The Washington times., 1925-08-03

conquer that lire, the convict ire
men crawling in through the
smoke with hose and sticking to
It like veterans. When one group
came out, wet, black; and choking,
another group took up the battle.
Without the prisoners work that
night, the kitchen, mess hall, and
chapel would have been destroyed.
Yet there were many outside
scoffers at the self-government
system, and today, notwithstand-
ing conclusive proofs. that men
given responsibilities are made
stronger and better thereby, these
scoffers remain, and gain more at
tention than those who have given
the matter years Of close study I
sometimes think it is the willing
ness on the part of the public to
believe the worst of the wrong
doer that drives men back to evil
ways after they have paid prison
penalties. / know, in my own
case. down through the years, that
the advocacy OF more punish
ment'' for prisoners, INDUCED IN
by many newspaper editors, has
been source of encouragement
to me, making me feel that the
sacrifice of my own life and pri-
acywhere I would not have
BECOME prominent, and might
therefore never have been pulled
down-has been a big price to pay
for others.
I found the men at Sing Sing
eager to do right, anxious to bet.
ter themselves. and surprisingly
imbued with that principle Of
group preservation upon which
our civilization stands.
CHAPTER xxx
Osborne. as I have said. re-
ceived many invitations 20 lee
ture on prison matters. Several
times, when the requests came
from what seemed important or
CARNATIONS where an exposition
of the new policies might be fruit
fuI Of cooperation, he accepted
Sometimes he asked me to go for
him.
On one occasion, he was def
nitely scheduled to appear on a
three days program Of the chari-
table and civic federation for
North Carolina, but found at the
last moment that he could not
make the trip. went to Raleigh
in his stead, and those in charge
of the conference were very much
disappointed at the substitution.
OF course they were justified in
feeling that way, and even in
showing their disappointment in
my presence realized that-but
It piqued me, nevertheless, and
when my turn came on the sec
ond day of the gathering to speak
In osborne's place, his name be-
ing on the printed programs, I
determined to Guido myself and
make the audience "sit up and
take notice"
I-felt pretty much the same as :
I had felt the night my friend
John D. Barry had herded me to
that meeting in Pasadena some
years before. when. after going
all day without food, made one
of the best speeches of my life.
At Raleigh I duplicated that
effort. I painted a vivid picture
OF the old prison system, with It's
torture chambers, its vile food, its
poor sanitation, its apathy toward
the building up of character in
the offender, and then drew z
graphic contrast as presented by
the new methods being put into
practice at Sing Sing and An.
burn.
Half of Prisoners on Farm
The response was gratifying,
and the Raleigh newspapers
printed my address in detail.
wanted to remain over an extra
day at Raleigh, because William
Jennings Bryan, whom I had
never heard speak, was scheduled
to appear on the same platform,
before the same gathering, but
I had agreed to get back prompt
~ to Sing Sing.
After my speech, however,
several Of those in the audience
came forward with invitations to
lunch. and to see the city.
/ accepted an invitation to visit
the North Carolina State prison,
and spent the better part of that
afternoon at that institution. I
learned that more than one-half
of the prisoners were out on
farms. some distance away. The
prison itself seemed modern, COM
pared to others l had visited, but
I knew how impossible it was for
a prison visitor to gain any real
conception of what really went
on, and / did not form any false
conclusions about the place be-
cause the cells were clean and
the tin pans shiny.
For all I knew there might be
a dozen men undergoing torture
off in some obscure dungeon.
had seen Committees" from
Sha IaoieIaf,,ra xyisff Con Quentin