The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1922-09-08
VIVID PICTURES
Of SLAVERY IN
PENITENTIARY
Kate Richards 0'Hare Says
Convicts Treated Worse
Than ChatteI Serfs

polis.-That it has bec'me q
crime to believe in the constitution OF |
the United States ard the Tea Com |
mandments and that slavery exists TO-
day in prisons worse than the negro |
slavery before the Civil war, were ac-
cusations made by Kate Richards |
O'Hare. released some time ago from |
the federal prison at Jefferson City, |
Mo. who recently addressed large
gathering in the auditorium here.
Mrs. O'Hare pointed out that she
was sentenced TO five years in prison
for daring to express an opinion.
and. although her innocence of the
| charge framed against her has been
proved and she has been released from
prison, her. rights of citizenship and
voting have not been restored.
Principles Can't Be Jailed.
81 ain not a martyr. | didn't go to
prison because I had to but to be true
| to my principles and ideals. You can
send me to prison but you can't send
/ the principles of cooperation TO prison
Nor can a Judge in Minneapolis jail
the principles Of organized labor
Truth can not be locked in cell,
said Mrs O'Hare.
Mrs. O'Hare declared that she was
not speaking for herself alone. Young,
innocent girls are sent to these cess
pools of degradation, one for c1rcular-
| ing leaflets on how the constitution
was violated in sending troops to Rus
STA when no war had been declared;
another. an 1S-year-old girl, for put
ting I'D a poster, Thou shalt not kill
An old woman was sentenced because
she had stated that the Americans did
not make as good dye, as the Germans.
Pleads for Free Speech.
'T will not rest until Eugene Debs
and all political prisoners in the Unit
ed States are free and the constitu-
tional rights of free speech. restored
Mrs. O'Hare avowed in describing the
conditions Of prisoners as worse than
slavery and as investing the world
with disease.
81 was sold to the Jefferson City
prison because ii bid lowest for my
keep" said Mrs. O'Hare II was sold
again to an overall manufacturer for
whom I was forced to make IS jackets
a day under the command Of an ignor-
! ant. brutal boy, who had power to
! punish unto death the slaves in his
charge. Prisons are the worst sweat
shops in existence and the prison con
tractor rockets the profits"
. Scores Prison Punishment.
2 punishments administered to prison
4 ers. as described by Mrs. O'Hare, in
t clude flogging, smuggling, deprivation OF
meals. confinement in "the dungeon
and "other punishments SO degrading
and loathsome, involving sex perver
sion. that there are no words to tel
y about them. Punishments were onl,
for one purpose-to wiring more prof
It's out Of convict labor, not recon
% struction or reformation" she de
. c1ared.
. Condemning the prisons as cesspool
;. without rudimentary sanitation, sh
told of hundreds Of women, free o
disease. forced to lathe in tubs use'
t. by women covered with sores iron
n venereal diseases.
e innocent Children Exposed.
II "CIothing for children, sold all owe
he the United States are made by thes
n. diseased women who cough and wip
their mouths with them," said Mr.:
O'Hare, who added that prison-mad
garments are not recognizable, as Il
oels Of firms all over the country ar
- sewed into them Tile only GARNER
~ cot prison-made is one with uniG
% label" Mrs. O'Hare said.
Mrs. O'Hare spoke for the recon
struction OF. prisons into hospitals
= "Crime is only the result of environ
ment and every vice in crimdnt
merely virtue perverted. The wa
to meet the problem is to reconstruf
the social system so as to develop tn
good in people, not the bad" Mr.
/ O'Hare concluded in urging war upo
| profteers and ballot action to pr
| vent bullet action.