The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1914-02-03
new JERSEY MAKES TWO BIG
PROBLEMS SOLVE EACH OTHER
COL Edward Stevens Trying Experiment With Convict Camp
and Through He is Building Good Roads

ON the doorstep of a little gray hous
up on the hills Of northern New Jer
sey a man was sitting one day las
week. placidly soaking up all ne coul,
hold OF the glorious Indian SUMMED
sunshine. Two eats beside him and
pump in the little house behind hin
purred contentedly i'm unison.
The man looked healthy. happy -ant
free Not even a fence separated ia,
grass plot in front ot him from In,
| highroad which swept past on its way
to Newton. Yet there was just about
as much probability OF the pump be-
hind him getting up and strolling of
along that road as there was that the
man himself would go.
Aside from that spot there was only
one place on earth where the law said
he might he That was the peniteu
| tiary AT Trenton. The man was con-
Wet; one of thirty prisoners with
whom the state of New Jersey is eon-
Quoting an Interesting experiment.
The little gray pumphouse is one % a
group Of seven buildings. I'm the
grass plot in front Of them is "A neatly
painted sign which reads;
DEPT. or PUBLIC ROADS,
STATE OF NEW JERSEY.
LIST Division-Camp No.
That is all right for official pur-
poses. But it failed To measure ~ to
nailed another board to the corner II
the fence around an adjoining Gclu
and on this board they painted. not
quite so neatly, perhaps, but V"Iy
clearly indeed the inscription
DON'T WORRY CAMP
While the state is behind the expert
ment, there is one man who has more
To do with il than ony one else. Tnat
man is Col. Edward A. Stevens nf the
well known Castle Point" family If
lloboken. When Woodrow Wilson be-
came governor Of New Jersey he made
col Stevens. who had been his class
mate at Princeton, commissioners Of
public roads.
The road problem Of the state is a
big one because the highways are 1T
orally ridden To death by automobiles.
The prison problem is equally press
ing, FOR the penitcntiary At Trenton
is crowded far beyond it's proper ca
pacity. Don't Worry Camp is the first
step in an attempt to make these two
problems help solve each other.
Last spring the officials If Sussex
county bought five acres from far
mcr ana turned them over To the state
as the site of Camp No. /. AMI. 10y
the way, if YOU want To antagonile
everybody concerned with the project,
just refer To- the place as the convict
camp" and YOU will succeed. II there
is one word that is taboo in the whole
connection it is convict" The plar"
is the state camp" ANA those in II
are "tdc men
No Blot on the Landscape.
The house Of the farmer who sold
the land is within 700 yards of the
camp buildings. Yet neither he nor
any of the people living near has
made Il single complaint of their new
neighbors. The camp is not even 4
blot on the landscape. one of the
men, a cheerful colored person. jocu-
larry referred To by his fellows as the
landscape gardner" has graded and
seeded the front yard SO that it looks
as neat as the approach to a summer
hotel.
The men themselves cut down tail,
straight tree, painted the pole set it,
and every day hoist a big Ilag which
makes. a gay note in the picture 1t
the top of the grassy slope is the office
building where the three foremop from
the department of public roads Lave
their quarters. Back of this are the
mess hail" the clubhouse, and gev-
Cral smaller buildings. The whole
place is kept in apple-pie order, and
one might pass it hundred times
without suspecting its real character.
The flag is not the only thing in
sight that wears stripes. The men
garb is the regulation PLAN gray of
the penitentary; but i'm the daily life
the Don't Worry Camp it undCrGncs
many notifications. The man On the
pump house doorstep. for instance. was
i'm his shirt sleeves, and his prison
cap was turned visor backward 50 that
he could get the full heat If the sun
shine in his face.
Convict" was not written IN the
look of his clothes any mDrc than il
was written i'm his rudy farc and
smiling eyes And IL was the SAM
with the groups at work quarter of
mile down the road. The chief DIFF
ference between them and an ordinary
contractors gang was that these men
looked about ten times as clean as the
others generally do. An observing per-
son might have been struck by their
evident preference for gray trousers.
But aside from that popularity he
would not have noticed anything UNI
usual except their cleanliness.
There are thirty prisoners, five
guards and three foremen at Ion
Worry Camp; and the life theJ lead
there, judged by our present ideas on