Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-28
Hamburger's
SAFEST PLACE TO TRADE.

SAFEST PLACE TO TRADE.
compliment to the head and heart of
the average American, and an insist
ence that kindness is one of the es-
sentials of wisely ordered prison plans
we are confronted with this final die
rum that lin reform effort particularly
we will wisely maintain, clearly de-
fined the fact that false clemency
may and does induce the chiefest Of
crime breeding influences, namely
Contempt of authority"
So much for the "Foreword," in
which the writer explains his general
attitude toward the problem. Now
turn to the summary in which he
shows us, in conclusion, how he would
deal with these crime -engendering in
fiuences-influences he processes to re-
gard as omnipotent, since crime fol-
lows the line of least resistance.
He demands, in a single line, adding
no word of explanation, rights and
limitations Of labor and capital"
highly elaborated arrangements for the
restriction of immigration; a most
complicated prison and reception house
system, with better, more generously
paid and pensioned prison officers; vol
untary societies to aid paroled and
discharged convicts and childrens
parole courts.
Stones Instead of Bread
In other words, this veteran prison
expert, who insists that we have exag-
/ gerated the number of instructive
! criminals and underestimated those
made so by social conditions; who de-
/ clares that men, women and children
| fail to thrive when consigned to the
ash heaps of civilizations" who wants
to dig down to the taproot OF crime,
| and asks US to unite on basic truths
| which all agree to; who proclaims loud
| ly that the influences of poverty and
| illiteracy are far more important sub
| iects for consideration than the med-
/ surement of heads and other insignih-
cant details in which prison reformers
! have been fritterng away their time;
who insists that I'VE viii do well TO
cease theory juggling sharpen our So
! cial and institutional knives and get
down to practical battle with the crime
octopus"-ths expert offers US
what? Better immigration laws and
| more model prisons with voluntary
charity thrown i'm to help along.
This colonel and military instructor
at Elmira has got Just one idea in his
| head-disciplne; and the perfection of
/ discipline is to him military drill. lie
starts his practical proposals with the
establishment of primary industrial
schools. for children between the ages
| of and IA. There he would place all
the children of the INDECENT, who areI
the natural wards of the state. He
would teach them the three RS and
give them manual instruction; but
above all, military training, if IA
tionally prescribed and directed, Yields
/ the highest order of mental and phySi-
| cal results while conserving institu-
tional order and discipline, not in the
same degree possible under any other
/ system Here is a sample sentence:
/ Tell your officers not to see too mucn
on the field of recreation. but insist
/ that the play of life is but a tenn
porary side issue. and that work 81
| worship" Poor 6-year-old tots
Guns for Children
The uniform to be worn by these un-
/ fortunates is described minutely-sim-
/ liar details occupy pages of the book
and the remark is made that it costs
! only trhe more to dress boys strictly
/ i'm accordance with military ideas than
it does to dress them out of harmony
/ with such ideas. Blue jeans and the
martial spirit are not natural COM
/ rades. Arms, minus bayonets, may be
good imitation in wood, nicely bal
/ anced-Weight for age" Observe the
insistenCe on the necessity of Cultivat-
/ ing the martial spirit and reflect that
the writer declares in the opening SEN
/ tence of his book that the grave prob
. lem confronting the nation is that
/ crimes of violence increase.
This Clamor for militarlsm is re-
neWed i'm the chapters wherein are out
| lined schemes for improved secondary
| industrial schools, reformatories, con-
/ vict prisons and houses of detention
! These last are for those who are sim
| ply awaiting trial. and if you should
! be so uuluCky as to be imprisoned on
/
! have his way this is what would hap
! pen to Nou. You would be Wakened
| by the buglc at 6 o'clock and would
| rcvel for half an hour i'm military calls
! themes Then YOU would have your
/ breakfast. after which you would put
! in an hour and half company of
| battlH II drills. fC owed by a histor-
! ical physiological or nature study lee
! ture lasting another hour and half
/ You would he given half an hour for
/ dinner and then would indulge in gym
| nastic exercises for two hours, fol-
/ lowed by a dress parade lasting an
/ other hour. In the evening two and
/ three-uuaIter hours would be given to
reading and study; tattoo would
| sound at 8:45 and taps at 9. How
do you like the picture?
His One Utopia
Do YOU know what l think of such
a writer? / think he Is insane.
think military discipline, the subordin-
alton to and assertion of authority, has
SO fossilized his brain that he can
dream of only one Utopia-a military
harracks. | think that bending un-
consciously to the more liberal and
enIightened spirit of the age, he may
tam, about social adjustments be
ing answerable for crime, but that in
his real mind he cannot grasp that
truth his entire mental energy being
exhausted in the formulation of re-
uessive plans And | think it nothing
/ less than a crime of the greatest mag
niudc that such men should have
thousands of absolutely helpless hu-
man beings under their control.
But there is one thing that l hold
with even more tenacity viz: that,
easily fooled and deluded as the public
habitually is, in nothing does it show
so conspicuousy its credulity as in the
suppositiun that true prison reform
/ can ever come from thee allegedly
| veteran experts. Authority and the
! exercise of authority has become with
| them second and all-dominating ma
/ ture and to them, as Colonel Masten
| tells us of himsclf-using the biggest Of
capital letters to drive home the max
| im-the chlefest Of crime-breeding in