The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1909-11-11
DIR. MARTINS ADDRESS,

Prnitpntiary, attended the meeting
of the State Conference OF Char
ties and Correction in Farming
ton last week. The Doctor is M
entertaining speaker, and his ad
dress Thursday evening, in whici
he referred eloquently to the re-
forms being instituted at the penl
tenIiary in the matter OF treatment
and Accommodations of convlcts, wa,
much enjoyed by the large audience
present at the opera house on that
occasion. lie contrasted in n meas
ure the conditions heretofore exist.
ING in that institution with the re-
forms now being introduced, great
ly to the credit of the hitter, The
Doctor is a strong partisan as well
as churchman, and he did not fail
to leave IN the minds Of his audi
tors the impression that Governor
Iadley and the new Pcnltentlary
Warden were largely if not wholly
responsible for the bettcrment so
graphically presented,
It is to this insinuatug sentl-
meut of the Doctors remarks which
we would call the attention OF the
too credulous, who are even ready
to accept the blasphemOus doctrine
that we are indebted to the Repub'
lican party and its leaders for the
sunshine and rain, the grass aud
the grain. aud all the blessings
which a smiling Providence hns
vouchsated to man. Neither Gov
crnor Hadley nor the Warden, how
ever humauely disposed they may
be, can lay claim to the credit OF
the recent reform methods recon-
meudrd for the conduct Of our pen
iteutiary, though we hope they ARE
in accord with the growing public
sentiment along this line, and have
no reason TO believe that they are
not. But the peultentlary is under
a Board of Control, and It so hap
pens that all the members Of this
board, with the single exception OF
Governor Hadley, are Democratic
ofiiciaIs-Attorney General Major,
Secretary of State Roach, Auditor
Gordon and Treasurer Cowgirl;
and it is true that these four last
named gentlemen have been the
most strenuous supporters and pro
moters of the reforms introduced
in our penitentiary, while the
Warden has nothing to do but to
obey and carry out the behests of
the Board.
If the Doctor desired to com
pare the conditions of the peniten
tiary under Democratic and Re
publican administration and wished
to be fair, he might have cited
that under the Folk administration
the Board of Control was composed
of but one Democrat and four Re.
publcGng, and the conditions that
have so long existed, not only in
the Missouri penitentiay, but in
the penitentiaries of other states,
Republican rs well as Democratic,
were not corrected. The correction
in our own State, it so happens,
comes under Board OF Control
largely dominated by Democrats,
But for this reason we would not
claim that the Democratic party Is
wholly responsible for these re-
forms, while denying that the Re
publican party or any other politi'
cal party is responsible.
Hon. Edward A. Rozler, in his
address of welcome to the Confer
ence, and to which the Doctor was
an attentive auditor, not only man
Tested the spirit that should and
we believe does actuate the
grand work in which the Con
ference of Charities and Correction
is engaged, but gave cogent rea-
son for and the cause of the great
reform movement which is but in its
infancy in this country, and which
has a great and responsible work
before it.
Mr.. Rozier began his address
with an allusion to the discovery