Mexico weekly ledger., 1913-07-10
COUSIN or !. 3. BoTKIN RULES
KANSAS PRISON HUMANITY

KANSAS PRISON HUMANITY.
Lansing, Kan, July /.
Do the pepole Of Kansas want
their state penitentiary to be mere
Iy a lookup for persons who get into
trouble. or do they wish 1t to bring
out and develop the better natures OF
those persons and send them back IN
to the state as good citizens?
That is the question the Rev. ].
ID. Jerry Botkin has been asking
himself since his appointment to the
position Of warden Of the Kansas
state p~eniteptiary.
Mr.. Botkin is a cousin OF j. B..
Botkin. OF Mexico. No
Mr.. Botkin took charge Of the war
denis office at $3.50 o'clock tonight.
But before be pulled his chair up to
the desk. occupied for 4 years by
J. K. Codding. he had decided the
question.
The decision was in favor of good
citizenship. He views his work from
the humanitarian standpoint. Warden
Botkins' first endeavor will be to
send the wards in his are back to
freedom-honest and law abiding men
and women.
To Make Men His Aim.
"of course l know I cannot keep
ON OF them away from here and
other prisons" he says. but I be-
lieve l can make good men and wom-
EN- OF most OF them. IT is worth
while trying, anyway"
In his work of making the state
pententiary a reform Institution,
Warden Botkin will keep two things
uppermost in his mind: Break up
the drink habit and teach men to
like work. For the new warden has
but two to the question:
whats he in fort" He says. "He
got drunk" or HE did not work.
Liquor and Idleness the Causes.
"At least four-fifths OF the men in
this place owe their loss OF liberty to
liquor. They may or may not have
been habitual drinkers. Quite often It
is the mar who drinks only occasion
ally that liquor gets into trouble. It's
influence over him Is greater. There
lie a young man here from Wichita
who was a respected clerk in a store
there. One night he began drinking
with some other young men. He be-
came so drunk that he took a horse
and wagon and went to the store in
which he worked and stole a load Of
flour. He had great sport driving
about the city with 1t until daylight
and then he began to realize what
he had done. But IL was then too late
to take the flour back until the next
night, so he took It to his home and
hid II in the cellar. That day the
flour was discovered and he was ar
rested.
"There is another man here who
has a letter of recommendation from
Stanford White as an architect. He
was paroled not long ago and was get
ting along well. He was lost sight of
for two weeks and next heard Of at
Maryville, Mo-, drunk. He was
brought back and must serve his sen
tence.
Lack of a steady job or the indus
try to acquire and hold one accounts
for the other one-fifth OF those who
get into trouble. he says.
viii Teach Every Man a Trade.
Few busy men are criminals.
They have neither the time nor inclin
alton. I believe that work is a hab-
It, and we are goingto drill into them
here so that they will go out and
continue to work. We will teach
every man some definite line of work
"a new thing for most OF them"
But Warden Botkn will not treat ev-
cry question from the standpoint OF
a p~eace-loving minister.
"TlI be a stickler for discipline
he says. "And that will apply to tn
guards and prison officers as we'll as
- Al -.s1annua
He already has learned the names
of the baseball teams in the prison
league and their relative standing. H
takes a keen interest in their
games.
Forty Years a Minister.
The new warden has been in the
ministry for forty years and in poll
tics for twenty. He is a Demo.
crat. In 1896 he was elected con
gressman-at-large from Kansas. III
was defeated for governor by w. r
Stubs, While active in the minis
try he served several years as pre-
siding elder of the Wichita distric
the Methodist Episcopal Church.
But of all the positions I have
ever held" he said to-day, II fee
the responsibility here most. 1t give