The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-04-09
KILLED THE REF0RMAT0RY
Continued from First page.)

Continued from First Page.)
finding work, but for the purpose of
avoiding it. To found mild refor-
matory for men like these is only sickly
sentiment. The soft hearted president
of our reformatory commission believes
that tramping Is only disease, / be-
lieve it, too, but unlike him, would
treat it with heroic doses of the alo-
pathio school, He believes in giving
the tramp bath Of rose water.
would give him soap and sand with the
scrub brush backed up by the brawny
arm of correction (Applause). /,
too, would found an institution, but j
would build 1t alongside Of the hardest
quarry of trap-rock that I could find
In the state. Not under some lofty $1,000
dome, already planned by your COM
missioners and rejecting from its gilded
height only the wealth wrung from the
taxpayers of the state, but under some
humble roof that would keep its in
mates warm and dry and with plain
and abundant food that would restore
the tired muscle. would keep the con-
Wet tramp for sixty days. He might
have known nothing Of virtue or of
honest toll. but for sixty days he should
sweat the sweat of compulsory labor
and for sixty night he should sleep the
sleep of the weary. (Applause). And
then, at the end, when l had left his
door unlocked and the gates of the in
stitution ajar and found the next morn
ing that he had gone, ! should know
that he was everlastingly reformed or
that, at least, his dainty feet would
never press Connecticut soil again.
would do this,n by teaching the tramp
the plaything of q trade at a net ex-
pense of So week to the state, but by
compelling him to work at the one trade
of breaking stone with a net profit to
the state, for would keep him on fifty
cents day and make him earn a dollar
and half In your new reformatory
act let no such word as tramp be
known. (Applause),
I'VE come now to consider another
phase of this question, to make an
other comparison in which one can
hardly utter truthful word Without
seeming to be unkind to the reforma-
tory commissioners. ] mean their large
plan as compared with the size of the
appropriation, The sum Of fifty thou
sand dollars was voted by the last leg
islature, and beyond this there was not
the promise of single dollar The
circumstances of the case were such
that there was was no reason for a
hope that this general assembly Of to-
day would make any appropriation
whatever for this object In the treas
ury Of the state two years ago there
were some eight or nine hundred thou
sand dollars, but in its expenses as
compared with its receipts the state
was then running behind at the rate
Of nearly three hundred thousand dol
lars year. There was money enough
in the treasury for the last legislature
to have voted half a million dollars for
this object If 1t had thought 1t wise so
to do. There was not member of
that Legislature who did not know that
all which could be wisely voted for a
refornlatory- for the next four years
could be wisely voted then and there.
lit was this running behind, this flu
ture event, the result of this running
behind that was casting Its shadow be-
fore. The senators from the Sixth and
the Ninth, from the Fourteenth and the
Nineteenth, will all tell you that it was
this ominous running behind that made
them loath to vote even an appropria-
ton of fifty thousand dollars.
aAma yet your commissioners in the
light of these facts, facts that they
might have known facts that they
ought to have known, planned an in
stitution, which, before it could do any
beneficent work or care for single in
mate, must receive from future legisla-
lures additional appropriations to the
amount six times the original sum. In
this simple statement of the truth I
invoke no censure. / leave it to you,
senators, by your votes to fix the meas
ure of the blame. If I knew to be true
what I have only heard, since your
committee made It's report, that nearly
a year ago friends of the reformatory
and friends Of its commissioners told
them of the danger of their course,
pointed out to them this legislative rock
upon which their ship has struck and
been shattered, and that needless of the
warning they kept on their course with
sails full set I say if knew to be true
what / have only heard, / still would
give no censuring words, but would
leave it to you, senators, by your votes,
to fix the measure of the blame.
"Your Connecticut commissioners
planned an institution which is large
compared with those Of other states,
recklessly large compared with the APP
preparation, and so large that you can
not be sure of its benefcent work. 1t
is still mooted question Of how far
reformatories reform. A few weeks
ago / asked an eminent philanthropist
and criminalist what he thought of an
institution that was planned to take
in all the tramps, all the habitual
drunkards, a large majority of the jail
criminals and half Of the inmates of
the states prison. / quote his language
because of its burning truth. He said:
DO not try to do too much in Connec-
ticut If you do you will utterly fail.
You will find that those who are de-
PRAYED through and through will leaven
the whole lump. If you try to make a
reformatory Of hell, you will make a
hell of reformatory
"Mr. President and Senators-It is a
duty which we owe to ourselves, it is a