Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-10-16
GuMoUR ADVOCATES THE FARM
Tells of His Successful Experiment
at Toronto, Canada.
GIVES WORK AND FRESH AIR
Mrs Booth BeSpeaks Better Treat
ment for Released Prisoners.
SAYS he WILL MAKE GOOD
Biahop Then Urges Attention to
Crime Prevention and DR.. Hen
detson says Deliver Prison
from Politics

]
Bishop Then Of lincoln, Maud Balllng-
ton Booth of the Volunteers of America:
Prof. Charles Il. Henderson, Of the Uni
versity Of Chicago, and !. T.. Gnmour,
warden Of the government prison at
Toronto. Canada; discussed the problem
Of the criminal before several thousand
persons gathered Sunday afternoon at
the mass meeting at the Auditorium OF
the National Prison congress.
Warden Gilmour told OF his experiments
in placing prisoners on q farm
The American Prison congress has
busied itself in the past mainly with the
indeterminate sentence and parole" he
said. Now outdoor employment for de-
linquents is the great new question loom
ing over the horizon.
IF we take a man out of the shop and
out Of the cell and put him at work
in the fresh air, we build him up physi-
oally, which is indispensable 81 we are
to build him up mentally and morally.
Puts Prisoners on Farm.
AT the Central prison, Toronto. we
are experimenting with a farm of $40
acres. I have taken there between 800
and 900 men and 1 have failed with only
three out of 100 Probation and sus.
pended sentence has failed with them but
we are going to give them one moro
chance TO make good without bolts and
bars. rhre isn't a bolt or a bar or a
gun on the farm.
IT have asked them the difference be-
tween a prisoner In the city and on the
farm and they ali say It is getting away
from that cell
II don't believe a man can spend six
months in q prison cell and ever be the
same man again. II has a hardening
effect that is impossible TO shake off.
II don't like the word criminal The
majority OF our prison population are not
Criminal so much as they are product
Of environment"
Maud Ballington Booth endeavored to
give her hearers an appreciation of the
view point of the prisoner while within
the prison walls and on the day OF leav.
ms them aud incidentally she took a
few shots" at things as they are, some
OF which ware:
| II wish that those who refer to the
prisoners as degeneraoes ana those who
talk of the shape Of their heads might
get good stiff terms in prison themselves.
III there's hope for a millionaire.
there's hope for convict II there's
hope tor politician, thAre's hope for
convict
"A legal penalty should be placed on
any reference to a prisoners past Life
after he is released.
Against Present Convict System.
Let US insist upon the right Of the
prisoner, while within the prison walls,
to earn bread for his wife and family at
home. No state has right to profit by
the work OF its prisoners.
Take the prisons out Of politics Dis
aster will follow the removal OF a trained
warden TO make room for an enexperi-
enoed one, simply because one political
party happens 20 have defeated the
other"
Mrs Booth said she had found posi-
tons for many former prisoners, after
testing their worth on farms of the
Volunteers, and all of them had made
good. She spoke OF seven men of big
business in Chicago who had given re-
sponsible positions to a number of her
boys and none Of them had had cause
to regret it, Some OF the boys have be-
come Department MANAGERS.
Religion Is the bast thing in the world
to brace up a man just leaving prison,
she said; he may feel that his old habits
have such a hold on him that he cannot
succeed, but IL he can be interested in
religion, the new interest VIII occupy his
mind ana crowd out the old habits and
evil thoughts.
Then Says Prevent Crime.
Bishop Then also emphasized the
power of religion in the regeneration OF
! criminals They are often so hardened,
he said, such strangers to au ennobling
sentiments and emotions, so obsessed
with the idea that all men are against
them, that the only chance anyone stands
of gaining their confidence Is through
religion
The bishop said the idea that men who
are TO make the laws should specially fit
themselves for their work should be
moro general. In the past, he said, the
public has not demanded that its law
makers have any special preparation for
lswnnaldng rhs speaker dwelt on the
idea that prevention is better than cure
and asserted that II Is the publics duty
to eliminate the evil conditions that cause
crime
IN stuhyhs the cause OF crime said
the bishop don't stop when you have
learned that the nature OF habitations in
) the sluns is the cause OF crime, GO
further ana get after the man who owns
those houses, no matter who he is
When you have learned that a mer-
chant prince is paving his girl employees
wages too small to properly elothe and
feed them call that merchant before the
bar Of justice.
Above all things the public should de-
mand decent environment for all chill
drsn. Environment. more than heredlty.
moulds the individuals life"
That public opinion should and will
Continued on Second Page)