The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-02
WITNESSES AGAINST THEMSELVES.

WITNESSES AGAINST THEMSELVES
The prison officials would have done
we'll to preserve their policy of silence,
if they could also have imposed it upon
their organ, which scOrns to consider
as anything out of the ordinary the
authority over them. The Pioneer
Press, from the moment that the
exposure was made, replied, as we
knew that it would, that the animus
of the charges was political. Mr.. VOL
fer now replies, as we knew that he
would, that the charges emanate from
discharged employees and ex-convicts."
A singular effect, indeed, employment
at the state prison has upon a man, if
it incapacitates him for telling the
truth, even after he has been a trusted
officer there for fifteen years. Yet that
is what the warden says of ex-em-
ployes; all of whom he Jumps together
as unworthy Of credence and in the
same class with released prisoners.
The reforming element cannot be as
strong as it should, if all the prisoners
who leave are liars, and if even the
guards are so infected that they can
not, as Mr.. Wolfer asserts, be believed
We fear that the unWholesOme influ-
ence has spread even to the highest
quarters, when Nh Wolfer tells lis
little story about a paroled prisoner
who has been bounded day and night
by representatives of the Clio e."
Inasmuch as no reporter has been
near any prisoner out on parole,
has solicited from him any in
formation or even spoken to
him, the remainder of MI VOTERS
interview can be judged from this ex-
tract. 1t would, indeed, be foolish
task to seek for information from a
man who is still subject to the Ven
geance that is dealt out at Saltwater,
and would know what to expect if he
talked about what happens in the
prison when he is liable to be called
back there.
The animUs of this interview and of
the comments of the Pioneer Press upon
it merely adds another item to the
already overwhelming evidence against
the Saltwater management. Be it re-
membered that the G l o b has made
no sensational charges" 1t has pub
lished statements of events that are
said to have happened there, with the
names of the persons furnishing the in
formation; and, when their testimony
related to instances of extreme bar
barity, with their affidavits. This is
what the Pioneer Press and others of
its way of thinking regard as a cruel
persecution. The G o b has demand
ed only that the light be turned on and
the truth be told. The statements
which it has published are, to it's mind
ample to establish the need of an in
VestigatiOn and a reform in the conduct
of the prison. 1t has placed the blame
exactly where it seemed to belong, Civ
ing the language of it's informants in
every case. 1t has not made use of a
vast mass of rumor and of unsubstan-
tiated or anonymous charges. It is sat
ished with the service that it has rem
dered to the people, TO the state of Min
nesota, to the cause of humanity How
the responsibility for the state of af-
fairs that has been disclosed may be
appOrtioned is not it's affair. 1t is glad
to lay all the facts in its possession be-
fore the commission that is to meet
today, and to ask that the executors of
the sentence of the law observe the
law, and that cruelty shall cease to be
part of prison regimen. 1t has seen
nothing more convincing, in the way of
indirect testimony to show that the
charges made by those who know are
true, than the indiscreet language and
untrue assertions used by the apollo
gists of a system against which the
whole being of every true man in the
state of Minnesota rises in revolt.