DEBATE OF WEDNESDAY, OCT. 16, AT 3 P. M. IN U. 16.Subject: Resolved, that the Contract System of Prison Labor should be abolished.

BRIEF FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE.Principal disputants, M. H. Clyde and D. F. Dickinson.

I.-1. The contract system defeats the real purpose of penal institutions, the repression of crime by the reformation of the criminals.- Report of the Illinois Bureau of Labor (1886), pp. 36, 37, 88 et. seq., 134-136; Report of the United States Labor Bureau (1886); Report of Charles F. Peck, New York commissioner, pp. 312; also pp 324, 326, 328 346, 362.

2. Reform is impossible without reference to the individual wants of the different men. Under the contract system there is no classification; the convicts are brought together indiscriminately.

3. The interests of the contractor are opposed to those of the State.- Report of the Illinois Labor Bureau (1886), p. 89.

4. The contract system brings the competition of convict labor with outside industries to a maximum point of severity.- Report of the Illinois Bureau of Labor (1886), p. 92, et. seq.

5. This competition has often proved ruinous in particular occupations; profits and wages have fallen in a marked degree as a result of the low price of prison-made goods.- Report of the Illinois Bureau of Labor (1886), pp. 94-97, 98 et. seq., 117, 118; Science, Vol. VII., pp. 117, 143, 168; United States Report on Convict Labor (1886), p. 313, 372-379.

II.- 1. Under the contract system the burden of supporting the convicts is unfairly distributed.- Report of the U. S. Labor Commissioner for 1886, pp. 377-379.

2.- To reform the convicts is of more importance than to save expense.- Report of the U. S. Labor Commissioner for 1886, pp. 312, 318, 326, 328, 340, 364- chap. IV. in general.

3. The remedy for the evils of the contract system- a system of hand labor on State account.- Report of U. S. Commissioner of Labor for 1886, pp. 327, 335-6, 347, 353, 359, 389, 396; Report of Michigan Bureau of Statistics for 1887, pp. 216, 219, 141; Report of Iowa Bureau of Labor Statistics for 1885, pp. 134, 136.

BRIEF FOR THE NEGATIVE.Principal disputants, W. Coulson, G. W. Cram.

I. Some employment for convicts is necessary.- Report of U. S. Commissioners of Labor for 1886, pp. 311, 316, 328, 382.

II. The contract system is most remunerative to the State.- Report of U. S. Commissioner of Labor, 1886, p. 372; N. Y. Nation; Vol. 40, p. 194.

III. Competition with free labor is an insignificant factor.- N. Y. Nation. Vol. 40, p. 195; Science, Vol. 7, pp. 68, 143, 220; Massachusetts Report of the Statistics of Labor. 1879, pp. 24. 32; Report of U. S. Commissioner of Labor, 1886, chap. IV.

The best short reference on the whole subject is the law mentioned (chapter IV. of the U. S. Report of 1886). The best reference on the affirmative side is in the Illinois Labor Report for 1886, pp. 88 and following.