The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-05
THE GOVERNOR DID RIGHT.

Referring to the recent pardon from the Tennessee penitentiary of three boys the Chattanooga Times says:
 We are decidedly of the opinion that tae governor should send boys of tender years sentenced to the penitentiary back to tlse counties whence they came as fast as
 they are taken to the prison. Stats penrtentiaries as at present conducted are
 and ls years need is not . school for
 fitting them for the commission of fur
 tner crimes but a reformatory where
 they may De giysn an opportunity to
 would not be far wrong if every county
 in the State were compelled by law to
 support reformatcry for youthful of
 fepders-
 On the same subject the Macon News
 remarks:
 Punishment by confinement in the peni-
 tentiary is brutal. Such practice not only
 i'll becomes Q trial court, but is . reflec-
 eion on the state as well. and the gov
 promptly pardoning the youthful crimi-
 nal deserves the plaudits of the public.
 Penitsntiaries are not built for 1H-year-
 old children--they are built to protect so- eiety against dangerous criminals.
 We are in hearty accord with both contemporaries. It matters not how well
 a penitentiary is kept and managed it is not a proper place for boys of 10 or 12 years of age. Except in rare cases boy of that age may be reformed. There gre instances where children are such
 thorough degenerates that no human means can reform them. but such cases are rare, and the laws and the courts have no right to assume that e boy is thoroughly bad and beyond reclamation. The courts and those who make and exe- cute the laws are guardians of society
 at large, it is true. and are bound to
 act for the best good of the whole pc1- pie, but at the same time they are no
 less the guardians and caretakers of the weak and helpless. We have hospitals for the diseased and institutions for the
 care of the insane and Irresponsible af- ficted ones. but the children are no less objects of care than are those adults who are unable to care for themselves. In most States, we believe. there are reformatories of some kind, and although
 not always adequate for the purpose for which they are designated, they are bet ter than the penitentiary. A boy of ten- der years may be convicted of his first crime, and of a crime which Is not the result of & vicious nature. Sent to a re- fermatory he might come forth cured and
 in a condition to become a good membcE of society, but if sent to the peniten- tiary his opportunity is gone. Compelled
 to associate with criminals and to hstsn I to the language of crime he Is pretty | sure to come out worse than he went In, prepared for anything and hardened be. yond reclamation.
 It would hardly be practicable, as yet, for each county to maintain a reforma- \ tory but certainly each State can do SO, I and it can be SO conducted that youthful wrong-doers will have at least fair chance to fcrsake their evil ways and to becomei useful citizens. Whatever ground Governor FFaaler may have had for pardoning the other criminals we feel sure that all right thinking people
 will agree that he did the proper thing
 when he pardoned the three hoys and
 sent them home. If evil comes of theli | freedom no one should blame the goI.
 ernor. for evil was almost bound to re. | suit from confinement in the peniten.
 tiary.