tynan of the Colorado State Penitentiary, probably the best informed man in the country on this problem, in which he says: "Your bill is more liberal than ours—and thereby will get far better results than ever we have had. This is the prettiest law that was ever introduced in any legislature."
Sincerely yours,
C. F. Stern.
Reasons Why this Bill Should Pass.
Assembly Bill No. 547 authorizes the use of convict labor on State Highways.
The work is to be designated and directed by the Department of Engineering.
The convicts are to be controlled, guarded and disciplined by the Board of Prison Directors as at present.
All expense incidental to the project is payable from the fund provided for the particular road under construction.
The bill proposes to turn a definite liability of the State into a definite asset, for the solution of the mountain road problem of California, both as applied to the State Highway system provided for under the Eighteen Million Dollar Bond Act, and also the special appropriation roads of interest to all parts of California.
The funds provided for the State Highway system are sufficient only to build
