The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-07-21

rules and regulations, and the man
ners and customs that the new war
den wanted to change when he came
to live at the penitentiary. Yet these
were details compared with the one
thing which Sanders, who is nothing
lof sentimentalist, wanted to turn
inside out.
4 Why Not Graduate a Better Man7
First of all, he could not see any
reason to treat prisoners inhumanly
He believed that this was somewhat
iout of keeping with civilized man
ners and customs. Furthermore,
cruelty and insults neither added to
nor subtracted from the punishment
Sanders believes the most punish
Dent a man gets is the punishment
OF the mind. which is made to see
more clearly. day by day, its own
wasted or perverted history, its lost
chances
| Nor could the high school principal
believe that the state gained any
thing by depriying man of his right
ito health. Aside from common de-
cency," said Sanders to me, "let us
look at these men as 500 machines
which turn out product for the state
/ / can show you on paper that there
rs money in giving them proper air,
clothes, sleep, food. and education"
Finally Sanders could not for his
life see why 500 of the population
even though segregated, should not
be made better men rather than
worse men. Salvage was his profess
sion, and said he to me. why not
try to graduate better man.
i Go ahead and answer him-you who
believe in our present penal system
found Sanders on hot afternoon
in July standing near the front porch
dof the warden's residence, collarless,
happy and Ave men who were about
him looked up as came.
They had all been discussing cary
ling on piece of repaired furniture
which had been put out on the lawn
for the finish to dry-the warden and
the five men who looked like those
who sit across the aisle from you on
the train or come to repair the leak in
the roof.
The warden was in his Joy.
I've started new department, .
said he, looking over his eyeglasses.
We are salyaging furniture Come
into my cellar and I'll show you a
yr11i So
out of scrap heap with rake. rye
found lot of the boys can be used
on this work. There goes now
ito deliver an upholstery job to Mrs.
i M, down in Fort Madison. we
are charging a little more than union
prices for all outside work of any
kind. This repair work has been a
great hit
/ These men are prisoners ?"
"of course
And that man.
! That's c. He's been here
years already for manslaughter. He's
a lifer. He goes out every afternoon
into the country to drive in nv COW.
Ha, You look surprised. Well. this
afternoon over 15o men are outside
the prison walls. They're all around.
Some are painting barns for the farm
ers eight miles out in the country,
some are dragging roads. I've got a
lot helping unload coal down there
by that siding, some are delivering
stuff-oh. all kinds of work. Guards ?
Elet's see. There are just three
guards out today and not one of them
carries a weapon
Many fair men believe. further
!! more, that, having deprived the con-
yict Of his liberty, it is unfair to de-
prive him of the results of his labor.
They believe it is bad enough to send
ia single man out of prison without
i any savings to stand between him and
his necessity to eat and have protec-
ton from the elements, but they he
4 lieve it is almost robbery of the
innocent for the state to appropriate
the earnings of conyicts upon whose
support women and children have
been and are dependent Indeed. ii
is difficult to find anywhere an hon.
} est man who will undertake to show
! that the prison contract labor system
is not empty of fairness and good
sense.
, OF course, public opinion and not
!, prison wardens must remedy this
state Of affairs. It exists in Iowa
/ and Sanders has had to make the best
| of it.
I, To every man possible, Sanders Of
, fers announcement and opportunity
to earn money for himself In the
I case Of those convicts under contract
, fair proportion having completed
! their contract task" are urged to
) work overtime" for their own gain.
J The Prisoners Run Paying Farm
, But many convicts by the terms OF
the prison contract are rejected. !,
5 Sanders has spent wakeful nights de
vising methods of turning the labor
/ Il.