The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-01-31
BY EDWIN RoLFE

NEW YORK.-As the Welfare
Island penitentiary investigation con-
tinued on two spluttering cylinders
yesterday, new facts we're uncovered
by the Daily Worker which, though
known to the Fusion administration,
have been rigidly suppressed.
The fanfare of publicity which at
tended the initial "raid" has been
subtly cut at its source, so that re-
porters are no longer admitted to
the significant hearings but only to
the innocuous questionings by Com
missioner of Correction Austin H.
Mace MISUNDERSTANDING of unim-
portant inmates on relatively minor
phases Of the probe.
The Daily Worker has it on tlnim-
peacheble authority that the raid on
Welfare Island early Wednesday
morning did not even begin to touch
the vast network of corruption and
graft and dope-peddling which exists
at the prison. Only surprise raid
could have accomplished this.
But the raid by MaeCcrm.ck was
not surprise to Warden Mccain
and Deputy Warden Sheehan, nor
could it have taken the two ~ang-
ster chiefs, Joseph RaO and Ed
ward Cleary, unawares.
It was not MacCormick himself
who caused the leakage in plans
which informed the prison chiefs of
the impending raid, but a NUM-
cipal employs, who divulged the
news of the raid to She,han by
telephone. This occurred before
the investigating group left the
Municipal Building.
AS a result of this advance infor-
nation, it is safe to assume that
great quantities of dope, as well as
much evidence Of other corrupt con-
ditions within the penitentiary, were
either destroyed or removed from any
possible discovery by the Mccormick
party.
Despite the silence Of the Com
missioner of Correction, and despite
the statement Of David Marcus, Mac
Cornicks first deputy, that it would
take a week before any new facts
are ascertained regarding the names
Of the higher-ups guiding and pro-
tecting those responsible for the vile
conditions uncovered st the prison,
one name has already leaked out.
One of the powers behind the
officials and gangste-s 1T the peni-
tertiary is James ]. Hines, out
standing Tanlmany man and leader
of the we,l-to-ao Eleventh Assem-
bly, District of New York-Morn-
ingside Heights. No other names
have as yet been disclosed.
Cruelty of New Commissioner
The new Commissioners approach
to his job does not differ in any
respect from that of his predecessors.
He is an outstanding example of the
hard-boiled, treat 'enl-rough type OF
penologist, despite his occasional
scientific phraseology. Readers will
recall his instructions to the Welfare
Island raiding party last Wednesday:
II any prisoner offers resistance,
he stated, crack hin over the head
hard enou@h for the others to hear.
And when a dozen prisoners refused
to return TO their cells after an ex-
ercise period on Saturday. MacCor-
mick threatened them with: ''You
walk to your cells or you'll be carried
therel"
How Soviets Treat MaIefactors
Contrast this, which is typical of
penal administration throughout TIE
United States and the entire capt.
talist world, with the penal prac-
tees IN the Soviet Union, where the
purpose Of the Soviet state is not TO
punish and stunt and destroy male
factors and criminals, but to re-
habilitate them, to restore them to
useful and creative positions in So
ciety.
In an article published in the
Soviet press about six months ago
and subsequently translated and pub
lished in the Daily Worker, Maxim
Cork. world-fanous writer, described
the freedom and comradeship that
exists among inmates and guards in
the Soviet institutions he hod Wis
tied. Not only are the men treated
with the utmost sympathv and I'M
derstanding. Cork renorte1. but they
receive real payment for their work,
are provided with eyerv available
cultural and educational facility, ana