Workmen's advocate., 1888-05-26
A SENATOR PATTED HIS DISH OF BRAINS SPlCED
 WITH SOCIALISM.
A Mules Pard0nablc Mistakes --Pris, 0nerS should be Treated De. gently - Reform Better
 Than Punishment-A
 Slow Growth.

Unlted States Senator Rla}r has had his dish of brains spiced with socialism. He doesn't know it vet. and the flavor has not been ab- sorbed in any serious degree of strength; but 1t is there, and gives off a recognizable, fragrant aroma now and then.
 Senator Blair would not feel com rlmented if he were told that he had socialist tendencies; but that is because he has not been educated to the point of approaching the value of the compliment.
 Senator Blair is in the position of very fine mule doing good draft work, who, Ceing patted on the trump by way of encouragement, sus- poets his patron and guide of an in- tentlon to surreptitiously tickle him under the tail with a burr, and lashes out vielously with both heels. Still, this ungracious kicking does not blind the friends of Senator Blair to his excellent qualities.
 The Senator's bill, recently intro duced, to pay convicts in State pris- ons and penltentarles the same wages as persons doing free labor at the same trades, Is the best piece of bill-drawing that Congress has had an opportunity to discuss in many a long and windy year. It Is radical, but it Is good. It makes the prls- ons self-supporting, removing that burden from the State. It supports the prisoners family, if he has one, removing another burden from the State. It does away with any dan ger of prison goods underselling the products of free labor. It intro- duces the eight hour system where the capitalist cannot tamper with it. 1t creates a fund out of which the prisoner can in some sort make res titution to his victims where resti- tuition Is possible. More, with pris- ons economically conducted, after the prisoner had paid for the sup port of his family and himself, and allowing him fair sum to com mence free life with again, there would be enough left to make a large amout out of which to defray the expenses of the legal machinery employed in catching, convicting and detaining him, and something over for sweet charity in dOuceurS to or phan homes and things of that sort.
 So much for nasty glance at the monetary side of Citizen Blair's measure.
 But there is another point of view from which to scan Citizen Blair's bill. Theoretically we make the duty of reforming the convict para mount to the business of punlshing him. Practically we turn the con vict over to set of hardened men, who care as much about the moral status of the convict as they care for the promotion of religion in Central Africa, who set him tasks, devise tortures for him when he does not perform them, and whose guardian ship of the convict finds him half a man, and results in turning him loose only devil. Instead of using their control of him to elevate the manhood left, they destroy it, de- grade him, embitter him, and send him out into society more to be feared than when he began his seclu- sion. Between the system and it's professors society has more to fear from the convict who has been pun ished than from the predatory rogue who has escaped detection. Citi- zen Blair's idea of paying the man is calculated to raise the convict's opinion of himself, even in jail. He knows that he is self-supporting, that he is supporting others, and that, though being punished by segregation from free society, he is of some use in the world. He has l some other and hetter ohiect in the