New Legislation.

But while amendment of preexisting statutes wherever found necessary is one of the principal duties of this legislature, it is not the only one. Something more should be done. Entirely new ground should be broken. Present laws should be. supplemented and new ones passed. Existing conditions, the reasonable expectations of the people, the platform pledges of the party in power and our own sense of duty suggest that the movement for social pustice and political freedom so well begun in Wisconsin should not now be permitted to slacken. But in going forward there should be the same genuine solicitude for every individual and interest to be affected by what we do that has characterized the legislation of our state in the past.

Minimum Wage.

The Supreme Court of the United States and several state courts have repeatedly recognized that inequality of bargaining power constitutes a reasonable ground on which the state may aid the weaker party. For example, in the execution of judgments, Wisconsin was the first state to adopt a wage exemption, providing in its constitution of sixty-five years ago for protection of the working man's "necessary comforts of life." At that time the law was generally regarded as an infringement of the rights of property and was denounced as class legislation. But Wisconsin was soon followed by nearly every other state in the Union, and the courts everywhere eventually came to recognize wage exemptions as matters of sound public policy, justifying broad and liberal interpretation. Modern industrial conditions have brought this same ques tion of the "necessary comforts of life" to the front in a new form. Great corporations employing hundreds of scattered tenement house workers have a superior bargaining power that is already recognized by the state in its law prohibiting the employer from sending out work to a tenement house that is not licensed; for if he be permitted without regulation or control to send out work to the homes, he can secure free light,

rent and heat besides the advantage of defenceless competition among out-workers and the opportunity to evade the women's and children's hours of labor law by adding the time at home to the regular period of employment in the factories. Undoubtedly there are other like cases of depressed wages which investigation will in time reveal.

A bill providing for minimum wages was introduced in the legislature of this state two years ago but failed of passage. This class of legislation while reported to be wholesome and effective in Australia and England is so novel to our system of jurisprudence and involves such difficult problems of administration that the legislature should proceed with caution respecting it. But we should not again fail to do anything whatever in the matter. In the beginning it might be best to make the idea effective in a limited field such as the wages of women in the most oppressive occupations. At the same time. the Industrial Commission might be authorized to experiment with and develop methods of investigation and administration. adapted to the enforcement of such a law. No enterprise in Wisconsin is dependent for success upon the underpaid labor of women, although there may be establishments that are willing to exploit this class of economically defenceless workers. They should not be permitted to do so. We should have a carefully drawn law fixing a minimum wage for women. To this proposition the platform of the party in power has pledged its members. Legislation within these limits should therefore now be framed.

The same experimental method should be applied to the question of compensation for industrial diseases. This problem should be referred to the Industrial Commission, a special legislative committee, or the Board of Public Affairs for thorough investigation and report to the next legislature.

Mothers' Pensions.

The platform of the majority party in this state also pledged its members to the enactment of a law for the establishment of mothers' pensions. The fundamental idea underlying this proposed reform is that the home is a better place for children than a public institution, and that the mother is their best as

well as their natural guardian. It has also been found cheaper for tax payers to compensate the mother in proper cases for the care of her own children than to support them independently of her. However a public allowance of this sort should only be made to mothers who in the judgment of a court are worthy of the custody of their children and ordinarily it should not be made unless found necessary to save the children from neglect. This aid to needy but deserving mothers should not be regarded as charity but rather as the recognition of an obligation actually due them in return for their service to the state as bearers of children.

Prison Labor.

One of the subjects investigated by the Board of Public Affairs during the past year is the advisability of abolishing the present system of prison contract labor at Waupun. In the main, this institution is well conducted. The prisoners are treated kindly, are well fed and well housed, the buildings are kept in a clean and sanitary condition, excellent discipline is maintained and good educational facilities are provided. In a word, everything that affects the physical and moral wellbeing of the inmates is reasonably satisfactory.

But the business or industrial side of the institution is not so free from cause for fair criticism. By the terms of its contract with the Paramount Knitting Company the state now receives 65 cents a day for the labor of convicts employed by it in the manufacture of knit goods. For this sum the state furnishes not only labor but also buildings, heat, light, and power to run the machinery at which the prisoners work. These additional items of rent, heat, light and power amount roughly to about 25 cents a day, thus leaving only 40 cents per day as compensation for the work of each convict. There is little cause for surprise therefore that the state prison is not self-supporting. On the contrary, the last legislature appropriated $50,000 a year for its maintenance. The Minnesota state prison at Stillwater, with about the same number of inmates of the same general character but differently employed was conducted last year at a profit of

$150,000.

3-S. J.

Undoubtedly many of our prisoners are capable of earning from one to three dollars per day at proper employment. The knitting company now has a contract at a net rate of about 40 cents a day because no one bid higher at the time the agreement was made.

The objections to the present arrangement seem to me to be serious enough to deserve your earnest consideration. In the first place, the prison should be self-supporting. There is no good reason why the law-abiding people of Wisconsin who have once suffered injury by infraction of their criminal statutes should be further burdened by the maintenance of these criminals after they have been caught and sentenced. Under proper conditions the state prison should not only be self-supporting, but the convicts should be made to work hard enough and at employments productive enough to enable the institution to realize a substantial profit each year. Part of this surplus might appropriately go to the state to compensate it and its local subdivisions. for the expense of maintaining the courts in which the prisoners were tried, but another part-and a large one-ought to go to the convicts themselves to enable them to maintain their families. if they have any and at the expiration of their terms to go wherever they believe they have the best chance of making a new start in life. But of course neither the state nor the inmate can be benefited in these ways unless the institution is more than selfsupporting.

In the second place the convicts at Waupun learn no useful trade or employment while working under this contract. Attending a knitting machine is girls' work-not men's. However proficient in it able bodied men may become during their life in prison there is little likelihood that they will ever resort to it after they have regained freedom. This, it seems to me, is a very grave defect. The fundamental requirement of permanent reformation of the convict is training and education such as will enable him to earn an honest living after he leaves the prison. Our penal and reformatory institutes are filled with ne'er-do-wells who are there largely because they have been unable to meet the competition of normal individuals in the ordinary walks of life. Prison training and discipline should have as its main purpose to put them on their feet. It should supply them not alone with a motive and disposition to obey the law; it should give them confidence and ability to hold

their own in the struggle for existence as it is carried on outside. prison walls.

The present plan is therefore burdensome to the tax payers of the state and unfair to the prisoners.

On the other hand, it furnishes steady employment for all conviets who are able to work. It thus ensures against enforced idleness-the worst vice of prison life. Though under it the institution is not now self-supporting, with certain improvements it may possibly be made so.

During the past year under the terms of a law enacted at the last session of the legislature a plant for the manufacture of binder twine was established at the state prison. This industry has been profitably conducted in the penitentiary of Minnesota and elsewhere and there is no reason why it should not also be a success here. If so a portion at least of the prisoners at Waupun will be profitably employed at work at which they may derive skill and training that will fit them later for useful employment. In another part of this message I have recommended the employment of some of the convicts at Waupun in an experimental way in the work of road building. But better than the legislative selection of any specific employment or industry would be the enactment of a statute which would confer upon the Board of Control discretionary authority to employ the convicts in such manner as will conduce to the advantage of the state, the welfare of the prisoners and their proper training and equipment for honest employment when their sentences have been served. It is not wise or prudent to attempt to remodel an institution of this sort all at once. The change must be made gradually and the transition from the contract labor system to manufacturing on state account or for state use, according as one or the other may be preferred by the legislature or by the Board of Control, should be effected gradually in order that all the prisoners may be kept employed at some useful work all of the time.

Board of Control.

When the State Board of Control was created twenty-two years ago there were six institutions under its supervision. Now there are ten. Meanwhile the inmate population of these institutions has more than doubled. As a result the work of the Board has