Standard Chair Company
WHOLESALE MANUFACTURERS
THOMASVILLE, N.C.

February 16, 1920.

Governor T. W. Bickett,
Raleigh, N.C.

Dear Sir:

Altho we have made protest to you by wire against establishing a chair factory in our State penitentiary, we hereby wish to give you some of our reasons which are as follows:

In the first place, we do not think it is fair for free labor to come in competition with prison labor. It is not fair to our employees. It will cause us to have more trouble than we are now having in getting along with labor, and at the same time will have a most disastrous political effect on the Democratic Party in North Carolina. The Republican Speakers would want nothing better as a campaign issue than to go out on the stump and tell the people that the Democratic Party of this State is now establishing a chair factory in the State Penitentiary, and thus bringing free labor in competition with prison labor. It seems to us that the Democratic Party of this State has now, and will have enough issues to meet on the stump next fall without giving them another big issue, and thus add fuel to the flame.

In the second place, if the manufacture of chairs is started in our penitentiary, this will let down the bars for the manufacture of all kinds of articles to be manufactured there, and would then do a great deal of harm to the other factories in the State using free labor.

We also wish to say that the State of Conneticut formerly had two prisons in which chairs were being made. One was located at New Haven, and the other at Hartford. We understand the New Haven Factory was discontinued a little over 12 months ago, and that the Hartford one will more than likely be discontinued within a very short time. We received this information only last week from a furniture buyer living in New Haven. The tendency of this country seems to be not to establish any more factories in State Penitentiaries.

We also wish to say that the United States Congress has had under consideration for the past two or three sessions a bill permitting the manufacture of chairs and furniture in the State Penitentiaries, but this bill has never been able to come out of the committee. It has always been killed in the committee room. This, it seems to us, is evidence enough that the of this country do not want prison labor to manufacture chairs, and thus come in competition with free labor.

Sincerely hoping that you and your committee can see your way clear to pass this matter up, and not establish this chair factory in the penitentiary, we beg to remain

Yours very truly,

Standard Chair Co.,
F. S. Lambeth

CFL.P
C/Smith
C/WMSanders.
H.B. Varner,
Frank Goff,
Mr. Shelton.