The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-05-31
ROBERT |NeERS0LL
OIL CRIME
Continued from Page Three

the evil of his life,
the things he would have done had
there been opportunity, had he alb
solutely known that discovery would
be mpossible-should have feelings
Of hatred toward the imprisoned.
Is it possible that the average man
assaults the criminal in a spirit of
self-defense? Does he wish to con-
vince his neighbors that the evil
thought and impulse were never in
himself from suspicion? For my
part, I sympathize sincerely with all
failures, with the victims of society,
with those who have fallen with the
imprisoned, with the hopeless, with
those who have been stained by YER
diets Of guilty, and with those in the
moment of passion have destroyed,
as with a blow, the future of their
lives.
How perilous, after all, is the state
of man. 1t is the work of a life to
build a great and splendid character
1t is the work of moment to destroy
it utterly, from turret to founda-
ton stone. How cruel hypocrisy is.
Is there any remedy? Can any
thing be done for the reformation
of the criminal?
He should be treated with kind
ness. Every right should be given
him, consistent with the safety of
society He should neither be de-
graded nor robbed. The state should
set the highest and noblest example
The powerful should never be cruel,
and in the breast of the supreme
there should be no desire for re-
venge.
A man in a moment of want steals
the property of another and he is sent
to the penitentiary-fir it is claim
ed, for the purpose of lettering
others; and secondly, of reforming
him. The circumstances of each in
dividual case are rarely inquired into.
Investigation stops when the simple
fact of the larceny has been ascer-
tanned. No distinctions are made ex-
cept as between first and subsequent
offenses. Nothing is allowed for sur
roundings.
All admit that the industrious must
be protected. In this world it is ne
cessary to work. Labor Is the foun-
dation of all prosperity. Larceny is
the enemy of industry. Society has
the right to protect itself. The ques-
ton is: Has it the right to punish?-
has it the right to degrade?-or
should 1t endeavor to reform the con-
vict?
| A man is taken to the penitentiary.
He is clad in the garments of a con-
vict He is degraded-he loses his
name-he is designated by a num-
Der. He is no longer treated as a
human being-he becomes the slave
of the state. Nothing is done for his
| improvement-noth for his re-
formation. He is driven like a beast
| of burden; robbed of his labor;
leased it may be, by the state to a
contractor, who gets out of his hands,
out of his muscles, out of his poor
brain, all the toll that he can. He is
not allowed to speak with a fellow
prisoner. At night he is alone in his
cell. The relations that should exist
between men are destroyed. He Is a
convict He is no longer worthy to
associate even with his keepers. The
jailer is immensely his superior and
the man who turns the key upon him
at night regards himself, in compar-
ison as a model of honesty, Of virtue
and manhood. The convict is pave
ment on which those who watch him
walk. He remains for the time of
his sentence, and when that expires
he goes forth a branded man. He Is
given money enough to pay his fare
back to the place from whence he
came.
What is the condition of this man?
Can he get employment? Not If he
honestly states who he is and where
he has been. The first thing he does
is to deny his personality, to assume
a name. He endeavors by telling
falsehoods to lay the foundation for
future good conduct. The average
man does not wish to employ an ex-
convict, because the average man has
no confidence in the reforming power
of the penitentiary. He believes that
the convict who comes out is worse
than the convict who went in. He
knows that in the penitentiary the
boor+ of tbic man has hean hardened