Los Angeles herald., 1910-05-14

changes. All of them are along the
same lines"
For my part, l hope most devoutly
that the picture drawn by Mr.. Bechdolt
has not in his latest article been over
colored, but the point l make is that
here, in san Quentin, a prison whose
conduct in the past unquestionably has
been much influenced by the sentiment
that convicts must not be brought into
competition with free labor, the very
tendency emphasized in our letter to
the Trades Council at Butte is seen in
active operation.
Having in mind the importance of
this phase of the prison question, l
wrote recently to Marquis Barr warden
at the state reformatory at Anamosa,
Iowa. That institution was trans
formed from penitentiary to re-
formatory three years ago, and / de-
sired to know in detail what improve
ments had been effected. He writes
me, among other things:
For your information / will say that
we are now having a day and night
school taught by a competent superln-
tendent, with inmate assistants, and
are getting good results. We are also
teaching the trades of book binding,
printing, timing, carpentering, stone
cutting, etc"
1 could multiply illustrations from
other quarters, but enough has been
said to show that the one thing on
which those who have the welfare of
convicts at heart seem to be agreed is
that they should not be subject to the
demoralizing cruelty of enforced Idle
ness and that they should be employed
in occupations that will give them
chance of standing on their own feet
when released from prison.
APPEALS TO COMMON SENSE
AS the Prison Reform League has
said:
THAT appeals to common sense as
necessary, and is therefore certain to
be the development of the future"
We are well aware of the unspeak-
able abuses that have attended the sys-
tenn of hiring out prison labor to pr1-
Vate contractors-a system under when
the convicts have been worked to death
to satisfy the greed of private indi-
Viduals, and to the great detriment OF
free labor. AS regards the employ
ment of convicts on out-of-door work
the building of roads, etc.-we have
had much to say about the horrors or
convict camps, as exposed in the south.
All these difficulties have been thor
oughly discussed by ourselves and 9th
ers Nevertheless the position that
conVicts must be kept usefully em-
carceration should be utilized to teach
them occupations by means of which
they can become self-supporting citi-
zens, stands impregnable.
If appears to me that the way out
will be found only when labor conde-
scends to show a far deeper interest in
its fallen brothers than it has mani
tested hitherto, and brings thought in
stead of prejudice to bear on the prob
lem. In reality. as 1 believe. economic
fallacies will be found at the bottom
of much of the antipathy displayed, and
I think it can be proved that organized
labor suffers quite as severely as do
the rest of us from having to maintain
men in idleness and forcing them once
more into courses of crime. For tnls
societv has to pay a heavy BILL and
know of no social bills that have not to
be footed ultimately by labor, In any
event, 1t seems to me that the subject
deserves far more serious considera-
tion and discussion than it has re-
ceiVed.