The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-06-28
This is being struggled out.

This is being struggled out.
MOT so long ago, l read about the Ohio Pen
" in your columns and wondered if you would
like to know the conditions in so-called open"
Pen under a so-called humanitarian warden.
There are many like myself here: former toll
ers and craftsmen who felt the economic pinch
and tried to lake back part of what we had
created We would like to have our brother
toilers know that we are not the beasts that
the "gody" and the 100 per cent Americans
have depicted.
There are degenerates, stool-pigeons and in
sensate brutes here, of course, but, there are
also family men who would have achieved
happier destiny under more equitable social
system.
There is no minimizing or exaggerating in
the following account and though | cannot
hold the warden here wholly responsible for
conditions, still, it is only Just that l should
sum up his personal traits, briefly, before 60
ing on. He is a soft-spoken man of magnetic
personality and master of duplicity. pub
licity hound who Graves adulation.
Our warden does not have much personal
courage-he leaves the dirty work to his state
cop deputy: brutalized thug like all of his
kind, who would give all of us inmates taste
of hell if 1T were not for restraining factors
beyond his control This demented animal
boasts of fourth grade schooling and a man.
iacal hatred of enlightened aggressive work
ers. The inmates call him Horse Face"
Our parole agent is Sunday-school teacher
whose father stole funds left under his guard
ianshp for crippled orphan. This fellow abb
solutey will not recommend parole for
family man in for first offense. He is more
liberal to the "repeaters" because he knows
that they will be back, and, keeping prisoners
is one of the juiciest gratis in the U. S.
The assistant parole agent is an ex-State
copper who shot an innocent worker to death
from behind and in the ensuing stink was sent
to a more lucrative position here at the Pen.
He goes to the death house at Rockview on
Monday mornings to strap the Sacrifices" in
the electric chair
Our mail censor is an ex-marine who makes
triple salary by smuggling in narcotics and
other contraband. He goes to the wives of
some of the convicts and tells them that if
they want to "put over" to him, he will see
that hubby gets a "break" on his mailing
privilege. One wife complained to the govern
ment postal inspector in Pittsburgh, here, and
also to the warden, but, the censor has so
much on the other officials that he has to
be retained at all COSTS
the same tactics but one woman threatened
to crown him with an intimate bedroom utensil
and our worthy professor has gone back to
pederasty and sodomy.
We have a husky, red-faced chaplain here
who went South for his health last year while
the flu epidemic raging in this prison
and he did not return until Jehovah's play
fulness had spent itself He is our library
censor, too, and he would have a fit if he
knew that the Daily Worker was getting past
his big, red Presbyterian nose.
The officers are ex-coppers or bar flies who
are not long on sand" when there are any
fireworks here, they push buttons and hide
out until the sheriffs, county and city dicks,
coppers, American Legionnaires national
guards, state cops, boy scouts and the other
100 per centers get here. 1.-TWO screws" were
killed here few years ago.
Our steward weighs close to four hundred
pounds (this sounds like an exaggeration but
you investigated and is the personifica-
ton of all hogs rolled into one. He gets here
at ten in the morning and eats three break
fasts, one in his office, one in the officers cafe
terra and one in the hospital kitchen Even
this swine is ashamed to eat all he can at one
place. An dali this before the eyes of con-
victs who will never get one clean, wholesome,
satisfying meal as long as they are here.
The state issues one pair of foot-deformers
and one pair of coole pants each six months
our worthy steward breaks down and cries if
you come back one day before the six months
is up. (He issues the clothing).
The prison board numbers some of our best
mionaires; of them is the head of
chain of drug stores that defraud the sick