The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-14
Mir. Wells Address.


 dress follows:
 Mir. Wells Address.
 Reduced to the term of the mar ket place. the cost of crime in Con- necticut is nearly $2,500.000 year. The bill is big and burdensome, and collection is rigidly enforced. There's no let-up for the paying teller. Maintenance of penal institutions, support of police departments, admin jstration of criminal courts and a thousand miscellaneous criminal ex- penses involve huge tax which de- !inquency levies on the community. If the money which now goes as tribute to law-breaking could be diverted to the working capital of the brass busi- ness in Waterbury or to the hard ware industry in New Britain the funds would help oil the cogs of pro- ductive enterprise, and an economic gain would be effected
 The strain which the delinquent class puts on the public pocketbook, is, in its way, important, but it tells only a fraction of the grim story. The blasted lives, the broken families, the sufferings of the innocent, the heart anguish and the loss of character and of confidence are the main items in the budget of crime, These things wear no dollar mark, and arithmetic falls down when it tries to represent their cost in figures.
 The warfare between society and the offender began in the morning of the world; 1t will keep up as long as a yellow streak remains in human na- ture. The contest is so wide in its sweep, so important in its various phases and so complex in all its bear ings that venture to suggest three or four familiar weapons which, add ed to the equipment of, the States social armory, would help Connecticut wage more effective battle against crime.
 X State Reformatory.
 Establishment of a State reforma- tory, to which offenders between the siSeo ol iV dHu So Hay pe tpIillllllleu under the indeterminate-s sentence plan, would be a useful addition to the penal machinery of the common wealth. The institution would draw a part of its population from the State prison, where youngsters touch elbows with oldsters, and part from the county jails, where all sorts and con ditions of law-breakers are merged in 8 miscellaneous mass and where the mildly bad are more likely to be made worse than the acutely bad are to be made better. A reformatory would seek to subject the young criminal to scientific treatment; to shift his thoughts, ambitions and impulses into better channels; to stimulate his sense of moral responsibility; to teach him a trade and the trick of industry; and to provide him with handy ladder by which he may climb back to a nor nal social adjustment, though not by way of the porch roof and the second story window. Reformatory treat ment is stirring and notsoothing. II employs no angel-cake methods. Ii doesn't try to coddle the young delln- quent into being mollycoddle. Ii aims to develop his moral and men- tai muscle by constant exercise and rigid discipline and to keep him from coming in contact with the mischief that Satan finds for idle hands to do From it's working outfit mawkish sen timent Is excluded
 The value of reformatory, con ducted on rational lines, Is great, but exaggerated notions of its worth should be avoided A reformatory is no miracle-worker. It can lead the inmate to the water but it can't make him drink--though if 1t were any thing but water the problem would in many cases be easier. It can pro. vide him with an opportunity and with helpful tools, and after it has done that It's up to him to do the rest