The morning journal-courier., 1908-12-02

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 THE CONFIRMED FOUNDER.
 There arc so many good ideas let loose and fine suggestions made by those. who are led by their interest in humanity 10 study intclligontly the problems from which society suffers, that many of them get lost in the shuttle of daily needs and enforced occupations. Under this general head comes the letter which Arthur Me- Donald of Washington has sent Gov ernor Woodruff and Mayor Martin in which he urges state and local ap- propriations for the establishment of sufficiently equipped laboratories where competent crimnolossts may study scientifically the criminal and defective classes
 The object of these laboratories is to contribute directly to the well be- ing of the community by lessenins crime, on the one hand. and to raise the social standard on the other hand, by reforming the criminal and the defective, where that is possible. In other words, at last the conviction has overtaken those who have studied the criminal problem that the old fash toned doctrine of an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth is false doc Urine, and that the intelligence of so- ciety should be directed towards emp tying houses of detention and not to- wards filling them up. IL Is this con victlon which has practically led the prison at Wethersfeld under the ad- vice of that expert criminologist, Warden Garvin, to introduce into the management of that institution many of the underlying principles, which control the establishment and man agement of the modern reformatory. 1t is also this conviction which has given such encouragement to the inde- terminate sentence principle and the parole. The result as written in all of the experiments, is such as 10 confirm them further in thelr iudg- ment, and to the extent of looking with favor upon the suggestion of spending annually a little money in anticipating crime in the place of the immense sums now annually expend- cd in punlshing offenders.
 The experience the cities and towns of Connecticut have had with the con frmed rounder the offender who elternates between the gates of the county iaiis and the grog shops spending the greater share of his time in the former, should he enough to induce the state of Connecticut and the city of New Haven to invest in this proposed laboratory scheme. As the origiuators of the proposal claim, "it is financially socially and morally detrimental to the city to re- lease prisoners when they are likely to return to crime as soon as they are let go" As far back as 1881, when Hobart E. Bigelow was inaugur- ated governor of the state, he recon mended in his first message to tho general assembly exactly this doctrine, but he was unsuccessful in interesting in it either that body, or the directors of the states prison, who at that time were under the influence of the eye for an eve principle of administration. Since then and notably within the past five or ten years, the new doc trine has been preached vigorously in the state of Connecticut, especially as it relates 10 the case of the jail population but 1t has not as yet touched the sonsibillties of the legisla- ture It Is the most difficult thing in the world to interest the average per- son in a proposition of this character and 1t will not be possible to do go until the gain to be had from the new understanding of the subject can he put down in dollars and cents, Then the thrifty sense of the New England taxpayer will awaken.
 The practical effect of such a lab- oratory as is hero suggested would bc to hold in imprisonment those who are dangerous to society, regardless of the terms of imprisonment meted out to them This would at once have two contributory effects, tt would repre- sent a large saving to the community in that the dangerous elements would be deprived of their opportunity tc slJcud whtIo they could be made q iouree of usefulness to the commun-