Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1912-12-05

OF the eighty and more state and
county penitentiaries in this country,
none is more typical, even common
place, than the state prison Of Ne
braska. located at Lancaster Yet dur
ing one week of last winter it was the
stage Of a tragedy SO startling that it
compelled the attention of the entire
country A brief account of this trag-
edrS and the events leading up to it,
will throw some light on prison condi-
lions throughout the country.
At the time-March, 1912-thls
prison housed some 400 men and boys
One-third were boys under twenty-five
Fully seven-eightse had never before
been convicted of any offense-at least
SO far as known to the authorities.
One-fourth of them claimed to be in
nocent; the rest frankly admitted that
they had been properly convicted. But
| all alike were eager enough to reform.
They had learned that it does not pay
| to be at outs with the world. And
the State Of Nebraska had pledged it.
self on its part, to give them every
chance to reform; for it had recogniz-
ed, in theory at least, that the practi-
cal way to rid society Of the criminal
is not to degrade but to lift him up
in the ranks OF honest citizenship.
/ Potentially, then, there was good
will on both sides. And yet the place
ultimately became cock pit so bloody
| that all the human decencies Of our
civilization were completely submerged
| In a sea OF savagery. The story is a
| iisagreeable one, but it must be told;
| or the same driving forces which
| sIayed havoc here are at work today
in nearly every prison OF the country
and there can be no possible improve
ment until both are rooted out.
One OF these forces is the rule OF
politics; the other is the rule If the
i profit system which exploits the labor
Of the prisoners for private gain.
1.-the man in prison must work or
3eftpalone in his cell, he will go mad
But his labor is thing of value. In
many respects a convict laborer is
more desirable, from the standpoint Of
capital, than free laborer. He is al
all times completely under the control
of his master. He does not go on
strike He does not demand short
] hours or fair wages or decent shop
conditions. He is, in short, the Idea
work animal. Labor docile as thit
can produce enormous profits fol
whomever it is exploited. The prison
ers Of New York produce million dol
lars worth of goods every year which
I,are disposed OF to State and mdnici
/ pal institutions at cost. The prisoners
of Minnesota manufacture eighteen OF
i twenty million pounds of binder Irvine
annually. 1t is sold to the farmers o.
the state at a nominal profit and has
completely emancipated them from
the domination OF the, binder Irvine
trust. Prison labor has built grea
lsystems Of highways, dug great canals
drained 'swamps, reforested waste
lands.
The State Of Nebraska might have
turned the energies of it's prisoners in
to dozen channels of profit to itselt
and to them. Instead it chose to sci
them to q private contractor at 81
j cents a day. The Lee Broom and Dus
ter Company, of Lincoln, Omaha, Der
Moines and Davenport, was the con
tractor, and it found the investment q
profitable one. For an average OF 81
cents day. it got not only. the labor
OF an able-bodied man, but a factory
rent free and tax free, in which the
man might work; heat, light and pow
er whereby the man might work; anC
| .rmed guards and keepers to see thai
the man did work.
The Nebraska prison was football
IF politics. The warden had been ap
pointed to his place over the protests
Of many decent elements in the state
He was of the type Of politicians ,tc
whom $1,000 year and keep means
a snug competence. Under him was a
deputy, also political appointee, with
4 salary of 5000 year. Under the
deputy we're a score OF guards and
keepers, incredibly ignorant illiterate
and immoral beings to whom state
| ;ob at S25 or $50 month was life
goal.
The power OF these men over the
title community which they ruled was
practically absolute. The guards were
'esponsile only to the warden. The
warden was responsible only to the
Governor to whom he owed his prefer.
ment and to whom he reported, form
ally. once every two years; and to his
immediate superiors, the members OF
the board of public lands and build
Iings, which made its perfunctory round
Of the prisons at stated, and well-ad-
! vertised, occasions, and saw only what
| the warden chose to show.
The daily life Of the prison swung
from cell to shop and from shop to
cell. The shop was old and dirty. The
cell was a narrow, fetid iron cage. BY
day the prisoner fed his machine in
the broom shop monotonously and au-
tomatically, his mind free to- brood
blackly over his gray past and present.
By night his mind was free to worry
over the future. He knew that he was