St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-03-03

ior crilne OF wrong action and strengthen and
cultivate every motive to right character,
there Will be great falling off of second and
third-term commitments to prison, and con-
sequently corresponding decrease of crime.
Ex-Supt. Lee. OF the st. Cloud re-
formatory, who happened to be pres
ent, was called upon for five-minute
talk. Mr.. Lee said he realized the ne
cessity for an organization that would
lend aid to persons when released from
prison. He cited an instance In which
prisoner had been pardoned from the
reformatory, and a short time after
wards he learned that an attorney had
bled him for the $40 he had earned in
the reformatory, besides bleeding his
friends for $50 more on the pretense
that he had secured his parole, whereas
In fact all the attorney had done was
to write two or three letters asking
when the prisoner would be paroled.
Mr.. Lee had known other cases of a
similar nature. The prison ASSOCIATE ton
could protect these parole prisoners
from being preyed upon by unscrupu-
lous persons. Nearly all persons con-
victed of crime are impressed with the
Idea that the only reason they could
not escape punishment was because
they had no money, and when they get
out, and some one pretends he was the
means of securing their release, they
are ready to pay all they have for the
SCI fiCC' LII COHCluSlOu, Lee Sdlu
that doubtless the prison association
has secured the release of many pris-
oners who have paid lawyers for get
ting them out when in fact all the law
yer did was simply to steal the credit
for 1T, and then the unfortunate's mon
ey
Supt Fitzgerald, Of the workhouse,
was called upon, but had very little
to say. A large proportion Of the per-
sons sent to that institution were old
offenders who had been sentenced
again and again, in some instances the
same person being sent out upwards Of
forty times. But the sentences are
nearly always short, ten to thirty days,
sometimes more, but sometimes not
more than one day. How can you
reform a man in ten days?" was Mr..
Fitzgerald's pertinent query as he took
his seat
This brough severe criticism from
DR.. Smith on the weakness Of the
workhouse system. "It is a farce" he
said, ito keep sending the same person
to the workhouse over and over again.
1t Is simply employed as place to
send drunken man out to sober up,
and then let him out to get drunk
again."
Mrs. Leonard, one of the Christian
Temperance union women who do evan
gelical work in the county Jail, next
Association Do for Prisoners in the
County Jail?" Mrs. Leonard discussed
the subject from an evangelical point
Of view, and told how Christian influ-
ence has been used to improve the NOR
ais Of prisoners. She thought persons
confined in the county Jail should be
tried with all possible speed. She de-
plored the delay in bringing them be-
fore the courts in some instances. If
guilty, they should be convicted with
the utmost swiftness, and If innocent,
set at liberty at the earliest possible
moment. Many men have been injured
by Jail association while awaiting trial.
OTHER ADDRESSES
How to Prevent Children From Be
a paper by D. T. Wellington, agent
for the Junior Rescue society. The
great error in the control Of children,
said Mr. wellington, is the exercise of
too much sympathy and too little
head. 1t was necessary to have child
rem in their homes early every night.
School truancy was one great means
by which children became reckless.
w. p. Murray was called upon and
asked to make a five minutes talk.
He said he was not able to say what he
desired to say in five minutes, and be-
sides he would have to give the subject
more thought. When he was con-
nected with the state reform school,
it was made the object to secure en-
ployment for the boys when they We're
let out, and that institution is still
better in this regard now, because
it has a state agent who does this
work. The trouble with persons re-
leased from the penitentiary is that
no one takes this interest in them.
LET a man come out Of the -peni-
tertiary and not one Of you good
oil. 4aIx III 4y,f0
your store or into your house even
though he brought you a recon-
mendation from the warden that he
was the best person he ever had in
the prison." said Mr.. Murray.
Rev. w. r. Lord, of Uuity church,
spoke briefly, saying that crime was
either the result Of inheritance or the
accident of circumstance and education.
Another thing must be borne in mind,
and that is that society sets a bad eX-
ample by discriminating between the
man who steals few dollars and goes
to prison and the man who runs an
elevator, steals 5 cents a bushel on
wheat until he gets several thousand
dollars and sits in a church.
Judge Willis, following the line Of
thought opened up by Mr. Lord,
criticised society for its hypocrisies
by which criminals were constantly
being manufactured. This hypoc-
risy pretended to deal the same with
the rich and poor, but everybody knew
this was not true. This spirit of
hypocrisy was not foreign even to the
preacher. 1t was often given out that
a preacher had been called to field
of greater usefulness, but it was
nearly always found on closer exam
ination to be a field in which he would
receive more salary. He paid
tribute to the kindergarten as a school
that is most effective in the prevention
Of crime, quoting from the reports sent
out from San Francisco to the effect
that only one person educated in the
kindergarten there had ever been ar
rested.
Bishop Gilbert said, in part: 1.-THE
sentiment that influences people ought
to be a high and lofty one. The old
system Of imprisonment was without
sentiment. John Howard discovered
the necessity for sentiment in the
prison system Of England, and by his
agitation he aroused that system. The
people of Minnesota have not been de-
void Of sentiment in its prison system,
and the splendid penitentiary at Still
water and the manner In which It is
conducted proves this. But the prison
association proposed to go farther.
While not disposed to make a temper
ance argument, yet, If all the saloons
in Saltwater and st. Paul could be
closed, the reformation Of most Of the
prisoners released from the peniten-
tiary would be accomplished. These
fellows when released fall again in the
first saloon they come to, simply be.
cause the saloon is the only place in
which they find themselves welcome.
What is needed is an association that
meets the released prisoner at the door
of the saloon, and says that is not your
friend. I'm your friend. That Is how