The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-09
APPEAL MADE FOR
 PRISON INMATES
Conference on Charities Deals
 With Criminal Guilt
SPIRIT OF SQUARE DEAL
Delegates To Congress Speak Against Bill In Congress Introduced By Labor Leaders Which Fights
 Prson-Made Goods.

Richmond, Va, May S.-Throughout the session of the nationaly conference of Charities and Corrections today there was an element of appeal to the federal government for relief of conditions more or less detrimental to the interest of humanity, the echo at tonlght's general session being an urgent request to Con- gress not to pass the bill said to have been prepared by labor union leaders, which provides that products manufactur- ed in penal and reformatory institutions shall be deprived of the right of competi- ton with goods made by men and wom- en about whom there is no stain of crim- inal guilt.
 The report of the committee on '"Crim- inals, Their Punishment and Reforma- tion," the general topic of the evening session, maintained that one-half of the reformatory and prison inmates are ab- normal and should be imprisoned for life. Speaking for the committee, Chairman w. H. Whitaker, superintendent of the Indiana reformatory, declared that friend ship, love and the spirit of the square deal, if applied to these unfortunates would mean the salvation of 90 per cent of their number.
 Official announcement was made that the committee on time and place had selected Buffalo as the conference city for 1909. The choice was between Buff falo, Denver Oklahoma City and Los Angeles. The conference voted unani- mously to confirm the committees act. The establishment by the United States government of public health department and the appointment of board of con- trol of the management of the United States prisoners was advocated today at section meetings.
 pr. Walker Windley of California, speaking before the public health section, said that~fLae conference should urge Congress to provide d proper health de- partment if 1t was necessary to amend the constitution. In discussing the discipline of United States prisoners, w. H. Whit ta1er, superintendent of the Indiana re- formatory at Jeffersonville, maintained that a congressional committee was not required to look after the conduct of penal institutions, members of which had little personal knowledge of the work.
 Mrs. Harriet Fulmer, superintendent of the visiting nurses association of Chi cago. in an address before the public health section, on "The Relation of Bad Housing Conditions to the Charity Work er," said that inferior living quarters came next to intoxication as one of the causes of poverty.
 The special meeting of the day devoted to statistics was perhaps the most inter- estng, the features being a paper pre- pared by Frederick L. Hoffman, statisti- elan of the Prudential Life Insurance company, in which he attacked the sys- tenn of old age pensions and the reply of Mayor George A. Hubbard of Boston, declaring that he would not discharge the old employees of his city who had worn away their health and enegry in its ser vice.
 At this session, Miss Kate Holladay Claghorn of the tenement house depart ment of New York, read paper on "The Use and Misuse of Statistics in Social Work"
 Dealing with the subievt of needy fami- lies, Porter R. Lee secretary of the char ity organization society of Buffalo, dis cussed 'The Limitations of Charity in Dealing With Unemployed"