The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1922-04-28
Sau.uLRTY FOR
PRISON REFORM
Success At Atlanta Moves
Attorney General To
Seek Others.
BY w. II. Atkins.

washington. April 22.-Attorney
General Harry NJ. Daugherty has lot
of hobbies.
He likes to drag away on rusty
looking pipe. He's a pretty fair
fish erman. He turns a wicked ten
or in an impromptu barber shop
quartet. When not engrossed with
official cares he enjoys a card game,
a horse race, billiard game, or any
one OF forty other varieties Of pas
timing.
His real hobby, tho, is making
good men out of bad ones. It's not a
new hobby for him. He's been doing
it for years. Taking the helm as
head of the justice department, and
the Presidents right4bower in legal
probJ ems, Mr.. Daugherty jumped in
10 n field of activity genuinely to his
liking. Possessing human" quail
ties in a rare degree, the attorney
general within one year has extended
his humanness into the dark. recesses
of the Federal prisons.
within the federal penitentiaries
Mr.. Daugherty has introduced moral
AMI educational advantages calcu-
lated TO make real men out OF the
roayicts. so that when their terms
end they may go into different fields
of activity and again become useful
cifizens-frce from the temptation TO
repeat their old and dangerous ways.
At the three psnitentiaries main
sained by the government at Atlanta
Leayenworth and Mcneil Island. Cal.
Mr.. Daugherty has seen remarkable
results from the operation of prison
schools. In Atlanta prison over 200
5IIiterates. some native and some for
eign born, after a few months study
were able last Christmas to write in
tenigant letters to friends and rela-
lives.
Prisoners Make Good.
More than 1000 prisoners were
uaroled. and their earnings were
abont 100000. The attorney gen.
eral gave that number another
chance to make good, and they are
making good. Besides, they are con-
trimming their share to the country's
productive output-production that
would be lost if they remained in pri-
son.
The success of industrial enter
Drises at Atlanta, so conducted that
there is profit both for the govern
ment and for the prisoners them
selves on a bonus basis, according to
their output, had led Attorney Gen.
eral Daugherty to urge Congress to
mass a bill authorizing the installa-
tion of similar industrial features IN
rhe prisons at Leavenworth and NC
Nszi Island,
a cotton duck mill operated at
Atlanta prison brought net profit
10 the government of $lS5,OOo ana
earned for the prisoners in bonuses
OF two cents yard on their output
about $4,000. About $50 prisoners
are employed in the Atlanta prison
COTTON mill. The product is not sofa
in omen market, but is disposed OF
20 government departments needing
such supplies. '.'
= udjeness Pernicious.
Because of industrial methods ana
other measures to establish prison
reform, The attorney general SAID re-
Comfy thai. altho there are now $40
more inmates at the three prisons
named. the expenses of operating
them will be about $4,000 below the
amount appropriated by Congress.
Mr.. Daugherty's opinion is that
idleness is dangerous both to the idle
and 10 society.
"Idleness is pernicious," he said
..psrnicious both morally and phy-
sically to all men, especially to pris-
oners. If men in prison are to again
TN places of usefulness in society II
is imperative that constructive TABOR
he furnished them during their con-
finement.
''No record of merely material ac-
complishment can give such salts
faction as comes from the re-estab-
lishment of a man as useful mem
Der Of society. The period OF
mans Incarceration for an offense
against the state need not necessarily
DE destructive of the mans present
or future worth to society nor OF his
self-respect or imme date earning ca
r1acity. Herald.