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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8960, 18 August 1892, Page 4

IfuRTHj :sr and very serious conflicts have broken out in America between Capital and La bour. The switchmen on one of the great railways have struck, have fired on trains, and have derailed one. The pc dice have refused to act against the st? .-ikers, and the militia have been calleci out. The second up-rising is at Tracy City, Tennessee, where the minetr s have seized a number of convict labourers, and have killed some of them, driving the Otliers~;i\v-Cy. In regard to the latter dispute, it is the j result, of the system of utilising convict labor, r in the State of Tennessee, unlil ce our plan of employing the great ev number of our convicts in stonebreal ring, or, as adopted in some of the j Statfis, of engaging the convicts in somej sort of manufacturing industry, the <convicts in the State of Tennessee are j practically farmed out. The lessee of tl »e convict labour pays a large sum of n loney to the State, and during the terr one or more years—employs the con victs at such work as will be likely to r «pay the costs incurred. The great bulk of the men are employed in mil ling, but some are engaged in far mint,' work. In addition to feeding; and housing the convicts, "file lessee has. to provide accommodation am I food for the warders in charge of the i different gangs of labourers. Sometime about last October there was a sit niTar* dispute, and on that occasion the miners armed themselves, and by fo«rce released hundreds of convict labourers who were employed by the mine owners in competition with free labour. It, may be well to add that the get* ater number of these convicts are coloured men. In all probability the result of this contest will be, that this manr» er of employing convicts will have to be abandoned. There are many very serioi is and reasonable objections to •such a system of dealing with convicts. But it is certainly a pity that the change should be forced upon the (Oyer.?, and upon the law of the State, by what amounts to a revolt. One would have thought that in a den: ratic country like America, where the suffrage is universal, public opinion cou Id have put an end to sUch a sys tem of employing convict labour, without a resort to violence.