Lower coast gazette., 1913-10-11
NATIONAL NOTES.

NATIONAL NOTES.
Twenty-one convicts escaped from
Imperial Convict Camp No. l near
Sugarland, Texas. The escape was
made possible by saving off an iron
bar. The saving was begun at 2
p. m. last Saturday and finished at
10 o'clock that night. Three Of the
convicts were recaptured. There were
sixty or more other convicts in the
room from which the twenty-one es-
capped but they did not attempt to
run away.
The japanese newspaper Jill
Shimpo" editorially announced that
Japan would reopen negotiations
with the United States to settle the
unsettled disagreement between ia
pan and the United States over the
California alien land act.
Thomas Mott Osborne, chairman of
the New York State Commission on
Prison reform spent one week in the
Auburn Prison Of the State of New
York. He did this eccentric thing
for the purpose of studying the pri-
son system. He committed misdeeds
and was put into a dungeon cell and
lay On his back from 3 p. m. of one
day to 6 o'clock the next morning. He
drank the allotted three gills of water
and ate three slices of bread. In
all of his weeks s%ojourn he vas thea
trio. Imprisonment he called a sla-
very which takes from the convict
the valuable practice of initiative and
the vital freedom Of action. When
freed he is a prisoner still. He has
lost the necessary initiative and free
dom of action.
Normal use Of the sight or speech
are forbidden by both rule and strict
custom.
The whole system aims to render
the prisoner mindless. Punishment
is not proportionate to the offense
but proportionate to the offender. The
man who speaks in the shop goes to
the dungeon. So also does the man
who tries to kill his keeper with a
crowbar. Mr.. Osborne said that his
night in the punishment cell was a
glimpse into the lowest circles of the
inferno.
The convicts are forbidden to write
more than one letter a month.
The tariff has been disposed of.
The currency bill has passed the
house. Wise ones say it will take
more than a month for it to pass or
fail in the senate. The Finance Com
mittee is disposed to hear the views
of prominent bankers and finance ex-
perts upon it's value. A strong de-
sire for a single bank with branches
under governmental control instead
of a regional reserve system of banks
is prominently evident in the pre-
liminary informal discussions. The
President wants the bill improved
but not delayed. He believes a low
ering of the cost Of living can only
come as the effect Of the combined
action of the tariff revision, the none
tary system changes and the amend
ments to the antitrust laws. The
currency question should be settled
before the December regular session
at which session Congress will at
tend to the antitrust program Of the
administration.
Henry Spencer was arrested In
Chicago, Illinois, for the murder Of
Mrs. Mildred Rexroat, a dancing
teacher, who was shot to death at
Wheaton, Ill, some weeks ago.
Spencer confessed to having muir
dered fourteen persons. His MUIR
derous. career began fourteen years
ago when he killed a man and a wom-
an. He says he killed all, but two po-
licemen, to rob. He killed the police
men to escape arrest.
He needed $500 or $500 a week
to live. "Killing was the easiest way
of making money!" he said. He said
that he neither drank nor smoked
he chewed tobacco and smoked opium.
He said,that. he took Mrs. Retreats
ringsand money after killing Her and
putting her. hsay on a railrSsaa track
where it scouhasbe mangled. He gave
the ring to d common girl he met
on the street. He said he never went
to pawnshops, that's the way people
get caught.
Many of the people he said he
murdered were reported by the po-
lice and the press to have suicided.
During the summer he haunted
summer resorts as a hotel thief and
an occasional murderer. He averaged
two jobs a week either hold ups, bur-
~Ularinc or nonrdorc