The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-08
SATURDAY, MAY 8, 1869.
CRIME AND IND USTRLAL IGNORANCE.


CRIME AND IND USTRIAL IGNORANCE.
THE report of the Inspectors of the Eastern
Penitentiary abounds with evidence that one of
the surest safeguards against criminal career
IS early instruction in a useful trade. This les
son is repeated in so many forms that it should
make deep impression upon the community,
and attract the attention of parents who wish
10 insure the integrity of their offspring as well
"a of those who desire to promote the general
elfare.
More than nve-sixths of the prisoners who
re been confined since the penitentiary was
st opened were convicted of crimes against
1perty the total number of criminals of this
IS being 1927 against 1901 convicted of crimes
. inst persons. Larceny, burglary, horse
ealing counterfeiting, and forgery have been
r,sorted to as a means of livelihood by persons
" no had no inbred horror of crime, and little or
no accurate knowledge of lucrative useful avoca-
lions The total number of cOnvicts for larceny
reached 1882, for burglary $50, forhorse-stealing
297, for passing counterfeit money
2l2, for forgery 1876, for robbery
138 for burglary and larceny 100, for
passing and having counterfeit money AZ, and
for counterfeiting 81; and the moving cause of
nearly all these crimes the belief that they
would furnish the easiest method of providing
Tor daily necessities
1t was at one time supposed that the general
diffusion of education would greatly diminish
crime, but education is by no means a sure spe-
cifc and its influence has been overrated Of
1928 convicts, 1882, or nearly two-thirds, could
read and write (and their number includes 50
well instructed, 1045 could read and only
1851 were illiterate. The rapid increase in the
&c oh hoav
panied by corresponding diminution in crime,
and all hopes based ON the idea that the instruc-
zion they impart win destroy the vicious propen-
oities of the rising generation are delusive.
Neither can we lay the rattering JUNCTION to
our souls that the criminals are not generally of
native birth Other lands have contributed, it
is true, to an undue proportion of the pOpula-
-ition of the penitentiary, the figures being 1906
Americans to 1888 foreigners, and of the 1896
Americans, 1856 were not born within the limits
of the State, but 3039, or nearly one-half of the
whole number, were to the manor born.
1t is commonly said that intemperance fills our
prisons, and its demoralizing influence cannot
be denied. Still it is by no means the sole cause
of crime, and the penitentiary statistics state
that of 622S convicts 1471 were abstainers, 2573
moderate drinkers, 1890 sometimes intoxicated,
and 1904 often intoxicated-a record which does
not differ very widely from that which would
result from a minute inquiry into the habits of
an equal adult population in some localities
where odious crimes are rarely perpetrated.
The moral instructor of the prison states that
of the inmates during last year, eighty per cent.
claim that their parents were church members,
and thirty-nine per cent. acknowledge that they
we're reared up under good home influences, but
only small proportion Sixteen per cent? had
been regular attendants of Sunday Schools, and
sixty-seVen per cent had never attended these in
stitutons. He contends that common school
and home training must go hand in hand" and
that it should not only be combined with Sab.
bath School instruction" but also with 'the dis
cipline of regular employment" and skilled
occupation"
While the prison abounds with ''abstainers" as
well as the victims of intemperance; while it
confines ''well-educated" rogues as well as illte-
rate rascals, Americans as well as foreigners,
the children of religious parents and Sunday
School pupils as well as the offspring of crimi-
mails, the moral instructor says:-"B is rare
exception to find good mechanic in prison."
The Warden in his report, gives further illus
tration of this statement by his announcement
that when the work on the extension TO the
prison was commenced he was anxious to avail
himself of the labor of the convicts, but that
''out of six hundred who were then in the insti-
tuition, but one was found who could perform
the part of a stone-mason, and not one who had
a sufficient knowledge of bricklaying or car
pentering to enable them to hold the position Of
moderately fair journeyman at either of these
branches of business But two men could dress
stone passably, both of whom had learned in
other prisons"
The industrial relations of the convicts COM
mitted during 1868 are reported to be as follows
--unapprenticed, 2O5; apprenticed and left, 81;
apprenticed and served until 2l years of age, II:
total, 253. Thus, only one convict out of fifteen
had served regular apprenticeship, and the
bulk of those committed were but poorly quail
fed to earn an honest livelihood. While the i'm
portance of moral and secular instruction, tenn
perate habits and good associations cannot be
Overestimated, it is manifest that crimes against
property will not cease while so large proper
tion of the population are suffered to grow up in
ignorance of useful industrial pursuits, and
while the community contains SO many unpro-
ductive members.
A LIGHT IN THE EAST.
THE address of the Sultan to the ministers from