Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-01-31
THE WAY OF THE 1aANsGREssoR.

THE WAY OF THE T3ANSG RESSOR.
"Fathcr" Coffin, the Fort Dodge
philanthropist, is urging plea thru
the Fort Dodge press for employment
for the inmates of the Coffin home for
discharged convicts. Very naturally
the farmers and other employees of the
vicinity OF Fort Dodge hesitate to en-
ploy men who have done time Mr..
men are earnestly DESTROYS OF earning
an honest living and refers to those
| who have employed them concerning
| their habits and Willingness TO work.
His pleading illustrates how hard 1T is
for convicted criminal to find coun-
tennnce even to the extent OF an oppor-
| tunity to do mental labor for a pit
lance.
1t looks hard, and it is hard, but the
em pIovers are not to be condemned for
making choice of clean handed help.
The path of the convicted transgres-
sor has, we are assured, been rough
from the beginning. The average ctti-
zen has an ingrained conviction that
amounts almost to instinct that those
who have been guilty of crime are
likely to be guilty again. And this
conviction is supported by the statls-
tics OF criminals. Men do not want
convicts about their farms and in con-
tact with their families. They fear
their influence more than any loss that
might be suffered by opportunity given
| n thief. The burden of this sentiment
rests on the criminal whose acts have
created it. The employer is not to be
blamed when he refuses to hire man
fresh from the penitentiary.
But it is pity. This same feeling is
responsible for much Of the relapse into
crime. Many man comes from the
nenitentiary chastened and anxious to
repair his character. Some OF THESE
succeed and become useful cltzehs
holding responsible positions and DONG
{, man's work in the world. 1t Is hard
to believe in the face of these instances
that crime is ineradicable and that the
criminal instinct uncomfortable. Hu-
po's great convict was as true 10 one
tyne as the degenerate is to his own.
rescue home at Dubuque reports
more than 90 per cent OF faileh
women aided and assisted by 1T
as having reformed. The Centfai
Howard Association Of Chicago, in It's
reoort of last years work, shows that
90 per cent of the 400 discharged and
paroled convicts which have been
beneficiaries of the association, are
leading honest lives. This association
makes a business of caring for con-
victs who express q desire to reform,
and assists them to employment. Its
work is along the same lines as that
Of the Fort Dodge philanthropist.
A home for convicts is a good thing
in it's way. 1t strengthens and sup
ports the men in their resolutions to be
honest but their residence there
stamps them with the prison mark as
plainly as the stripes they wore at
Anamosa or TT. Madison. There is
better plan for the discharged con-
vict able to work and anxious to cover
his past by a clean future. His OPP
portunity lies in expatriation. Let him
go where no embarrassing questions
are likely to be asked and where no
knowledge Of his past character will
handicap him. There is work any
where for the man who seeks it and
does it well when he finds it. Few
men, and those only of the highest
class of convicts, succeed in the
neighborhoods or states where their
crimes were committed and their SEN
fences pronounced. They should be
assisted, not supported. by philan-
thropic individuals and associations to
make a new start in community where
opportunities are not mortgaged by
common knowledge of their previous
misdeeds. There are Jean Valjeans
among Iowa ex- convicts who might be
magistrates in far country.
Wars That Help Peace.
baltimore Americana
The horrors of the war between Rus
STA and Japan particularly those in
the siege of Port Arthur, have had an