1861.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 333

The Manufacturing Department.

This department is devoted to the manufacture of plaid
cottons, with a few linseys and coarse carpets, and the com-
mittee regret to report it in a very depressed condition. At
no time has it been a source of much revenue to the institu-
tion, arising from the inability of hand loom labor to com-
pete successfully with power looms; still, the superior quality
of its manufactured goods and their wide-spread reputation
has heretofore insured their immediate sale, but the embar-
rassment growing out of the blockade of the Southern States
has produced the same results as in the case of Mr. Murdoch;
nearly all the yarns used are the product of Southern mills,
while the manufactured goods find a market exclusively in
the Slave States. The consequence is, that no sales have
been made by the Directors for the past three months, and
none of any consequence can be made until the Southern
markets shall be re-opened. No revenue, therefore, can be
expected from this department as long as the present unfor-
tunate state of affairs continues to exist. The stock of manu-
factured goods now on hand amounts to §10,500, and of ma-
terials to $2,300, which when manufactured will increase the
stock of goods to $15,000, all of which, in ordinary times,
could be made available to pay the debts and expenses of the
institution.

The committee, after a patient and thorough investigation
of this branch of the subject, are satisfied that the entire sys-
tem of labor at the institution is wrong, and demands a radi-
cal change, as at present conducted, it must always be, as it
has been, a heavy burden on the State". It has not been fur-
nished by the State with the cash capital necessary to carry
on successfully a manufacturing business, its operations are,
necessarily on a credit basis, and the disadvantages of this
system may be illustrated by the single fact that it has paid
during the last five years the sum of $13015 for interest
alone, to say nothing of the increased cost of supplies when
purchased on credit, and the saving of the discount which
always accompany cash payments.

A careful analysis of the operations of this department for
the past five years exhibits the fact that the nett earnings of
all the convicts employed by the institution average but elev-
en cents per day, and this without making any allowance for
cost and depreciation of machinery, while about the same
number of convicts employed by the contractors at 50 cents
per day gave a revenue of $28,800 for labor, and $700 for
rent of work shops. It is true that the labor employed by
the latter was of better quality, but that would account for
but a small portion of the difference.