Los Angeles herald., 1909-05-02
PRISON REFORM
LEAGUE PLANS
WIDE PUBLICITY
ACTIVE CAMPAIGN Is ALREADY
LAUNCHED
MEMBERS URGED TO ACETATE
SUBJECT AMONG FRIENDS
Society Believes It Is Better to Make
Good Citizens of Criminals Than
to lnflict Unwholesome
Punishment

has no intention of letting the grass
grow beneath its feet. As a supple
ment to its admirably brief declaration
of principles and application blanks it
has published already the following
we feel that you will not be con-
tent to limit your activities to the mere
signing of this document or attendance
on meetings, and we suggest the fol-
lowing as lines of activity that are
open to all:
use existing means of getting into
touch with the public, and discriminate
by selecting those that are most effec
tive and accessible. The pulpit has
influence. Pick those ministers who
are noted as generous in their thought
and ask them, by letter or verbally, to
investigate this subject and discuss 1t.
Many papers make the public letter
box a feature. Put yourself to the
trouble of utilizing it,
1.-THE stage has a great educational
power, and there are many excellent
dramas, such as Never Too Late to
Mend" which managers will readily
put on if they are informed that there
is a public interest in the question.
almost every one belongs to some
special society, and it is there, where
you are known, that your influence will
be most effective. Such state societies
as those of Michigan, Wisconsin, Maine,
have abolished capital punishment, will
be found to have a membership almost
unanimously in accord with the pur
poses of this league Much good work
can be done among them.
Publicity Needed
'If you yourself are not a public
speaker or writer, at least run over the
list of your friends, and if among them
there are speakers or writers, take the
pains to interest them in this subject.
This movement is all right, and needs
but one thing, intelligent publicity
THAT your activity may be intelli-
gent-which is the all-important thing
post yourself ON the literature of the
subject by buying and reading such
recently published works as No, 9009,'
The Turn of the Balance and other
well known books. Modern literature
on this question is not dry. On the
contrary, 1t throbs with human inter-
est and has enlisted the ablest pens of
the day. You will enjoy reading it,
talking it over and handing it on, and
viii thank us for having called your
attention to it. We are most anxious
to put the public on the track of in
formation"
Colonel Griffith ]. Griffith, secretary
of the league and leader in the prison
reform work, says of the league and
it's purposes
Il am not so unkind as to wish for
others the experience that 1 myself
have gone through, but as an educator
it would be invaluable. Let any man
who is skepticaI as to the inherent
vitality of this movement see and hear
what | have seen and heard and l
will guarantee that his skepticism will
vanish like a SNOWFALL in July.
While I was in San Quentin half
dozen executions took place. With
some forty others 1 was locked in the
laundry, all convicts being on such oc-
casions shut up in their cells or in the
various workshops. The thud Of the
falling body was in each case distinct
ly audible, Earring the entire building.
There is a silence that is far more elo-
quent than any speech, and in the long
hush that preceded the actual deed the
thought that was busy in the minds
of my fellow prisoners was to be read
easily on their faces.
Cries of Anguish Heard
st can bear more direct testimony to
the universal comment that succeeded,
whenever opportunity came for dis
cussion. It ran invariably on the strain
that the state had committed another
murder, with the constant corollary:
If the state may kill, why not we?'
THAT such sentimentS-engender
stances in which they necessarily leave
the profoundest and most lasting mark
can be other than poisonous to our
public thought is, to me, at least, in
credible.
ST may add, in connection with the
entire subject of prison reform, that
for fourteen months 1 slept nightly,
with forty-eight others, in the rooms
Immediately above the dungeon in
which the strait-jacket and other forms
of torture, that are a blot on our civ
ilization and give the lie to our pro-
fessed Christianity and the Sermon on
the Mount, were constantly in use. I
know what I heard wrung from the
lips of anguish, during those wakeful
nights.
Through a thousand exact agencies,
of which / am only one, it has got
about, far more generally than may be
supposed, that these conditions exist
and that they are shameful Such
works as No. 9009,' Brand Whitlock's
Turn of the Balance, and others have
been read with profound interest and
have made a deep impression; the lead
ing magazines of the country are con-
stantly handling the question in one
or other of it's phases, and. in a word,
the signs that this is vital and imme-
diately pressing question are to be seen
on every hand by those who take the
trouble to look.
To Agitate Subject
Il anticipate that this movement will
receive the support of we'll known writ
ers throughout the country, and it GER
tainly will be agitated actively from
the platform"
Mr.. Chain, recent Prohibition candi-
date for president, has been identified
for many years past with the subject
of prison reform, being the author of a
well known work on the question, in
which he advocates the elimination of
the word punishment from our legal
code. holding that the only concern
society has is to protect itself from
the offender. and that its wisest course
is to transform him into an honest,
productive man. He will lecture on
this subject in various parts Of the
country throughout the summer, and
expects to organize Utah, Colorado and
Nebraska before returning to Chicago.
There he will open special office inI
connection with the movement.
Col John Zobieski of this city has
been an advocate of radical prison rel
form for the last forty years, both on
the platform and in print. He also
H. 800 III