The Indianapolis journal., 1898-10-18
THE CHAPLAINs. MEETING.
Change in Name from 'sRefOrmatO-
ries" to "SchOOls."

Yesterday afternoon was devoted by the
Prison Congress to 1.-The chaplains'
meeting" There was only a small
attendance. but some interesting pa
pers were read. All of them, how
ever, were along the line of Christian
izing the convicts in the various peniten-
tiaries. The annual address was read by the
president, Rev. William ]. Bait, chaplain
of the Concord, Mass, Reformatory. who
explained the recent growth of interest in
the work of the chaplains to be phenomenal
and far reaching. This was followed by the
report of the secretary of the association,
Rev. P. L. Cobb. chaplain of the Nashville
Tenn, state prison. The first address made
was by Rev. William A. Locke d. D., of
the Ohio State Reformatory, at Mansfield
who, after discussing the causes and ef-
fects of crime among young men and
women in his own State and suggesting the
advisability of the universal adoption of the
indeterminate sentence law and the classi-
fication of prisoners in order that the be-
ginners should not be contaminated by the
veterans in crime said that the first duty
of the chaplain was to have faith in man
kind. He must believe in fallen men and
women when all others turn away from
them, and, by showing his faith in them,
turn them from their evil ways. He must
be the intermediate quality between the
stern arm of the law and the salvation of
the prisoner, in order that the latter may
be reclaimed to good citizenship once more.
President George A. Gates of Iowa Uni
versity Grinnell, Ia, next addressed the
meeting. AT the start he said he did not
pretend to be competent to tell those pres
ent anything about the details of the gov
ernment of prisoners, but as he mad been
a close student of the problems touching on
reform in prison work, he felt that he could
advance few new thoughts which would
be self-evident. First said he 1.-The rights
of the prisoner are. in spite of all that can
be said against them, primary and abso-
Lutte. The day is past when prisoners can be
shut up in iails and prisons full of filth, and
ts TithoIt food with which to IS sustain 4 life
criminal and in the light of the new gospel
of prison reform the word spenoIogy VIII
be discarded by the people of the world
and instead of educating men in the sci
ence of punishment we will make them
students of the new science of saving The
largest blessings will come from wider
socialiZing of the human race. History re-
cords the gradual steps toward the human
izing of the penal Institutions. First there
was the dungeon of the ancients, then the
prison, then the more modern penitentiary
and, last OF all, the reformatory. All these
steps were the direct result of the teach
ings Of Christ, but there is one more step
for us to take and that is to discard air
those names and in the coming generations
have the school instead of the reforma-
tory. Many States have already changed
the names of their refOrmatOrieS to state
welcomed by ali lovers of mankind
The last speech of the afternoon was
who confined his remarks to the discussion
of social problems, having as his basic
idea the prevention of crime by uplifting
the loWly before they have a chance to be-
graphically described his work of coloniz-
ing districts in Chicago on the common
wealth plan, so that each member received
great personal benefits from contact with
his fellow man.