The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1911-10-07

gerous. as drag upon society, had |
that in him which could be turned to
the profit of himself and his state. He ,
has been paroled. since, and is work |
ing honestly at the employment the
governor secured for him. But. more
important than that, he settled once
for all any fears Oregon's governor
may have had concerning his honor
system" at the state penitentiary. He
was the prophet of the new order of
things that has resulted in fifty per
cent of the convicts of that state be
ing trusted to go about their work
outside the prison walls without a
guard to watch them.
If you ask Governor West what
started the "honor system, he'll
probably tell you "the high cost of
living" The cost of living has be
come bromide when applied to most
of the ills of the day, but as an eX-
cuse for instituting the honor sys-
TEN" in the penitentiary it is prob
ably novel. But that really seems to
have been prompting reason-that
and the innate interest in his fellow
men that crops out occasionally in a
public official
Oswald West was what the people
of the border states call "Canuck.'
He came to Oregon from Ontaria as
a boy--a poor boy-lived in Salem.
the pretty little capital on the Walla.
mette river, drove a butchers wagon
in the summer holidays, did all the
odd jobs and hard work that fall to
the lot of the usual small.town boy.
When the state penitentiary was 10,
Gated at Salem he used to go up Mill
Creek and watch the guards leaning
on their guns in the watch towers.
Sometimes there would be an escape
from the prison and the town. parti-
cularly the small-boy part of it, would
SILVER with excitement. The interest
of boy who grows up in town
where there is large prison centers
about it as naturally as does that of
the sea-coast boy about the ships AMI
docks.
Later young West - he's not thirty
eight yet-went into bank at Salem,
and his interest in human nature was
developed at the paying teller's win
dow. Nobody expects sentiment to
incubate in bank, which bears out
the governors statement that senti-
ment has played no part in his re-
forms, but the inside of the teller's
window does give one a pretty fair
insight into human nature. From the
succession of faces at the window one
learns to Judge quickly whether a
mans honest, or vicious or weak /;
whether he's telling the truth; in
short, whether he's to be trusted
And it is upon the knowledge he
gained there that Governor West de
ponds most when deciding which OF
the applicants for parole, pardon OF
aid, are honest in their claims and
which are not.
After serving term as state land
agent and railroad commissioner
West ran for the governorship last
fall, was elected, and went into Of
flee in January. A man of extraordin
airy nerve-energy with apparently lin
itless capacity for work, and a dis
concerning fondness for attending tc
the ''unimportant details" himself, he
soon had number of department
heads by the. ears.
A short time after taking the oatf
of office the Governor surprised tn,
penitentiary officials by calling a
six a. m. and requesting to have
breakfast with the convicts. Now tn,
| Oregon pententiary had been gettin,
along in fairly good way with ole
and out'of-date equipment and unsan
itary buildings, but with some i'm
IproVements over old conditions Sc
cured through the efforts of Georg,
h. Chamberlain, now junior United
states Senator from Oregon, an,
Vests predecessor in the guberna
torial chair
Chamberlain was the pioneer il
prison reforms in the west He abo
ished the lock-step and the stripe,
suit. He pardoned great many me-
whose cases appealed to him as m 81
torious. But aside from that there 49,.
never been amy sustained effort L
improve penitentiary conditions. Or,
gon had all the vices in its prise
system that any other prison boosted
2 II had the "wated-cure" with its IL
geniously horrible continuance fu
, tOrturing a recalCitraut convict int