The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-02-22


ING II. or would you clamor for an anti.
o0te. Wayhy doctors for help and din.
turb the discreet serenity OF hospital.
for succor? But the nation. made IN a,
such - you, continues Its prison nos.
trum, which Stays a million for b.ch,or.
ide Of mercurys one.
A tragic farce. that il what prison,
|! are. Enclosures Of stone and steel ar.
built and Q handful Of armed men ar,
given absolute control over several hum.
dred beings like themselves. W. AZ i,
community have erected system q,
laws which places us, as community
In the attitude Of penalizing Practice,
which we. as individuals. do not severely
condemn. Our morality, as publicly pro.
fessed, II In advance Of our morals ss
privately exercised.
When our netghhor steals or murder,
we give him the jail or the chair bu,
when you and are charged with such
deeds and see the prison or the chair IN
our near foreground we discover our'
selves to be less convinced than WE had
imagined Of the rectitude of our penal
| system. OF course then the faster wa
| make laws to punish crime and the more
| we punish criminals the more criminal,
| are there to punish. our hypIcrisy
gradually 10 revenged upon us: on, af,e,
| another, one by one, we fall into the nj,
30 virtuOusly dlgged for others
And criminal law meanwhile becomes
constantly more searching and severe in
Its provisions. seeking to prevent crime
by the singular device OF employing the
best methods for multiplying II The
victims Of it, activities are miserable
enough In jail and anguish ami die
there, and n they were not very " cked
before are furnished with every flcri,y
to become 20; but they have no, the
consolation OF feeling that their being
thus inundated on the altar of a, am.
ragged but non-existent morality Is doing
them or. anybody else any good
prominent business man was put in
cell yesterday; q political boss afl,ye,
to-day; . college graduate, a judge and
. religious fanatic are expected mex,
week. But business. politics, the four
hundred. the law and religion are no
better than they were before.
The procession becomes ever NOR
crowded. When Is II to stop? Shall we
build more prisons, enact more laws,
A leading counsel said the Other day.
Commercial crime is an efYec, and not
cause. The existing system lie 70.
sponsible. We should preyent cond.
lions that lead to crime and resor, IA
criminal courts as little as possible
And an ex-Attorney- General observed
about the same time: 81 sometime,
think that II we could repeal all ,hs
laws on our statute books n nd then w-i,s
two laws--'Fear Cod and .Loy. ,,u-
neighbor'-we would get along bn,i.r".
but he added: IF we could get th. p.o.
pie to live up to them" Yes. tina, ia
prudent stipulation. and II applies JUS,
as well to the myriad laws on our stat.
ute books" as to these two.
I CALI prisons a tragic farce and nm
sensible Of an unreality in them hu,
they are fortunately unreal only in IN,
sense that they stand for nothing "a.
tional or In line with the proper and
natural processes Of human life. Ta.y
are false and the mind sponta neoisly
reacts against fa,si,v and dom.
But here are half a million (or some
say a million) men every year who
suffer actual and real misery from ihs
falsity and many OF whom die Of IT;
that Is the tragedy Of the farce.
And the fact that this falsity, ~ n.
exists among us and has legal stsntinr
ana warrant tends to demora,ize cry
one connected with 1t and more or l.ss
the entire community. II it's m.srry
and evil were confined within the ~
cult Of Its walls we might endure it. but
1t spreads outward like a pestilence
There was a woman. the wife o,
jai.er, with a son 4 years old At hrs,
her husband had lived in a house out.
side the Jail. but latterly he had been
obliged to dwell within the jail walls.
His wife had seen and known too much
OF jails to be happy in such a Residence.
She thought Of her son growing ~ IN.
side prison walls and seeing the sq...,.o-
and daily misery Of convicts and Ni,.
Messing the cruelties OF the guards
| mere matters Of routine, but horrible
nevertheless. Her husband had come
up from the ranks in prison lie md
was an efficient officer. He had no
thought Of ever changing his occupa.
ton.
One day he left the TAIL ON business
and did not return till 1 the mex morn.
ing. Two keepers who had been lief,
In charge heard four sounds Xix, install
shots about 10 o'clock that nigh, I'M,