The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-09-25

"aAASSoA, L. ". sept. "a
At two o'clock this afternoon there
will occur in Washington, D. c., the
opening session of the greatest prison
congress ever held in the world. From
the uttermost parts of the sea land
landD. as well as from all the states
of the Union. delegates and official
representatives OF republics, monarch
les and empires will gather for a
weeks consideration OF the most i'm
portant questions confronting civilized
nations in respect to the prevalence
of crime and the proper treatment
of the criminal. Mobiles from China
and Japan will rub elbows with the
follower of Mohammed and of the
NaSarene; the men from the anti.
podes will chat with the official dele
gate from Maryland or Virginia, just
across the District of Columbia line.
1t is no exaggeration to say that
this Eighth International Prison Con-
gress which this afternoon will be
opened by President Taft, and which
is being held in Washington under
the auspices of the United States
Government. will react most impress
the fundamental problems of the treat
| ment of the criminal and the admins
tration of criminal law in this country
hnc
outside of Europe, although from it's
| first meeting in 1872 the United
| States. through it's official represen-
tatives. has played an important part
in the deliberations. The Congress
is quinquennial affair; that is, it
meets once in five years. 1t is not
like great conference, to which
thousands Of visitors swarm. 1t is a
highly formal affair, and the voting
members of the conference are dele
gated to the congress by their respec.
tive nations.
Moreover, each nation has but one
vote, although there may be a number
OF delegates from some nations. In
this present congress, there are over
one hundred delegates, from fifty diff
ferent nations Of the world. Incident
ally, it is very worthy of note that this
Congress probably is bringing togeth-
er larger number of nations, in de-
liberation upon special field of the
worlds work. than have ever been
brought together before.
Now the gathering Of the nations,
to study the leading problems OF
crime, is of far-reaching import. For
centuries crime has been one of the
greatest problems of society. Each
nation has dealt with its criminals af-
ter its own fashion. Vengeance, tor
ture, executions in various forms, re-
tribution, reparation, reformation, re-
habilitation:-all those terms and
many others have been tried out in
the treatment of criminals. The litera-
ture of crime is enormous. Modern
civilization takes an active interest in
all things criminal, yet the methods
OF treating the criminal are far less
modern than might be expected in
view of the exceptional interest all
the world takes in wrong deeds. as
distinguished from those that are
right
i During the coming week many ques.
tons of the greatest import to the
United States will be under discussion
Probably one Of the most interesting
questions will be the actual value OF
the American reformatory system. Do
American reformatories reform!
Are we able to turn out our less hard.
ened criminals in such condition men.
tally and physically as to make them
able to become again proper members
of society? Or was the old plan OF
severe. unfriendly treatment of the
convict. with it's accompaniment OF
contract labor, few If any privileges
and hard work from beginning to end
Of his term, more efficacious in deter
ring the criminal from repeating his
crime when he got again ION the out
side?'
:. Americans developed the reforma
tory system out of the old English and
Irish systems OF treating convicts il
penal servitude. Elmira reformatory
the first and probably the best known
reformatory to be built on American
soil, was first occupied in 1876. Since
then. some twenty reformatories have
: been built in as many states of tbs
Union, and many a prison has adopt
ed in part the reformatory system o.
classification of prisoners. the variou.
uniforms. the merit system of mark
ing and the indeterminate sentence.
. Another question that will be mucf
debated is that regarding the value O
the death penalty as deterrent o
crime. and as just punishment To-
what are known as capital offenses
such as murder, and less frequently