Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1913-11-06
coNvlcT-EulLT RoAps.


roads have cost millions of dollars.
Then we travel westward across Loo
miles OF thickly settled country with
very few all-the-year-good-roaGs un-
til we reach Colorado, where the
| good-roads problem is being demon
strated in a way which must socn-
er or latre command the attention OF
1 all the other states. There 1000
miles of highway, ranking with the
best in the world, have already been
constructed entirely with statc-con-
vet labor. And these good roads hay
cost IA cents, which otherwise woulI
have cost 81. In other worLs, tie
money which ordinarily would have
Duilt one mile has, under the Colo
RADIO system, built seven miles.
1t was my privilege last moth to
listen to Thomas Z. lyman, warden OF
the Colorado penitentiary, who &C, a
sionally finds time to leave home
and tell the intensely interesting sto-
ry of how he has solved the ques ioI,
not only of what TO do with con' lets,
but how to reform them at the same
time He tells part of the story in
moving pictures showing his men in
citizens clothes busily at work dri.-
ling, blasting, blowing, hauling and
surfacing, in many cases, out in
the mountains, in sparsely settled dis
tricts, with every facility imaginable
for escape. But one looks in vain
for the customary guards with long
range rifle at command. No guarCs,
no shackles, no distinctive garb, abb
solutely nothing to distinguish the
convicts from their foreman, except
that the foreman rides horse. These
men work in large bodies, often sew
eral hundred; only one barrier stands
between them and escape; and 1t is
impossible for the moving picture to
show that barrier, for it is Mans
Honor. In fact, the honor system
was partly a result of the discovery
that, to efficiently guard the pris-
onors, the expense was equal to the
sal ing effected by their work, and
hence of no financial advantage. And
SO the honor system was proposed
amid plenty of predictions of failure
and very few of success.
Now as Warden lyman remar-s,
the Colorado convict is no saint, and |
about 25 per cent OF them are dan
gerous and should be confined. VI
the rs per cent some really should |
not be where they are, and al can |
be trained to better citizenship for
return to freedom, by treating them
as men. In accordance with this the
DRY. which has been confirmed in |
practice, the men who are allowed to |
go out on the work are treat d, hous-
ed and directed in their work lie |
any well-arranged railroad camp out
fit. They construct their own T. m
porary living quarters, but there are
no bolts on the doors nor bais on tie
windows. True, they all retire to
bed and arise at one time, but 50
do soldiers. The men are worked in
rural districts; they do not go to
town, and unless man breaks a
rule. he need never return to the
prison. He can serv his full term
in the open air, and when his time
expires he has become proficient in
ething-surveying, blacksmithing,
farming or other occupations tor
which there is a demand. Mt on y
that, but by earnest, faithful work OF
eight hours daily and observance OF
the rules he can reduce five-year
term one half.
During the past two years only one
man in 200 has run away; he is in
variably recaptured and must then
serve 10 years within the prison
walls. Colorado is about to put al
it's county jails under the penitenti-
airy board, when the jail prisoners
will be worked in the same way. Tue
spirit of the Colorado system is "un-
conscious reform" growing out of
the feeling that some one has con-
fidence in him. The good roads they
build and the farms they work for
their own support are a part Of the
means to the greater object
Every year, in the United States, +
$50 900 men are added to the prison
roll. Of these about 112 500 are cap
able of reform under the Colorado
plan. But from the mere stand-po MT
Of wasted production this vast army
should be employed.
The results are tremendous, fer
100 900 men represent 30,000,O0O days
york a year. If Warden lyman coui
only tell his simple story and snow
his pictures in every city and town
in the land, in 100 years we should
have 100000 miles of good roads'-
Il. H. Windsor, in the December
Mechanics Magazine.