Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-21


prison gives us a false feeling
i of security. We imagine that
lives and property will here
after be safe from him-forgetting
that, after he has served his term, he
may come out of prison as unflt to be
at large as when he was sent up;
and forgetting also that our pocket
books are taxed for the cost OF keeping
him behind the bars.
In prison or out. the unfit exist at
the expense of the people who do use
full work In the world. They continue
to be liabilities unless given an oppor-
tunity and an incentive to change their
ways.
For example in New York peniten-
tiary there was a. bad actor" who was
sore at everybody and everything. The
keepers could do nothing with him.
They tried him at different kinds of
work, and invariably he soldiered on
the job and stirred up discomfort
among the other prisoners. Finally, as
an incorrigible trouble-maker. he was
transferred to another institution in
the hope that it might have better
luck with him.
Laundry Had Appeal.
But his recalcitrance was unaffected
by the change; he was "agin the
to earn his salt-until one day he was
assigned as a spare hand in the laun-
CRY. For some reason the work inter-
ested him, although it was rated as
about last choice in the whole insti-
tuition. He saw that the men around
him were doing their work liStlessly
and badly: because they disliked 1t:
end that they disliked it because they
we're doing 1t listlessly and badly
c. L. to 10
might be accomplished in that laundry
by some ones really getting on the
job. The effect was magical. The
spare hand gradually reorganized the
entire department. his zeal for better
standards and more efficient ways of
doing things spreading to the other
workers. Today he is in charge of the
laundry, and it ranks as about the
best-run department of its kind in any
prison in America. Furthermore, when
he has finished serving his term and
comes out into the world again, it will
not be as a shifty-eyed jail-bird with
no means of making an honest living,
but as an industrious, highly competent
worker.
To adjust himself to life, all this
man had needed was to discover some
thing worth doing. And so it is with
thousands of malefactors who are
found a useful line of work that in
terested them.
Another instance! In a certain re-
formatory the girls were employed at
making clothes under the supervision
of forewoman who had been brought
in to instruct them. This forewoman
was not so much boss" as she was
an understanding human being. She
had been secretary of her local union.
I,oI LNA rriJ n ohcoV1n0
by her regular employers to help the
institution get its industry started. She
won the girls confidence easily and she
did all she could to help them and en-
courage them.
One day a girl asked her: Say, what
90 they do with these dresses?"
The foreWoman told her they were
being made for the inmates of the old
women's home.
The girl busted herself with her
stitching and remained silent for some
time. After while she asked permits
sion to say something to the other
girls.
Discovers Usefulness.
SAY. girls" she announced. II been
thinking about our making these dresses
for the birds down at the old women's
home We ought to make them just
as good as we can-because you can't
tell, maybe some of usll be down there
some day I think We ought to stand
by the old birds and make their dresses
the incest we can, so they'll like EN-"
She had discovered what it meant to
be of some use in the world. She had
learned without quite realizing that she
was being taught, which is the kind of
instruction that goes deepest.
In days gone by-and not so far away
at that-prisonerS were sometimes
taught with lash. Even the contract
system, whereby convict labor In GER
tain States is hired out TO individuals
or companies, has countenanced "ex-
IRENE measures" which hardly bear
inspection under the limelight. Human
beings thus exploited are not likely to
be cured of their anti-social tendencies.
When released from this legalized slav-
cry they have no hankering to be of
use to any one.
But archaic abuses are being recti-
fed. State after State has given up
the contract system. The Hawes-Cooper
bill passed by Congress during the last
session and taking effect five years from
now. will put an end to it nationally,
by forcing the State governments to
employ prisoners in industries con-
Quoted by State officials. Which means
that the 20 or 80 thousand men now
exploited by outside interests under the
obsolete system will become factory
hands employed by and working di-
rectly for the taxpayers
This reorganiza Automatically In effect
in some States. just getting under way
in others, and in prospect in still more
is the result of many years of effort
ito improve prison industries and the
status of the prison worker. State gov
errors long have grappled with the
problem and have discussed various
f,hases Of 1t at their annual governors
conferences-especia the marketing
of goods made In prisons. For exam
ple, at one such conference an enter
prising governor exhibited goods manu-
featured by prisoners in his State ana
Suggested that other States buy them.
HE stirred up some business.
No Fear Of Useless Production.
Tn another conference the Governor
IF Virginia brought out figures showing
that State and city purchasing depart
rnents in the United States are In the
market each year for more than s70O,-
600, 900 of commodities which prison
shops could manufacture, so that there
need be no fear of useless production
Al the right kinds of commodities are
Just now the governors from all parts
of the Union and Alaska and HAWAII
ere gathering in the East for this year.
meeting, which opens in New London
Conn, on Tuesday. Undoubtedly. the
subject of prison industries Will be one
If fine principal matters gone into, par
Itic1larlv in view of the previously men
kioned Hawes-Cooper legislation. which
has charted a definite course of prog
A man who helped to make this prog
ress possible will not be present. HE
S,ame is Dwight w. Morrow. In 1919
Gov. Edge of New Jersey asked Mr.
lie Nf NJ