East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1913-05-17

man was accompanied by four chill
dren. the youngest yet unable TO walk
and the Oldest perhaps ten years of
age. The mother and children were
clean and fairly neat, but were un-
mistakably poor in worldly wealth.
To make the story brief, it may be
said the woman was there to implore
the governor to pardon her husband
or at least parole him so he could
get to work and keep his family from
want
The mans name was given as Rich
ard Moe and after getting his identity
and prison number, the governor
| questioned the woman closely to as
certain the nature of the case. The
woman answered with considerable
hesitation and talked brokenly, being
afraid she might say something to
hurt her cause. The substance of the
story was that her husband had been
convicted in Jackson county of lar
ceny from building and was serv-
ing an indefinite sentence of from
one to Is years. The thing he had
stolen was a carpenters plane, taken
from an old building near which the
man had been working. She sought
to explain how he came to take the
plane but the governor somewhat i'm
patiently stopped her, telling her he
did not care about that end of it.
"Is he any good ?" was the next
question asked with gruff frankness.
"Of course, he is some good or !
would not want to get him out" the
woman answered with emphasis and
her tone showed astonishment at the
question There was no doubt from
her reply that in her opinion at least
the prisoner from Jackson county was
worthy.
Further questions by the governor
were as to whether the husband
drank. whether he had ever been in
any trouble before, whethr he worked
regularly and supported his family
properly. His wife declared he did
not drink, he had never been in any
trouble previously and he had always
used his earnings for meeting the
family expenses. That was why he
had been so missed by the wife and
| little ones when the strong arm of the
| law had taken him away The wo-
man explained that after her hus-
bands conviction the family had been
| left without funds in the Jackson
county town where they lived 1t
was all she could do to care for her
| four children and therefore she had
no earning power herself. She ap-
| piled to the county court for help
and the county judge offered to pay
| their fare to Portland. so as to get
rid of them. of course The woman's
parents lived in Portland and to them
the convict's family went. After stay
ing there for several months the bur-
den was proving too great upon her
fathers income and hence the trip to
the governors office. 1t was plainly
a case where a man had committed a
crime and the punishment had fallen
upon his wife and family, who had
done no wrong in the eyes of the law
After dismissing the woman and
| telling her to go see the warden al
the penitentiary, Governor West inn
mediately phoned to Warden Lawson
and told him to look up the facts and
| that if they verified the woman's story
to get the fellow a job OUTSIDE the
prison and to arrange it so that while
the man would be under prison con-
troll his wages would go to the sup
port of his family. The warden did
so and / was told afterwards that the
convict was found to have a good rep
utation inside the prison. He was a
fine worker and at the time was a
trusty and was driving team at the
asylum, though he drew no wages for
the work. When the foreman at the
asylum learned that his teamster was
to be paroled he phoned to the peni-
tertiary warden and offered to retain
him on pay. saying he was the best
| worker he had. The arrangement was
made and the Moe family reunited
once more, settled down in tent
near the plant and the prisoner is
serving out his sentence by living with
his family and earning enough mon
ev that it is no longer necessary for
| his wife and children to starve or beg
In time the majesty of the law will
be satisfied, the stolen plane viii be
avenged and Richard Moe will be
given his full freedom, though of
course he will never be able to erase
the fact that he was a convict, nor
will his wife forget it
This is cross sectional view OF
Governor Vests humane prison pol
icy for which policy he has been har-
pooned and roasted to a FRAGILE by
opponents of the administration anc
by portion of the press. Does the
foregoing justify or condemn the gov
ernor's policy? Women who have
children are the best judges for in thi:
case it was such woman who was
punished The husband never wen
hungry, nor did he have to beg.