Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-02-13

trolled bT the head. runs of on sentiment, it is
imbecility. While would gladly help the de-
serving who are anxious to help themselves,
am hdrd-heaIted enough to advocate with all
possible earnesnesS the isolation of the ineorri-
g1ble-putting them beyond the power of pardon
and escape, and the reproduction of their spe.
eies; ana IN this, and i'll every other way possi-
Bile, stop the production OF and close out the
criminal stock
l believe in cases of total depravity-cases be.
yend human power to cure, aud look upon it as
clear loss to waste time, labor and sympathy on
them.
From an economical, as well as moral stand.
point. reformation thould be the one great aim
In prison management, overshadowing all
others.
Self sustaining and opposition to convict
labor are euphoneous catch-words but used
and believed in honestly by many. / cannot
think that the people OF any great State can Sc
riously entertain the thought of speculating off
the labor OF convicts al the expense of infinitely
more important questions, and particularly 50
when it is a moneyed loss.
As it is estimated that it costs, on the average,
about $1,000 to send a convict to the Peniten-
tiary, there is no economy in releasing pris-
oner unreformed, or without the knowledge, or
even though few hundred dollars has been
made by his labor As all individuals and
classes should bear proportionately the crimi-
nal expense, It is certainly wrong to put the
prisoners largely on one line OF labor, thereby
making that industry bear more than its pro-
portion of the expense.
As labor is a Divine as well as a human law,
and necessary to reformation, it must be ex-
acted, and it must be productive labor, pro-
ducing bread as well as Sweat OF the face by
which to ''eat bread" And as all productive
labor must conflict, it seems almost like an ire
concilable conflict between the two extremes of
"sef-sustaining' and idleness; and yet there is
a course, broad and well-defined as a mountain
range between the two extremes Multiply and
increase indefinitely the trades and business,
even professions taught, SO as to minimize OBJ
jectiops from a labor standpoint, and which at
the same time would enable the prison officer
reformist better opportunity to select a suita-
BILE trade or business for the convict, and
tn ough which to enable him to support him
self when released, if his intentions are good.
While the arguments in favor OF our present
jute mandatory are many, yet there is this
objection, that most OF the young workers are
sent away poweress tor elfsupport, and in po-
sitione to be driven to crime
believe in reformation, and consequently in
reformatories. The present administration will
live in history ss the one under which the re-
formatory idea was established and put in prac-
teal operation.
ALLOW me to congratulate the people of Whit
tier, the people of Southern California, and the
eitzens OF the State generally on this broad,
daylight dawn of a reform era; and the man
agement upon the selection in Doctor Walter
Lindley, of Superintendent who IS emlnently
and exceptionally qualified, and VINO accepts
the responsibility not through motives of policy
Or business, but from the purely disnterested in.
terest he takes in the subject.
am gao OI tne privilege oI participating III
the ceremonies of this occasion, and in the lay
ing of this, the first cornerstone of any State
bnilding in the southern end of the State. May
the lay ing of this stone not only mark an epoch
in prison management, but an era OF good feel
ing; frowniDg down any north, or any south;
ali one sunny citrus belt.
May the old Pioneers, the Native Sons and
Daughters. and the middle men and women
from sll parts of the State, meet without in
quiry as to wherefrom eating our fruits. and
drinking our native wines, under the shade OF
our own tropical growth as one people in fra
ternal picnic