The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-08-21
SISAL FOR KANSAS
Warden Haskell Gets Supply for
Next Year.
Enough to Make Million and
Half Pounds of TWine.
THE PRICE is LOWER
Means That Kansas Farmers
Will Get Cheaper Twine.
Hasn't Applied Eight Hour Law
to Penitentiary.

10 E1M1tou blAE5s
warden W. H. Haskell of the state
| penitentiary, but who still registers
from Gaylord, Smith county, an
nounced today while in Topeka that
/ he had closed a contract for 1000
! bales of sisal. enough to make 1,500,-
/ 600 pounds Of binding twine- The
price paid for this sisal was Is cents,
which is lower than usual, and will
/ probably mean a lower price on bind
| ing twine to the farmers of Kansas
next fall.
This is the best time of the year
to buy sisal," said Warden Haskell.
/ ''It is cheaper now than at any other
time, and we got a very good price
Heretofore it has been the custom to
buy our sisal in small lots from month
1 to month, but the supply which We
have now purchased will be nearly
enough for the years run.
I'VE now have one carload of new
machinery for the binding twine
plant on the ground. and have the
plant all torn up in the process of re-
construction. It will be rearranged
so that the plant can handle twine
more expeditiously and econ nomically-
The capacity will also be somewhat
increased by additional machinery,
and the old machinery is now being
/ thoroughly overhauled. We Will be
ready to resume operation by October
! I. The plant will then be kept in
continuous operation
What is going to be the effect
upon the penitentiary of the attor-
ney generals ruling that laborers at
/ the state institutions must not be re-
quired to work more than s hours a
day?" was asked
THAT question has not been raised
by anyone employed at the peniten-
i tiary," said Warden Haskell land I
| don't propose to raise 1t unless I have
/ to. If it is held that the S-hour law
applies to the guards and other Ia
i borers at the prison, it will mean that
we will have to about double the
ent the guards have to be on duty
/ about Il hours a day. They go on
/ duty at 6 O'Clock in the morning, and
! are not able to stop work until after
6 at night, when they count out the
prisoners who have been in their
charge during the day. That is too
/ long for a guard to work, and am
in favor of shorter hours, but of
| course the guards know what they
have to do and what their pay is be-
have to work for that pay and under
/ those conditions If they don't want to.
or course if anyone questions the
right of the prison authorities to work
| the guards more than 8 hours day,
shall ask the attorney general to
give me an opinion on the subject"
when do you expect the Oklaho-
ma prisoners to be Withdrawn from
the Kansas penitentiary ?''
4 have had no advices from Oklaho-
/ ma on that natter replied Mr.. Haskell
but 1 do not anticipate that it will be
right away. They have not yet selected
the site for their state prison, and
neither have they decided whether they
will build it entirely with civilian labor.
If they build it with civilian labor, of
course it will be quite a long time be-
fore they are ready for the prisoners.
/ should think, however that they
would select their site, and then build
a stockade, and take all their prisoners
down there and put them to work build
| ing the prison"
Asked concerning his opinion of the
parole and indeterminate sentence law
Warden Haskell said:
This law is all right; it is a law the
old hardened criminals don't like, and
for that reason is desirable. The reason
the professional criminal doesn't like it
is because in order to become eligible
for parole, he must give full account
| of his actions and wherea bouts for five
or ten years prior to his conviction. We
/ investigate this story to see if it is cor
! rect. We find out about people to whom
the prisoner refers. A professional
4 criminal can't stand that kind of an
overhauling, and the result is that the
people who are paroled are the men
who are likely to brace up and behave
| themselves as soon as they get out of
/ gins, is a man of excellent judgment
and of wide experience with criminals
When paroled prisoner fails to make
the reports which he IS required to
make, Higgins goes right after him, but
he Is not trying to make a record for
dragging men back to prison, and a
good stiff talk from him very often
straightens a man up again if he has
become careless. OF course these men
we release on parole are not Sunday
school scholars, but the majority of
them keep straight. We require that
somebody guarantee to give the prison
er a job as soon as he is paroled. and
I tell every man as he goes out Now if
you get out of work, and hard pressed,
/ don't try to sidestep US, but come right
back here to Lansing, and I will see
/ that you are taken care Of for a few
days until you can get on your feet
/ again The parole law adds a vast
4 amount of work to the duties of the
warden, but it is a splendid thing for
1 the prisoners. I believe, on the whole,
that the average length of a prisoners s
term is heightened rather than shorten
ed by the operation of the parole and
4 indeterminate sentence law"
Warden Haskell says that he has been
( too busy to go to his home in Smith
county for about a month
C~usoe's Island Sank.
New York Aug 21-It is reported