Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1881-01-12
Attended public schools 265
Attended private chools
Never went to school 43
3l2


school" it would he unfair to assume
that they had received any more than an
imperfect and rudimentary instruction.
But it tends to prove that mere ele-
menta:y education, with the moral pow
crs untouched, is no very important bar
rier against crime As at the best,
however, there can be no moral devel-
opement in the absence of mental cul-
tivation, attendance at school" must
lie at the base of all reform. But the
figures showing the industrial relations
are significant, and lead US close to the
occasion of and inducements to crime
Ii is the absence of trade, the want of
employment. and consequent idleness
The remedy then must be sought in
that direction. and our schemes of edu-
cation must be advanced to meet this
condition of things. The State finds
itself, under the laws of the land, the
custodian of a number of young GRIM
inals. In one way or another in early
life, a number of citizens have fallen in
to the meshes Of the law, and have be-
come objects of State treatment, and, if
you please, of State punishment. I'm
Der ordinary human experience without
the application of some reformatory
measures, these youths will only go on
| from bad to worse, until they fall into
the meshes of the l,w, and have be-
come object of State treatment, and, if
you please, of State punishment Un-
der ordinary human experience, with
ont the application ofsome reformatory
measures, these youths will only go
on from bad to worse, until they fall
into the well-defined criminal class, tc
which they will then, certainly and
surely, belong. They will inevitably
| become charges upon the State, either
as paupers or maleiactors They may
be thus contemplated as men and
women who are likely to spend their
lives in penitentiaries end jails, unless
society, which must recognize their
existence, can make better use of them.
Any measure of education and discip-
line, then, which will save society the
duty of imprisoning or hanging them
will become expedient and proper
What can be done for the very young,
up to the age of sixteen years, who, by
commitments by courts and magistra-
ties, have fallen into the hands of the
law, for various oifenses has been well
excmpifed by the House ST Refuge, in
Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania
Reform School, at Morganza. Amid
some controversy over these schools.
and the methods at the bottom of them,
it is too late now to question their
value and service, although neither
has, as yet, reached an equipment ne
cessary for the best work. The pur-
pose of their existence and the aim of
their managers is to rescue their in
mates from the evil associations out OF
which they have come, and 70 reform
them Few Of these waits have respon-
sible parentage or guardianship. They
are quite sure to become State charges.
The State, cooperating with private
benefactors, proposes to return them,
self-supporting, to society under the
best auspices the case will admit.
Within the limits of the school they
are nodded, intellectually and morally,
by competent, careful teachers, and
instructed, trained, and drilled to some
trade or Industrial pursuit. The effort
is to reproduce, within the enclosure,
the exact condition of society they will
encounter when they return to the
world Tbs requires time, and the
inmates arc retained until the work is,
more or less completely, done The
process goes upon the correct and safe
assumption that it Is impossible TO re,
form the coUducL of o child or man
without first nieasurably reforming
his nature The scheme is no longer
an experiment, as it has been faith
fully worked out in England, France,
Germany, and many Of the States of
our Union. This leads up to an ex-
tension of the general method, which,
| ip the Judgment of political economists
of the very highest authority, Prom ises
the most benciicent results. This will
include all the first offenders, except
of the most brutal type, under the age,
say of thirty years. The purpose of
the process is to return them, too, to
society with the preparation and dici.
| pline best fitted to enable them to earn
an honest livelihood, permit them to
retain their sell-respect, and fit them to
resume thoir places among their fellow
men, if they SO choose, without the
brand Of iGf9moqs punishment or penal
servitude upon them. The aim and
scope is to give the convict intellectual,
moral, and industrial training, systema-
tic habits, and definite purposes, in a
reformatory school, and not in peni-
Tertiary: to afford him another chance
in, life; in short, to help him to help
himself
In the discretion of the court render
ing the sentence, defendants. convicted
of first offense of such magnitude as
70 Justify adequate Imprisonment, and
under the age of thirty yeals, are COM
mitted to such an intermediate prison.
They go without determinate SEN
tence, but cannot be held for q period
longer than the maximum term fixed
by law for the offense Under proper
system of grades and classes and marks,
every motive to shorten the teriod Of
detention is presented: That period
will lie in the discretion of the proper
officers of the institution. Positions
in life are found for them, end they
may then be conditionally discharged
on parole, reporting from time to time
thereafter their behavior and surround
ings; or, in default thereof, or Of good
conduct for prescribed period, liable
to be returned t9 the institution. 1t
has been fo4nd by experience that the
prisoners thus discharged haye been
well received again by society, and, in
one Of the largest institutions Of this
kind in our land, it is officially reported
that less than seven per cent. Of the
number discharged have failed to main