The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-05-06
BY WALTER d. HICKMAN

Inc.
BY WALTER ID. HICKMAN
A FTER reading Twenty Thou
IA sand Years in Sing Sing" by
Warden Lewis E. Lawes, can real
ize why the publishers, Ray Ions
and Richard r. Smith, Inc, are Sc
enthusiastic over II.
The book gets its strange name
from the fact that in Sing Sing nov
are $500 human beings serving g
total OF twenty thousand years.
Am convinced that Warden Lawe'
IN the twelve years he has been al
Sing Sing has made the prison q
better place TO live in.
When LaWes became warden oil
Sing Sing in 1920, that prison wa:
in bad condition, as the prison
ers were running the prison through
the Mutual Welfare League, which
had degenerated into a spoils sys.
tenn.
Lawes proves that he has cor
rected that and he does not brag
about it. He simply proves it and
plenty of proof is there, even from
the inmates themselves.
In making the men fit to be re-
leased from prison, Lawes uses the
scientific method with the use OF
doctors, scientists, educators as well
as hard labor.
Lawes has made Sing Sing an
educational institution bound to-
gether by rules and discipline. And
in twelve years his System" has
made him the greatest warden OF
modern times.
The publishers claim that no
ghost writer was used to set down
the opinions and facts of Warden
Lewis as he did it himself. And
he has done a tremendously fine
job. This book should bring lot
OF credit to its publishers.
The book is dedicated to Those
Tens of Thousands of My Former
Wards Who Have Justified My
Faith in Human Nature"
Il have been directed to kill law
fully $50 men and one woman,
Lawes writes in his prologue as he
goes on record against capital pun
ishment.
And he writes. 1T is my legal
duty to be present physically in the
death chamber. But actually I have
never seen an execution"
To drive home his point, he sug-
gests a national broadcast of an &C
tual electrocution. This is done in
a fine sense Of satire. He asks il
capital punishment is the right
thing, then give as much publicity
as possible to il.
He then writes clearly a death
house broadcast" That one broad
cast has caused me more than ever
to question the capital punishment
theory.
am going to recommend Twenty
Thousands Years" in Sing Sing as
one of the most important books of
the year. 1t sells for So. Read this
one.
Just received word that the Book
League of America has chosen The
Journal of Arnold Bennett 1896
1910" as the June choice. It will
be published by the Viking Press
May 81, which happens to be Arnold
Benefits birthday.
Have been asked to recommend a
book suitable to a young man 60
ing into business after graduating
this spring from college. I recon-
mend "A Fortune to Share" as
written by Wash Young and pub
lished by s-Merrill.. 1t con-
Germs the methods OF a successful
salesman.
The publication of the India To-
day and Tomorrow Series" which
was launched last year for the pur-
pose, OF interpreting the contem-
porary events of India, has been
taken over by the Universal Publish
ing Company.
The four titles which have re-
Gently been issued in the series are:
l. India's Nonviolent Revolution. 2
PeShawar: Men versus Machine
Guns. 3. The Story Of Peace
Negotiations. 4. The Round Table
Conference and It's Aftermath. The
fifth volume of the series. The
United States Of India" will be out
next month.
The recent overwhelming political
victory of President Won linden
burg lends peculiar interest to a
quotation from Karl Tschuppik's
"Ludendorff. published this spring
by Houghton Mifflin Company. MY
inclination" said Won Hindenburg
did not lead me to follow the life
OF politics. can not tell whether
my power Of political criticism was
too weak or my soldierly feeling toe
strong; indeed. my dislike fol-
diplomacy in general is probably due
10 this feeling" 'Ludendorff," COM
ments Tschuppik. had no more
political sense than Hindenburg, but
he differed from the field-marSha
in seeing a positive advantage, anc
not a defect. in the limitations i'm
posed by his military mentality. Il
is this misconception which is thu
ultimate cause Of all the faults Of
German diplomacy and the ultimat.
tragedy Of Germany.