The New York herald., 1922-01-30

make conditions in this country favor
able for the removal of every prisoner
from every Federal penitentiary forth
with.
with provision for the employment
OF these men i would risk the imme-
diate result to society. l would release
every convict that Is doing time. The
harm that might come to society from
such an act is not to be compared with
the infinite injustice society is now do
ing itself and these imprisoned human
beings by caging them as IL they were
animals and doing all in its power to
reduce them to the animal state.
II want to go on record right here
and now with the prediction that within
another twenty-five years there will
not be in existence in this country such
hell-hole as a penitentiary. There
never was and there never will be such
thing as a criminal class.
THE men l mingled with. day and
night at the Atlanta prison will COM
pare on the average with any like
number on the outside in point of char
acter. intelligence and good citizenship.
From the earliest ages there has been a
prison problem. The ancients had their
bastiles and their dungeons. 1t has re-
from the Inquisition to the Injunction.
Forty years of observation of the
conditions surrounding the unfortunate
shows the startling result that in nine
cases out of ten it is poverty that is
penalized.
Charges Prison Brutality.
"I do not wish to put myself in the
position of one who sits in judgment,
continued Debs. II do know this, and
that Is you cannot reform an. evildoer
by Furnishing him with brutality and
humiliation. Our peniten tiaries to-day
are flat failures when 1t comes right
down to reforming a man. There were
1900 prisoners at Atlanta when I was
there. Was there one of those prisoners
permitted to speak to a jail guard? Is
that method of punishment degrading
Can you punish a man and brutalize
prisoner into better human being?
1T is this degradation of the poor in
prisons that it responsible for practi-
cally nearly all of our crime. What Is
more degrading to the prisoners of our
Federal prisons than to be compelled
to wear their numbers on their shirt
tails? Consider that Does this form OF
humiliation produce a better citizen
when his time Is up? Ninety-five per
cent. of our cases in the criminal courts
and an equal percentage of the in
mates of our jails are there as a result
of poverty. That is the poverty would
correct, nor is it difficult.
Would Substitute Restraint
Crime can be reduced 70 per cent if
the theory of restraint Is put into prac-
tice instead OF punishment. Judge not
lest ye be judged fits the case of lot
of these so-called humane judges who
are passing judgment on the wrong
doers. The majority of our judges to-
day are creatures of political prefer
ment some of them holding down two
and three jobs on the side. How many
Of these distinguished jurists can per-
NIT themselves to sit in judgment is
beyond my powers Of reasoning.
How do they know the springs OF
action, the hereditary taints, the bitter
contributing circumstances, which may
have led men to do wrong-how can
they know all those things so accurately
as to be warranted In summary SEN
fencing the wrongdoer to punishment?
The theory upon which our courts levy
toll upon the law breakers is builded
upon the Mosaic law-an eye for an
eye, and q tooth for a tooth. This doc
trine of punishment instead OF stopping
crime is actually increasing 1t.
THE American prison of to-day is
making mankind worse. You cannot
diminish crime by lashing prisoners.
sentencing them to life imprisonment OF
electrocuting them. Find out the motive
for crime and solve the problem in d
human manner. Crime can be stopped
by changing our prison conditions just
as you reduce Ignorance by increasing
education. The best wardens this couu-
try has ever known will verify that.
Favors Farm Treatment. n
Instead of penitertIaries and prisona
I would have farms, asylums and hos
pitfalls for the education and cune OF
wrongdoers. There should be no ex'
ternal sign of q prison about these in
stitutions. The warden should receivs
a higher salary than any university
president in the land. The reason FOL
the salary is simple. The college mead
Is dealing with normal beings. pre-
sumably; the warden with abnorna,s
and subnormals. and society Is ever,
bit as interested IN their restoration as
in the education OF the norrnsis. and Il
should be. There is no mote vital ques-
ton In the country to-day.
Twenty centuries ESQ there a-.-sais'i
upon this tearth one WhCfx1 we fnoW IS
the Prince of Pesee. ne issued a corn
mand in which besisve he said 'Losa
one another He cspouscd the Gauss
of the suffering poor and the poor
heard Him gladly. n was not long be-
fore lie aroused the ill-will and ths
hatred of the usurers. the money
changers. the profiteers. the higl
priests. the lawyers. the judges, the
merchants, the banlsers-in a word, tn
ruling class.
They said of Him just what the rul-
ing class says Of the Socialist to-day
He is preaching dangerous doctrine
He is melting the common rabble. HI
is a menace to peacs and order And
they had Him arraigned, tried, con.
victed, condemned. This has been tha
tragic history. of the race. In the an
cbent world Socrates sought to teach
some new truths TO the people and they
made him drink the fatal hemlock. II
has been true all along the track o
ages.
DepIores Prophets' Fate.
THE men and women who have bser
In advance, who have had new ideas
pau fdeafz wba have had fba col,ra pe