Evening star., 1933-07-08

friend He listens patiently to their
complaints and promises to look into
their cases. Doubtless he will, for the
keystone of his policy is fair play.
Capt. Barnard admits that some men
probably would rather be in solitary
confinement than at work in the shops.
He seems to regard these as worthless
fellows, for whom little can be done.
But. he says with conviction. there is
always one way to reach the most re-
fractory prisoner-through his stomach.
1t isn't necessary to starve them. They
can be brought to submission by being
placed on reduced rations. Perhaps he
is right. on the whole, but one thinks
of a gentleman named Ghandi and an
other gentleman named MacSwlney
who don't fit into his argument. And
one also thinks of some of the medieval
saints who chcse deliberately as way
Of life the solitude he imposes as
punishment.
college Atmosphere"
Here are men living under almost
ideal conditions-for prisoners.
They have for a warden one OF the
the country. They come and go almost
freely around the grounds. They do
not sleep behind locked doors or barred
windows. They have athletic teams,
moving pictures and good library.
Lorton has even been described as
having college atmosphere" This
is an exaggeration which probably
Capt. Barnard would not condone. since
he himself is a realist 1t is rather an
industrial atmosphere. The grounds
are more like those of a factory than
a university. The lawns are brown.
The hydrangeas, geraniumS and French
marigolds struggle against hopeless OBJ
stacleS to give touch OF color to the
rather drab surroundings.
But it is not the atmosphere Of
harshly disciplined industry. When
every fault has been found which the
most critical can discover-that is,
without living with the men and know
ing what goes on behind the walls-it
appears obvious that the inmates of
Lorton are living under about the most
humane and acceptable conditions ever
provided for persons in confinement
for breaking the laws.
Yet this sullen minority is in rebel
lion. Has humanity toward law break
ers proved a failure after trial which
has lasted nearly 20 years and which
has appeared up to this time to be a
complete success? Has the outbreak at
Lorton proved the point of cynics who
have maintained that society has be-
come too gentle toward its malefactorS
and that there should be a return to
the methods of the sad old days of the
lash and the taskmaster's curse?
Capt Barnard is convinced that this
is not true-that the soundness of the
fundamental idea upon which Lorton
was founded was never better estab-
lished than today
Why, then, the rebellion?
Crux of the Question.
In the first place nobody ever claimed
that such a humane system would be
more efficacious in keeping men in
order If the District of Columbia
should take over the finest hotel in the
city and put up its prisoners there with
all the luxuries now accorded guests
there still would be rebellion and it
would come from the very same slim,
nervous, brooding men responsible for
this one And the same would be true
if they were confined under the most
horrible prison conditions recorded in
history.
If defect has come to light it is a
defect not of Lcrton but of any prison
at least until man knows a great deal
more than he does now. The guard
quoted in the first anecdote uncon-
sciously came close, it is probable, to
revealing the cruX of the whole Ques-
ton when he cautioned q reporter
against listening to the confined men.
Sure we've got some of our best
workers in there. But that's not the
point. A mans here to conform to
discipline and that's just what they
won't do"
In the guards eyes, and probably in
the eyes of most people, these fellows
are bad bunch. And yet something
is to be said for them. They are the
men who are not easy to discipline
whose whole makeup is opposed to
discipline. They probably were born
that way. There are two kinds OF men
lust as the Russian psychologist, Pavlov.
found that there were two kinds OF
dogs. Their nervous systems act in op-
posite directions. One is responsive
and one is inhibitory. These belong to
the inhibitory class.
Impossible to Understand.
They are the men nobody under
stands. Nobody can understand them
because their whole mental mechanism
works on the inside, away from the
eyes of others But these men are the
expression on the criminal level of the
complex of personality that on other
levels has contributed the greater part
of what is fine and enduring and beau
tiful to the world.
Oliver Cromwell understood them. In