Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-09
HELP CAUSE OF
PRISON REFORM
LIGHT BEGINS TO BREAK IN
FROM ALL SIDES
League Finds Thought Awakening
Throughout Country, Men of
Every Class Rendering
Valuable Aid

with the cry of misery shrinks instinct
| lively from any close study of punish
ment, feeling that it but adds another
chapter to a tale already too depress-
Ing.
| We wish, therefore, in this letter 70
bring out the higher and more exhil-
aratng lights, for they exist. If 1t were
not SO the propaganda of the Prison
| Reform league would be an impossible
| ity and it's work would lead to madness.
| But happily there are multiplying rays
of light; happily the evidences Of an
| awakening public conscience are maxi
| ing themselves manifest on every hand,
] and happily we have now ample assur-
ance that we are not alone. At the risk
! of appearing egotistical we shall draw
| in this letter on our own brief ex-
perience, since there we have absolute
/ proof
AS this movement started three
| months ago In Los Angeles 1t was
| natural that 1t should receive Its
earliest and most extended notice there.
| From the outset the Los Angeles Herald
showed an interest that has never
| tagged; the Journal quickly followed
suit; the Times, In its Care of the
| Body" department, rendered invaluable
! assistance, and the Record on more
than one occasion showed itself highly
| sympathetic. Among the weeklies the
| CIUizen, speaking for organized labor,
| has done yeoman work, and the Califor-
MIA Voice has lent a kindly ear. Such
monthlies as the West Coast Magazine
! Eugenics, Everyman and the Agnostic
| Index have given the entire subject
| special and repeated notice; and the
Fellowship Magazine, which has not
been published during the vacation
months, will give considerable space in
| September.
The state press has more than full
| filled our expectations, and we may nore
particularly the Orange County Trib-
une, the Veteran Enterprise of Sawtele
and the Pomona Daily Review, though
perhaps we should add many others
whose repeated extracts have come to
us through the press clippings bureau.
Moving north we are under more
than ordinary indebtedness to the San
Jose Mercury, the Visalia Delta, the
Fresno Republican and the Sacramento
Bee, all of which have reproduced much
of the matter published from this office
and added most valuable contributions
of their own. In San Francisco the
Call and the Bulletin perhaps may be
more specially named, and 1t is notice.
able that prison subjects have become
more and more of late the theme of
original articles in the Chronicle and
other papers. Crossing the bay and
coming to the state university the
Berkeley Daily Gazette has been good
| friend. In San Francisco, however, we
| have many allies, several of whom have
not only put us in touch with eastern
publications but have themselves set
the ball rolling there.
Movement Forges North
We have not been able to keep close
| track in Oregon, but we know that we
| have capable friends in Portland, and
the Evening Telegram has not only
rxtNr I4 hut n q
been at the trouble of writing us spe-
cially, a thing that busy newspaper
men seldom do. The same may be said,
however, of many California editors.
The law, which we are criticising
with so free a hand, is proverbially
conservative, yet in this matter it APP
pears to us than the church is even
more so, for, although we have had
some considerable correspondence with
the clergy, that with the legal frater-
nifty, and in many cases with those
whose names are known throughout
the country, seem to us far more prom
Using In this state, however, the Cali
fornia Christian Advocate of San
Francisco was at pains to write ex-
pressing it's anxiety to cooperate.
There is, we understand. some prospect
of the clergy of Santa Clara county, at
their forthcoming conference, taking
up the suggestion that this state should
observe the last Sunday in october as
Prison Sunday, preaching special ser
mons on the question. This custom
originated in New York as far back as
1884, and has been followed In New
England and probably in other states
of which we have not information. The
Indiana state board of charities last
year published most excellent bro
chure on the subject, and we have some
hopes that with this forthcoming Oc-
foh hn hnG0me nAt1On-
al. The tendency of the church TO
bring social problems more and more
into the pulpit is one of the notable
features of the times, and, we repeat,
both to the clergy and to those who, on
the opposite wing, think themselves too
radical to bother with side issues, that
the social problem cannot begin to be
considered without considering also the
case of those whom social conditions
have so often driven into crime.
Apparently Little Interested
We have observed little pertaining to
this special subject in the Socialist
press at large, though we have corre-
sponded with many of its editors but
Arthur Scales of Long Beach has had
a drastic series of articles running In
the International Socialist Review.
It is a noticeable feature in Califor-
MIA that within the last three months
more than one former convict mas telt
the urge to devote himself to throwing
light on this dark feature of our COM
munity life, both by starting publica-
tions and taking the platform In eX-
tended tours. These men speak with
first-hand knowledge and give the pub
lie information that is worth getting.
If we felt called to criticise their work
we should say that they err not on the
side of eXaggeration but on that or
repression, being still in dread of the
authorities.
Our correspondence with other for
mer convicts indicates that many in
other parts of the country feel similar
nromptings, and especially have we
GOOD hopes of work being done In Mon
tana, We may emphasize the obvious
sincerity of most of the letters re-
ceiVed from this source, and the value
of the contributions. We have used
some of these in our own literary work,
and say without hesitation that the
naper, for example, by MolineauX, who
so narrowly escaped the gallows, being
fnally declared innocent, constitutes
genuinely valuable addition to thought
On prison problems. The poetry of H.
w Moves, now of Glenwood Cal, is,
we believe, not much inferior to that
by which Oscar Wilde remade his name
when he wrote the Ballad of Reading
Gaol."
East Heard From
Our movement is essentially a ma
tional one, having for it's first object the
awakening of thought on and SYM
pathy as to the treatment of crime
and criminals. Consequently the
great bulk of our correspondence has
been with the east, and naturally with
men of note, whose names We're fa-
mil na ~ cd