The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1888-03-28
Convict Labor From COnvict's Stand
nOint.
PART /.

ptUllSIleU IrOIl all Iowa exchange CLIP
ping conjuring the legislature of that state
to enact such law as will give the earn
ings of convicts to the support of all chill
dren under IL years of age whose fathers
are convictS. The article also states that
out OF an estimated 500. 900 criminals two
thirds are under % years of age, and that
crime seems to run in families and that any
measures that would tend to lift up the
families would be advisable. Now, l am
a man who has wife and child struggling
alone in the world for their support, and my
heart bleeds when | think of this. But
still would oppose any law that would say
that the wages of crime should support my
child. No! a thousand times, no; for 1
think l can now hear the taunts OF his little
playmates that he owes his support to
criminals, and should it please an Allwse
Providence that my child shall reach man.
hoods estate. would not have the blush of
shame come to his cheek, as the thought
came to him-Or worse still tainted to his
face-that he was indebted through his early
life to this class of men. But let the wages
OF the father support his own child for it is
in the law OF all nature that the offspring
looks to the parent for support. When a
state depriveS child of its parents support,
and cOntiscateS that parents earnings and
lets his child, or children, uncared for and
starving, wander off into the hauMts of
crime. it commits crime infinitely greater
than e-half of the men are now confined
here for. | would not invoke the vengeance
OF God upon a people so hardened or
t,t,f hale
who shall have to bear the punishment,
when the cries of these children the state
has deprived of their bread, reaches up to
heaven. 1t is all right to punish the parent
who has broken the law; deprive him of all
his freeman'S rights, submit him to the
severeSt discipline, but in in the name of
God. humanity and justice, pay him his
wages for his labor, that he may support
his wife and keep her from begging or
turning to life of shame; that he MAY keep
his children from starving or entering the
hauntS of crime: that he may preserve in
tact his home and his family. and after his
servltude has ended he can return to the
bosom of his family in all the consciousness
OF his manhood. rejoicing that his labor in
spite OF his sin or crime has supported
them, and kept them together. Can't YOU
picture that father or husband hurrying
home after his release to these dear ones.
for whom he has labored so long, and who
have remained constant to him all these
lonely, sad years? Where is the man that
Will again fOrSake them for the hauntS of
crime? All! you can't find him. That is a
reform that no temptation can change Or,
do you think it could be better Oh. wise
lawmakers that you deprive this man of
his earnings: that you separate him from
his wife and children forever by doing this.
and drive his wife in her helplessness to a
life of sin and shame. and to forever damn
her soul. and his children are sent begging
into the streets, to follow on downward
the paths that lead to the bottomless pits
OF hell: and when he is finally set free no
trace of his loved ones remain, except per-
haps the stain of the crimes they were
driven to. Alone and fOrsaken, all the
good resolutions die within him. His man.
hoods hope is gone, nothing but the excite
ment OF dissipation and crime can drown
his sorrows. And very soon it will be
necessary to convict him again, as we'll as
other members of his family. And these
wise lawmakers and christian taX-payers.
that have wrongfully and inhumanely de-
prived this man of his earnings will have
to 60 down in their pocket and paw out
dollars to cents for all the money they have
deprived him of, before they get through
:"ii' WINS Wills mail anu HIS pOSteflty. IhlS
IS why crime runs in families, but the born
instructive or educated Criminal seldom
gets in the penitentiary. 1t is the novices
VINO comprise the majority of our inmates
mere, ana the state, perhaps uncOnSciOuslv.
but nevertheless truly, educates him to be
VagabOnd: and the vagabOnd is the silent
partner of the criminal
Will back this up now by what 1 see
around me. by what l am experiencing. and
by what feel must be the result. Upon
entering this prison, man is asked if he
has trade. The answer is invariably in
the negative. Without further question he
IS sent off to some shop, and there assigned
10 some special WOrk-it NAV ha horinn