The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-06-11
Situation in San Quentin More
Serious Than the Authori-
ties First Supposed.
PUNISHMENT OF CHIEF
Fred Howard to Pass the Re-
mainder of His Life in Soil
tary Confinement.

SAN QUENTIN, Cal. June 10-The
state board of prison directors met to
consider tonight a far more serious sit
uation than the information vouchsafed
yesterday indicated, in connection with
the outbreak in which one convict was
shot dead and two were wounded.
The reason the prison iute mill was
shut down today is that tho board re-
ceiVed information Of plot to fire the
lute and wreck the mill,
The reason the steam was turned into
the Kitchen yesterday afternoon is that
the rioters were batterinC at the doors
of the locked cupboards in which the
long butcher knives are kept. A small
case knife fled to a stilctto point and
razor sharp on both edges was found on
the floor of the mess hall after the riot
had subsidized.
Cause of Unrest.
The board is strongly of the opinion
that the wave of agitation for more
sympathetic treatment Of prisoners
that has swept the country is msunder-
stood in filtering through the prison
walls. Warden Hoyle, who has the
name of humane prison governor, coil
ours in this belief.
Warden Hoyle said tonight that from
now on the prison discipline would be
frightened. A bridge across the interior
of the lute mill will be built tomorrow
and armed guards will patrol it,
Solitary confinement for life will be
the punishment meted out to the ring.
leader In chief of the rioters Fred
Howard is his name, a veteran Of big
break from Folsom pententiary in 1908
he escaped from the state, but later
was convicted of another crime in Colo
RADIO and sentenced to fifteen years in
Canyon City. On condition of accept.
ing life imprisonment here, he was par
doned III Colorado and brought back to
California. Twenty lesser leaders have
been singled out for confinement and
bread and water for terms ranging from
three to six months. Probably ten more
will be punished,
Too Much Reform.
''There is no question in my mind, "
said Warden Hoyle. "Ethat Fremont
Older, Donald Lowrie, Governor West
of Oregon and other prison reform agi-
tatorS are responsible for the unrest
seething In prisons Of the country today,
east and vest
Fremont Older is managing editor of
the San Francisco Bulletin, and at the
forefront or tho campaign, which was
checked Saturday, for the parole of
Abraham Rucf, former political boss Of
a San Francisco. Donald Lowrie,
formerly n San Quentin prisoner, is a
protege of Older and author Of "My
Life In Prison. -
But it was On Governor West that
Hoyle centered his attack, in which
mem bers of the state prison board who
overheard him concurred.
West Responsible.
Governor Wcst,' said Hoyle, "more
than any other man on the Pacific
coast, at least, is responsible by reason
OF his high position for the unrest in
American prisons, although Baker of
Nevada and others have their share to
bear.
Warden Ray Baker recently was dis
missed by Governor Oddic, Three prls-
oners broke Jail shortly afterward.
"We recently received two of Cover"
nor West IS parole men," Hoyle con
tinucd, "And we have others here
now. How DO [ think his system works
in his own peuiteutiary? L am not per-
haps in position to Judge, but / know
he has men out buying new rifles right
now