Potosi journal. (Potosi, Mo.) 1894-1929, 1912-01-17
The Anti-Clemency Cry.

| The attack upon Governor Had
ley for generosity in the matter
of pardOns for prisoners is a fine
example of cheap and nasty Mis-
souri, Democratic politics. From
the day of his inauguration up to
the first of this year, Governor
Hadley has paroled three hun
dred and seventy-eight inmates
of the penitentiary and revoked
in all twenty one paroles, four
of which were issued by Cover
nor Folk. That the system is
good one is shown by the fact
that Of the three hundred and
seventy-eight granted. on | y
seventeen were shown to be mis-
takes, The Missouri peniten
tiary is packed with prisoners,
most of them no worse than
many outside. A full prison is
not a good advertisement for the
state. no matter how much
of a good thing it may be for the
contractors who buy prison labor
cheap and speed it up and sell its
product dear. That Governor
does his duty who seeks to empty
the prison, to let men out of hell.
Prisons mar. not make, men.
Any and every excuse should
be seized to let out the men who
give even the faintest promise of
living decent lives. The most
damnable thing l know is a
crowded prison run at a profit,
such as the Democrats of Mis-
souri, used to boast Of Governor
Hadley is being attacked for that
for which he should be praised,
for giving gunhappy human beings
a chance His record of pardons
/ is that of a man who knows that
the prison is a plague spot that
poisons life rather than purities
lit. What man looking in his own
heart, can clamor for full prisons
and a barring of the gates of
mercy: And what syphilitic
souls those folks must have who
lcondemn the Governor for par
IdOns that the conduct of the
| pardoned has fully justified! l
wish the paroles had been 073
rather than 37S, and that each
had been issued earlier than it
| was. Some bad men have been
Ilet out, but the assumption that
because man has landed in the
penitentiary he ought to stay
There, is an abomination. Most
of the men in the penitentiary
ought not to be there; they have
been bullied and cajoled into
pleading guilty or have been rail
roaded there because they had
no money to fight. Most of the
men in the penitentiary are but
the victims of a spirit of adven-
ture. or of an environment in
, which their minds grew twisted
The penitentiary twists their
minds and hardens their hearts
the more. Let the prisoner &C
free whenever there is the least
excuse for freeing him. Parole
| the convicted man without i'm
prisoning him whenever possible
keep the prisons as nearly empty
as possible. They are tit places
only for the morally insane, not
for any one with a particle OF
/ soul. not even the guards who
now watch the inmates. Al
honor to Governor Hadley fol
his paroles: they are not alone
mercy, they are justice. The
Governor critics are simply IA
! pack of Democratic peanut poll
ticians who do not even know
, that their action only shows
Hadley as d man of progressive
social idealism and is calculated
not only not to injure him, but tt
make him, possibly, the mex
: United States senator from Mis-
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