The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-09
IN INTEREST
 OF HUMANITY Conference of Charities
 and Corrections. AN APPEAL TO GOVERNMENT Report on Criminals, Their Punishment and Reformation" Report Maintained That one-Hsif of Reformatory Inmates Are Abnor-
 maI and should Be Impris-
 oned for Life.
AN APPEAL TO GOVERNMENT

Richmond, Va. May s.-Throughout the session of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections today. there was an element of appeal to the Federal government for relief of con ditions more or less detrimental to the interest of humanity. the echo at to- nights general session being an UT gent request to Congress not to pass the bill said to have been prepared by labor union leaders which provides that products manufactured in penal and reformatory institutions, shall be deprived of the right of competition with goods made by men and women about who om there is no stain of crim- inal guilt.
 The report of the Committee on Criminals. Their Punishment and Ref ormation," the general topic of the evening session. maintained that one half of the reformatory and prison in- mates are abnormal and should be in- prisoned for life. Speaking for the committee. Chairman w. H Whit taker, Superintendent of the Indian Re- formatory, declared that friendship, 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 1908. The choice was between Buffalo, Denver. Okla homa City and Los Angeles. The con- ference voted unanimously to confirm the Committees act.
 The establishment by tho United States government of a public health department and the appointment of a board of control for the management of United States prisoners, wore ad- vocated today at section meetings. Dr. Walter Lindley of California, speaking before the public health section said that the conference should urge to provide a proper health department, even If 1t was necessary to amend the constitution. In discussing the dis cipline and employment of United States prisoners, w.. H. Whitaker, Superintendent of tho Indiana Reform atory at Jeffersonville. maintained that & Congressional Committee was not qualified to look after the conduct of penal institutions. members of which had little personal knowledge of the work.
 Miss Harriet Fulmer, Superintendent of the Visiting Nurses Association of Chicago, in an address before the pub lie health section on The Relation of Bad Housing Conditions to the Char
 
 quarters came next to intoxication as one of the causes of poverty.
 rTwo-thirds of the reform measures which are yearly talked over at the National Conference of Charities bear upon bad housing conditions. Two thirds of the delinquent children come from homes where bad and poor venti- lation predominates; two-thirds of the physically III children; one-third of the mentally deficient children; one-thlrd of the shiftless mothers; two-thirds oi the deserting fathers; come from the same homes"
 Miss Fulner stated that drunken ness leads the list in causes for the necessity of reform work but that bad housing conditions are close second. Her plea was for a national concen- trated action for better housing con- ditions for the poor and small wage earners.
 Housing reforms Is not a local ef- fort; it is a great national problem. It touches close to the practical so- Iution of the great white plague. It means moral. decent citizenship. Some excellent work has been done by the tenement house committee of New York, the City Homes Association of chicago, the committee of one hundred