The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-02-01
By TOM JOHNSON.

By TOM JOHNSON.
"THE toughest joint in the country to pull
time in" That is what the old timers with
the scars of half dozen pens scared deep in
their grey faces, tell you when you first pull
into the Ohio State Penitentiary at Columbus.
And take it from one who knows, they are not
far wrong.
Charlie Guynn and l were brought down from
Belmont County on December 18th to do 5 to
10 years in the Ohio Penn, for the crime of
being Communists and attempting to hold
demonstration against war IN Martins Ferry
last August. Warden Thomas, typical prod
uct of capitalism's penal system himself, met
US at the big gate.
Boys he said, 81 want to give you tip
before you go in You have political ideas
different than mine and different than most
of us have. If you are wise you'll keep them
to yourselves. If you start any agitation in
here you'll damn soon find out that we can
get pretty tough Also there are over 600 ex-
service men in here, and if you talk against
the government in here one of them may take
a notion to punch you in the nose. That's ALL"
Such was our introduction to the Ohio Peni-
tertiary.
We were Immediately separated, and that
night as / marched to my cell | found that
8 ex-soldiers had been assigned me as cell
mates.
As soon as we were locked in our little IL
by IA cell, one of my cell mates told me that
he and the other two boys had been called down
to the Deputy Warden's office the day before
and told that they were to cell with wild Boil
shevik, and that they were to do their best to
show me the error of my ways and to "Amer-
icanize' me. Quite evidently the "punch on
the nose" was to come early if the Warden
could maneuver it.
Unfortunately for the Warden's plans for my
Characterization" my ex-sodier cell mates,
two of them wounded in France, and then kick
ed out of the army with less than 500 each
and no job in sight, had been thoroly disillu-
stoned with American prosperity" In no time
at ALL these boys, at the same time products
and victims of capitalist exploitation, were ask
ing me if the Communist Party would accept
them Is members on their release from prison.
"a punch on the nose" the Warden had
said. doubt if any prisonever ever had the
unquestioned sympathy and admiration of the
other prisoners which Charlie and had Our
first week behind the walls saw US receive close
to score of notes-"ktes" they are called
in prison sang-from fellow convicts, con-
graduating US on our fight against American
capitalism and pledging solidarity in the fight.
And each one of these notes was passed
or delivered to use at the risk of the writer
or those who delivered it, being thrown in
the "hole" SOLITARY confinement in the dun
geon on bread and water) for week or more,
if they were caught. Gifts of tobacco Ia pre-
cious commodity in PRISON. magazines, etc,
came to us unsolicited
And small wonder that the best Of the pris-
oners were with us. Most of them workers,
if their experiences on the outside had not in
stilled in them hatred for the capitalist social
SYSTEM the brutal treatment within the walls
completed the process. For brutality is the
keynote of the Ohio Penitentiary. Guards
speak only to curse, and as often as not to
brutally club into Inconsistencies some luck
less convict who has been guilty of the most
minor infraction of prison rules.
On the otheThand, if you are caught taking