The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1912-08-08
GOVERNOR WEST PUTS
PRISONERS ON HONOR
Half the Convicts In Oregon
Prison Go About Their Work
Unguarded.

N'N fc''S ~
states tina have turned their statute
tai legislation" has extended her policy
Of trusting the people beyond the
ranks of those who have retained the
qualifications of citizenship. Governor
West is trying to show that convicts,
as we'll as free men, are worthy of faith
in Oregon.
An example OF Governor Vests
methods is provided by this telephone
conversation in which he recently en-
gagged, quoted by Jennings Sutor in an
article in the Pacific Monthly:
Hello, penitentiary? This is West
speaking. Send S6l5 up to the capitol.
l want to see him in my Office
But. governor came the troubled
voice of the warden, I've no guard to
send now-they are all busy. I'll send
him down this afternoon when 1 can
get some one to go with him.
NO, you won't Tel him to get on
the car and get off at the capitol
alone? Why. he's n of the worst
men We've got. He's a life termer. I
don't dare do it, governor
Governor Takes Responsibility.
TIL AXE the responsibility. Send
him along said the governor of Ore
gon.
So they called 3615 from the shoe
shops, where he vas at work helping
to turn out the heavy black footwear
h a the 400 odd men in the Salem in
stitution use. told him to clean up,
and gave him his carfare for the trip
into town.
I'm not going alone?' he asked of
the warden in as surprised a tone as
hat official had used to the governor,
a few minutes before.
That's ORDERS said Warden Curtis.
And 1918 walked down the steps,
along the path where the roses and the
brave hollyhOcks try their best to over
come the grim background of the tur-
reted red brick prison, and by the aid
of the jerkY little trolley that runs from
the penitentiary into the city of Salem
proper he came to the capitol build
ing.
1T had beer eight years since he had
In that time he hadn't proved a model
prisoner. He had worked hard, it's
true; he had a natural aptitude for me-
chanics that easily ave him the lead
in the shops. But he had also used his
ingenuity in trying to escape the bar
riers that man and the law had built
around him, the last most successfully.
First Who Had Trusted Him.
How'd you enjoy the trip the
governor asked.
His visitor eyed him for a minute
neither was much in the mood for jok-
ing-and replied that it was a novelty.
Now. you're In Tor life, a muir
tried to get away before. Why didn't
you this time? How do you know I
didn't e for you to give you a
chance to skip
mo. 3615 hesitated a minute or two
before answering.
sFyyv-11 TIL An ~
tried it before. This would have been a
pipe for sure. But it's the first time
since I can remember that a mans
trusted me. 1 couldn't throw you
down.
".All right said West, go out and
see the town for an hour and then
go back to the warden
H did. He went back to work and
stayed with his job for a week, when
another came to call on the
governor. He Went, visited a while,
and went back to the penitentiary and
to work again. The third time his
curiosity was relieved.
IN tell you what I want you to
do said the governor. Our shoe shop
is In a bad a We make scarcely
enough to supply the men in the prison,
They're poor shoes at that. We ought
to manufacture shoes enough to fs o u
every person IN these state institutions
around here. There's no reason why
you boys shouldn't be making shoes
for this entire lot, excepting that your
machinery is old fashioned and worn
out. Take some of the money you have
saved up and go down to Portland
where there are shoe factories, see
what machinery we need, and how we
can improve our shops, and come bach
and tell me about it. The state will
take care of your expenses
Paroled and a Good Citizen.
THE convict wen to Portland thai
afternoon. It so happened that it wa.
the week of PorIland's annual Rost
festival. The streets were gay witt
bunting and decorations, bands and pa
rades.
st must have been q strange sigh
for the man who a spent the las
eight years in prison. Out at the avia,
ton field ~aeroplanes We're flying
Everywhere the carnival spirit hat
play. Tut 3615 went to the shoe fac
tories, examined the types of machin.
cry, spent two days and two night.
In the city, and went back &c the gov.
ernor with the information that he hat
learned much, but hat the most mod
ern plant to be found was at Orego,
City. Should he go there and see that
too?
Governor West told him to find gu
just h the prison needed, ane
when he u out, to order it. Sc h,
went to Oregon City. studied the ma
chinery there, placed an order for tn,
state of Oregon and returned to Salem
He has been paroled since, and i.
working honestly at the employment
n governor secured for him. He wa.
n prophet of the new order of thing
that has resulted in so per cent of til,
convicts of that state being trustee
to go about their work outside tn,
prison walls without a guard to watcl
them"