The record-union., 1897-06-28

have for the chief part succeeded. Near
ly all the able bodied men are now at
work on jobs pertaining to the prison.
Some are doing the cooking, cleaning
and general caretaking of the prison
buildings and grounds. Some are pull
ing down old buildings and erecting
new. Some are manufacturing supplies
for the prisons and other institutions
of the State. Thus the mischievous
effects of idleness which came upon
them early in this year are being done
away with. Bu- much of this work is
temporary. 1t will soon be completed,
and then there will be nothing to do
but such odd jobs as the ingenuity of
the keepers can devise-or else a re-
turn to the evils of idleness.
Beyond all question and doubt States
must find hearty, robust and produc-
tive occupation for their conyicts. If
not, prisons will become but criminal
training schools and refugees and hos
pitals for criminal dependents, feeding
upon the bread of industrious free men.
There is some division of sentiment
among penologists as to the extent to
which labor goes in the matter of re-
formation of criminals. But most
men are agreed that idleness defeats
most attempted reform of the convict.
Not only must prisoners be employed
actively, but in labor that the prisoner
can see is worth something, that is
productive, that enters into some line
of good for society. When he realizes
that such is the result of his enforced
labor, it gives his mind the proper tone
for contemplation of better things than
crime. 1t opens the heart and mind of
the convict for the reason of prison dis
cipline, and to just that extent it pre-
pares him for reformatory influences.
That labor Will alone reform the pris-
oner is not seriously contended, but
that it is salutary influence in that di-
rection we honestly believe. The
treadmills in English prisons are alb
solutely non-productiVe of good They
are torture machines Even as ex-
cuses for exercise they fail, for convicts
put upon the treadmill fall away and
fail of the benefits healthful exercise
has upon the both body and mind.
But convfcts should be employed for
another reason at productive labor, to
make them in largest possible degree
self-supporting, to make them lift the
burden of their support from the shoul-
ders of honest men who labor and pay
taxes to maintain prisons. 1t is
wrong upon those who toll in freedom
to have several thousand criminals
eating their bread in idleness.
OF course, just as far as it is possi-
BILE convict labor should be confined to
self-support, by production of those
things needed to maintain the prisoner.
That is to say, it is not necessary that
he be put into open competition with
free labor, to undercut its wage, or
choke off its opportunities But labor
in prison that will send its products in
to the common market is far better for
the wage Garner, than idleness of the
convict-a demonstrable truth.
The School Board at Kingston. N. Y.
nearly two years ago directed that there
should be instruction and exercise in
the public schools of that city, in fru-
galtty and economy. If it We're not for
the fact that the curriculum of the
most of our school systems is already
heavily overloaded the plan would be
commendable out of hand. But is it
not a part of home training to impart
such instruction and to exemplify it?
Is the school system to take on the
whole burden and all the obligations
of the parental state? However, it is
interesting to know just what the
Kingston system is. In brief, it pro-
vides for lectures or talks to the school
frugality, and then the pupils are en-
couraged to save their money. To that
end every Monday morning the chill
dren are called upon to make deposits
have saved during the preceding week
These pennies must be savings, not
gifts, for the purpose, but savings out
Of sums allowed the child or which it
it has to also make some sacrifice, or
what it may deem a sacrifice. When
the sum deposited by a child reaches
the total of 50 it is placed in bank to
during which, Of course, it cannot be
withdrawn. In one of the Kingston
schools the deposits since the introduce
ton of the system have amounted to
district populated solely by people of
very moderate means, and there are
only 213 school children in that dis
triot. The teachers certify that the sys-
culcated habits of economy not only
in the child, but very frequently in the
home of the child, and that in conse-
quence there has been distinct better
Nevertheless, we return to our ques-
tions, Is not such teaching and practice
the office of the home, and is the school
to usurp the home duty? VIII not
such steps as these more and more
lead parents to expect of the social or
ganization the doing of that for their
little ones which it is their duty and
should be their sole privilege to do?
If we are to carry out the Kingston
scheme along other lines where bet
terments are needed, viii we not tend