South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-12-29
Croquet VS..
Treadn1jHs
Proper Use of Liberty is
Learned Only BY Hav-
ing Liberty.
BY HeIcn RIM Robinson.

by ntlt0 IliE hoDlllSOn.
Not long ago 1 visited an eastern
prison for women.
AS it happened. 1 was admitted just
in time TO see the inmates taking their
daily half-hour recreation in the
prison yard.
ON four sides were high walls Of
stone and brick; in the center. a de-
;ected grass plot. And around and
around this narrow plot women were
marching in treadmill procession,
dumbly, abjectly, with folded arms and
a curious shutting pace. due not 50
much to prison discipline, perhaps, as
TO the fact that their shoes were
shaped like hams.
AS it happened, also. last month 1
reached the wOmenS department Oh
the Colorado state pen.tentiary at
Canon City during the recreation Pc
rioj of the inmates.
Vines with brilliant autumn foliage
decked like banners the gray stone
walls OF the dollhouse, and around II
some hardy flowers were still bloom
ing, though it was late November. For
Canon City is sheltered from cold
winds and nestles close to the sun.
The afternoon dusk was gathering.
There is the woman's recreation
field and croquet ground said War
den lyman, pointing to Il wide green
space close under the windows of the
dollhouse, and yet with suggestion
of privacy about it.
A croquet ground at a prison!
remem bered that eastern treadmill
and moved nearer.
Four cOlOred women conNicts were
playing croquet, with a merry click
ing of balls and juicy smokers of
laughter.
Good" cried Warden lyman and l
together as one of the players made
lucky shot.
She was a strapping big creature,
and as she turned toward us, beaming
responsibility, her full, round black
face wrapped about with a neecy
white crocheted scarf, suggested moth
ing so much as a sable cloud showing
it's silver lining at the edges.
Now, all the women prisoners at
Canon City do not spend their recre-
alton period playing croquct and not
everything about that eastern prison
was so sodden and senseless as its
recreation"
Yet none the less, just as scientists
can-so they Say-recOnstruct pre-
historic mons, CT from single FOSSIL
vertebra, so two distinct prison sys-
TENS we're disclosed by that eastern
0lu NAAeLN DeeAACAA 49, oNA-'~
of croquet.
have nothing TO say about those
prison wardens whC still hold TO the
stupid theory of punishment. God
made them, but you will nowhere
read that He pronounced them good.
Warden tom" lyman and those who
hold with him are quite as far from
such men as they are from certain
other mild-minded people who stew
in a muddling mass of sentimentallty
whenever the word prison is men
toned.
lyman believes that men and women
who have broken the law are sent TO
prison, primarily, in order that they
may learn to live under the law. To
learn this lesson while they are be-
hind penitentiary walls they must be
placed under conditions as much as
possible like those of society outside
the walls.
That is the theory of Tom Tynan's
honor and trust" system-whether
at the prison ranches, the convict road
camps or during recreation hour at
the women's department.
COnVicts must be prepared Tor tree-
dom by the largest possible measure
of individual freedom. In other words
to write for a moment like pen
must be given chance
TO develop moral initiative.
IL is plain enough, then, returning
to our symbols, that il is easier TO
learn practical farming in an airshlp |
than TO acquire moral initiative at /
prison treadmill.
But anyone who has ever played |
croquet knows that game offers com I
plete course in moral initiative.