Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-02-13
Laying of the Corner Stone of the a.
ninisfratinn Rnildinr

STATE REFORM SCHOOL.
Laying of the Corner Stone of the Ad-
ministration Building.
Les ANGELES February 12th.-The cor
ner stone of the State Reform School al
Whittier wss laid this afternoon under the
auspices of the Masonic fraternity in the
presence of eight thousand people. Right
Rev. H. A. Neely, Bishop of Maine, in
voked the Divine blessing on the enter
prise. Addresses were made by Harvey
Lindley, President of the Board of Trus-
tess Enoch Knight, President Of the Day;
Governor R. W. Waterman, Secretary OF
State Hendricks, Lieutepant-Go Governor
While and other prominent citizens.
The cornerstone was laid by acting
Grand Master Orme. Among those who
witnessed the ceremony were the follow
ing: Ex-Governor of California Pho Pico
John G. Downey, and Governor Stone
man.
Hon. W. Hendricks spoke as follows:
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: With
the exception of this speaking business (tne
thought of which always disturbs my quiet
peace of mind, am glad to be with you on
this occasion.
Although never here before. and almost an
entire stranger in your land, evidences, both
past and present, make me feel that l am
among friends.
Then the subject of this meeting is one ever
interesting to me al d in the discussion of which
the press of Whittier has honored me with
favorable mention.
The laying of this corners stone will mark,
strongly hope, an important epoch in the future
prison management OF this State. May this
stone, which has so long been refused by So
called prison builders, be come the head of the
corner of q gTear prison reformation. Crime
and its treatment the most i'm nnrtQOt
tion connected with human government. and
reformation the most important branch of that
most important subject.
That branch OF the general subject now par
ticularly suggested is reformation and reforma-
tories, yet all branches of this houndless sub
ject are connected that it is difficult to dis
cuss one without involving ell. Therefore you
will pardon brief allusion 70 the subject gen.
orally.
You will understand that under ten-minute
time limit, on so long question, it must be but
guments. But as l am, in either speech or
writing, inclined to save language by reducing
subjects to aphorisms instead of amplifying in
words, time limit is in the line of my liking
In quoting from mTself and in repeating
truisms, may subject myself to the thought
of platitudes, and the cry of chestnuts but |
reflect, that good cheStnuts are always good.
There are chestnuts from the Bible and from
Shakespeare, hundreds and thousands of years
old, that are still fresh and sweet. Like thing
ofbeauty, a good chestnut is joy forever.
To err is human. To do wrong and eat for
hidden fruit is natural, and dates back TO the
first man and woman i'll their first garden
home.
Volumes have been written, theorizing on the
cause of crime, when the simple fact is appar-
ent that 1t is natural. We may theorize as to
why natural, but not as to the fact that ii is.
We are prone to Sin as the sparks are to fly
upward, and the principle is not confined
alcne to the bad; they. are good, better, best,
according as evil inclination is resisted. If we
were all born perfect we would be left without
any standard of virtue.
We are created free agents, with both good
and evil presented. One appeals to our pas
sions and attracts, while the other addre sses
our moral nature, and pays. Credit is due only
for resistanc and exercising the purifying yir-
tue of self denial.
a conscience is provided which approves right
and reproves wrong acting as a moral governor
or fly wheel to hold us level. Under the opera
ton of this conscience reprover we are apt to
quit that which is regretted, and most of US re-
pent of evil acts. Repentance prevents repeti-
tion, and we go right along in good citizenship,
without the cruel world knowing of TO prose
cute or the law getting hold of to confirm IN
crime.
OF the small proportion who are caught in the
iron jaws of the human law, many are pre-
vented that reformation which would have oc-
CURED under natural conscience law. The
blanket of secrecy would have saved many,
whom the law and public knowledge under the
operation of detection has confirmed in crime.
Nature IN the moral as IN the physical, incllneS
to heal. Both at times are liable TO such severe
accidents, or arrangements, as to require treat
ment. In physical trouble, If the physician
called In understands his profession aud acts in
harmony with nature, benefit may be antici-
pated; but if he does not, harm may result, and
the patient left in q worse condition than
if no physician had been called. So
also is the moral arrangement. Do prison
results show good diagnosis and treatment
Or do results indicate quackery? Should we not
study moral as well as physical hygiene? Re-
suits witness against our system.
Crime is increasing to an alarming extent all
over our country in proportion to population.
This criminal increase is generally thought to
be attributable to the quantity and the character
OF our foreign immigration; but not so. The
proportion of immigration to native is no
greater to-day than it was forty or fifty years
ago, while the proportion of crimina to popu-
lation in thirty years, from 1850 to 1880 when
the last census were taken), had increased over
400 per cent, and at the same ratio the census
of 1890, when published will show about 600 per
cent increase. Not simply increase, but the pro-
portion TO population coo times greater. This
frightful increase in crime means something;
and what can it mean other than faulty laws
and bad management?
Apropos TO this subject, and one of the first
things TO interest me in the study of penology.
was an address by Ex-Governor Seymour, of
New York, to the inmates of the Auburn Peni-
Tertiary few years since.
Quoting from Confucius, he said THAT a
mans character IS decided, not by the number
VI lluleS ludb ue ldllS, DuL ny Ile UumOeI OF
times he lifts himself up. l." he said. do not
know why evil is permitted in this world, but l
co know that each one of us has the power to
transmute it into good; each one can, if he will,
make his past errors sources of n oral eleya-
ton"
Again, in rejecting as to what acts of his life
he would blot out had he the power to do So he
found that if there were any golden threads
running through it. they were wrought out by
regrets felt at wrongs" Then 1
learned that the wrong act, followed by the just
regret and by thoughtful caution to avoid errors,
made me better man than should have been
il had not fallen.
This great and good man believed in the con-
science work of personal repentance and reform
alton, AID that human laws should be har-
mony with the Almighty's law of our nature.
A bad prison law may be modified by good
prison management, but bad prison manage
ment will nullify the best of prison laws.
Where both are wrong, and bad, it is incal-
culably vicious IN results. Ought we not to cut
loose irom superstitions, pet theories and prac-
tices, and study nature and natural laws in this,
as in all departments, as our guide, when, it is
would be reduced and simplited? Divorce the
whole subject from politics, SO that nothing but
the fitting qualities of the management would
be considered. and prison appointments and
positions could not be made stepping stones for
political ambition.
am an unqualified believer in the indeter-
inmate sentence as the only just and effectual
prison law appealing, as it does in the strongest
possible manner-to the strongest feeling of our
nature. in or out of prison-that of hope and
fear. Under it, establish moral hospital, as it
were, from which patients (prisoners) are dis
charged, only, when and as soon as euIed; and
the incurable are forever detained.
ODe of the worst absurdities of law is to COM
pei Judge to fix day for the release of the
criminally convicted. He must either contem-
plate (f he docs contemplate at all } the reform
alton OF the c0rYict at or before that exact time,
or else the turning loose of the criminal to again
raid society. The first proposition he cannot
s>ibly know anything about, and the second,
the law should, under no circumstances, ever
sanction.
Better far better, to turn the dogs loose in the
streets, than crimina to cut throats whenever
opportunity and inducements offer. This sys-
TEN would relieve, if not do away WITH en-
tirely. the vexed questions of pardons; placing
the prisoners future under his own control. II