Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1906-12-24

| s"'ion OF statement Whlcn IL nc dlu
not Know was incorrect he couid not
'ave known to be true
| Ihc Commercial is not and never mas
peen opposed to taxing wild iands put
mas and will strenuously assert that
any Increase of taxes on timber lands,
IN excess Of the state and county tax
shaii be used for protecting the forests
from fire and not for protecting tHH
| highways or for any other purposes
whatsoever than in patrolling the for
| ests and preventing fires. me CONNER
| clal does not believe that 1t Is just or
| fair for the State to make apprOprla-
| lions and laws authorizing the issuing
| to hunters of a license giving them per-
| mission to go upOn lands to which the
State has passed a clear title without
any reservations to the owners and
| then have the receipts from taxes IRON
these lands devoted to the dement, OF
municipalities at distance while the
| owners of the lands are compelled 10
use thousands of dollars Iof the pro-
lection of these forests from 1lreS OFTEN
set by the hunters who are pract1cally
sent unon them by the state.
81 Was in Prison."
portland PresS.)
The good work of our local prison
committee has been noted from time
to time, and it is pleasant TO see Una.
this work is not relaxed. The old
idea is hard to efface, that the jail Is
first and last and all the time a place
for punishment, and that the prisoner
has no claim on the consideration Oh
the society he has outraged. Inc
more modern, humane and enlightened
idea is that there should be reforma-
ton as well as punishment, and that
this is for the good of society no less
than for the good of the prisoner. 1t
is this principle which the prison
committee has constantly in view.
Phillips Brooks once said that the
true source of the true sentiment of
our duty to prisoners is in the UNI
destroyed, the indestructible manhood
of the prisoner Ito is i'm the Christ in
the prisoner. 4 was i'm prison and ye
cam" unto me- 1t is not right. and all
experience has taught us that it is not
safe. to forget or t" ignore that truth"
Phillips Brooks had sane views of men
and things. He believed that society
had Il duty to the prisoner beyond that
of intiicting the just penalty. and that
his duty looked beyond the expia ton
of the offence. lie thought there was
something worth saving and that it
should be saved-"the undestrOyed
and indestructible manhood of the
prisoner" This is the belief of
modern penology and the handspring
of its work.
The prison committee has en-
deavored to bring about certain re-
forms and improvements. calculated to
reduce bad influence and increase good
influences i'll Jail life. Among these
are the installation of electric lights
IN tn" cells, so that prisoners may be
able TO read or engage in other Occu-
patton instead of having to spend their
evenings in idleness i'm dark cells:
the segregation of the younger and less
hardened element from the older and
more vicious: meals at a common table
instead of eating in the solitude of the
cell, etc. A paper read at the last
meeting of the committee has some
account of the plan for the observance
OF holidays at the Jail On Christmas.
Tor instance, religious services are
held. and something out of the
ordinary Jail fare is distributed; while
on other occasions entertainments are
given by local talent. 1t is thought
that this work is having a good effect.
ana no doubt it is. Certainly there
can be little reformatory influence in
locking the prisoners in all day on
tnese holidays and leaving them to
ldieness and the demoralizing associa-
IONS of ordinary Jail life. There is a
outy to perform. but most of the
people on the outside of Jail have been
SLOW to realize that duty.