Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel], February 28, 1910, Page 3, Image 3

About Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911

Image provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA

                
PRISON REFORM
CRUSADE FUTILE
SOCIOLOGIST MAKES REPLY
TO MRS. BOOTH
SEES NO HOPE IN WORK DONE
BY VOLUNTEERS
Crime Problem Far More Important
Than Question of Penal Cruelties
and Must Be Solved First,
Says Authority
WILLIAM C. OWEN
MRS. MAUD BALUNUTON
BOOTH, field chief of the Vol
unteers of America, Is visiting
Los Angeles and speaking here. She
is properly described as an untiring
worker, urged on incessantly by lofty
moral aspirations, and she has been
in this particular field of activity fif
teen years. In the interview obtained
by The Herald Mrs. Booth expresses
herself as confident of results, and
points to the abolition in many peni
tentiaries and on the convict planta
tions of Louisiana of many atrocious
tortures formerly in use.
The inference *hat will be drawn
and is intended to be drawn, is that
homes for discharged convicts, re
ligious and moral advice—charity, in
fact—will bring the desired result if
adhered to with sufficient persever
ance.
Mrs. Booth's views are those com
mon to all the associations devoted
to this special subject, with the soli
tary exception, I believe, of the Prison
Reform league. Perhaps I ought not
to speak for the league, but for my
self alone. Speaking for mysplf, I
desire to say. through the agency of
The Herald, that I regard Mrs. Booth
and the associations alluded to as en-
gaged* in the fruitless occupation of
pouring water into a sieve.
The crime problem, as I shall show.
Is by far the most Important one he
fore the American public today. On
Its correct solution may depend the
Very existence of this nation as a
civilized power. It is obviously, there
fore, a problem that should be. ex
amined witli the utmost care and from
every point of view; on which all who
can give an intelligent opinion should
be heard attentively and without
prejudice.
At the very outset I take Issue with
Mrs. Booth. She has been conscien
tiously at work for fifteen years and
she feels confident of results. I say
bluntly that she is misinformed. There
Is nothing to justify her confidence.
Crime is increasing at a terrifying
ratio, and this itself is fatal to her
claims.
On this head I do not believe the
facts as set out in the first chapter of
"Crimes and Criminals" can be con
tradicted successfully, and they form
the basis on which the Prison Reform
league rests its conclusions and policy.
If It Is necessary to add to those facts
I quote from the most reputable liter
ature appearing in the most recent
magazines. I quote Hugh C. Weir as
saying in "The World Today" that
"there are four and a half times as
many murders for every million of our
population today as there were twenty
years ago," and Charles FMward Rus
sell as saying in "Success" for March
that the products of the slums "tend
constantly to Increase in numbers;
they are even now makinir the en
forcement of the criminal law so dif
ficult that the ablest police authorities
can see no remedy but a huge armed
despotism. In New York city, despite
an augmented police force and in
creased police expenditures, the num
ber of burglaries reported is now about
15,000 a year, and all observers note
yenr after year a similar increase in
other cities of crimes of violence."
Murderers at Large
Elsewhere in the samp article Mr
Russell says: "The best detective on
the New York police force assures me
that there are at large in the city now
not fewer than a thousand men and
boys who have committed murder
and to one who has studied the East
Side gangs and know what they
really are and really do, the statement
will seem in no way improbable "
I say that Mr. Russell, who has a
long newspaper and magazine career
behind him, is an unimpeachable au
thority, and that his conclusions will
not justify, for one single moment,
the roseate views habitually present
ed by Mrs. Booth and the prison as
sociations to which I have referred.
And if those views are -erroneos they
are doing immense harm, for the most
Injurious thing In the universe is er
ror. It delays progress incalculably
and raises false hopes that are doomed
to perish.
Furthermore, I do not credit Mrs.
Booth's statements as to the preva
lence of a more humane regime in our
prisons and police stations. As re
gards the former all r.ecent investiga
yons, from Illinois to Texas, have
shown the existence of almost incon
ceivable conditions, and as to tho lat
ter there seems every reason to sup
in iso that there have evolved among
the police traditions which are to them
a law superior to any of our codes,
and that it is an utterly ruthless law
which has increased in severity.
I know well that an occasional chief
of police, such as Kohler at Cleveland,
and Vollmer at Berkeley, Cal., has in
stituted a most kindly regime, and I,
for my part, have great hopes of our
own new chief. But these are brlllfhnt
exceptions, a drop in the bucket. On
the subject of the administration of tho
"third degree," for example, I believe
Weir says truthfully that "as a mat
ter of cold-blooded fact—no matter
from what sources it may be denied—
the system of the "third decree" is
followed generally by tho American
police, with a, brutality that has sent
dozens of men with broken limbs ami
bruised bodies and wrecked minds to
hospital or asylum! Yes, and women,
too."
Tortured by Electricity
You think that exaggeration. Well,
then I will quote the following, from
the New York World of November .10.
1 rton: "The latest thing in accommo
dations at the new building In what
the police term the 'roast' or 'freeze'
third degree rooms. There are two
rooms in the basement to be devoted
entirely to this work. They are ab
solutely bare and forbidding, with
steel walls and pipes for qu+ck changes
of temperature. Above the grated
ceilings electric lights are so arranged
as to light the rooms instantly nr else
throw them into complete darkness.
The temperature of the roomy can bs
Inwered or increased in a few minutes,
which means a renl sweating or a
freeze out for the unfortunates made
to submit to the process."
One of my New York friends In
formfl»me that he kept careful tab on
Ilie cfty's papers for several days to
sip wfiat their comment was -and mine
was made! Yet these electric devices
are capable of being utilized In ways
as hideous as those made familiar to
1M tiy tho. history Of the Spanish in
quisition, and Weir, Russell and others
aver that they are so utilized by tho
police. The recent record in Spokane,
where I. W. \V. members wero sub
mitted to tho freezing torture, Ms a
case In point.
Did ipa.ee permit I could multiply in
definitely instances and proofs of my
contention. But I simply repeat that,
to my mind, the charity method has
failed in this department also.
We shall never solve social prob
lems correctly while we take onesided
views and confine OUT attention to a
single factor. I make this wise reflec
tion because I do not hold police or
wardens wholly to blame —if, indeed,
the word "blame" is to be used at all.
They have a task to fulfill which Is
well nigh impossible and is growing all
the time in difficulty. I shall quote
Mr. Russell again, because I cannot
rlo better. In the series of articles now
running in "Success" and entitled
"The Power Behind the Republic,''
he tells us of his experience while sit
ting on tile bench beside police magis
trates and judges of the higher crim
inal courts: and ho remarks that he
had no need of their assurance to con
vince him that BT> per cent of the casfs
came from tho slums and slum condi
tions.
Tenement House Products
Russell describe* the characteristics
which, to the expert, stamp a man or
woman infallibly a.s being the product
of the slums, and says: "As a rule
there appeared among them only a
rudimentary sense of right and wrong;
very often they were cruel, manifest
ing a kind of pleasure in giving or
viewing pain: if they laughed it was
In a brief, evil guffaw at something
either brutal or filthy. Kven the
youngest showed a savage hatred of
authority; the policeman on the beat
was his mortal foe. Among boys of this
order I have known some startling,
abnormal beings—boys who from an
Innate prompting thought with com
placency of taking human life and
looked upon crime as the normal career
—all of "these tho products of the tene
ment house."
It is not a pleasant picture, is it?
Indeed it is a most alarming one,
viewed merely from the standpoint oC
self-preservation. For the growth of
those conditions presages—as Mr. Rus
sell shows by the use of some astound
ing authorities—revolution, in the
bloody acceptation of the word. And If
anyone is curious to obtain a more
comprehensive view of the manner in
which theie slum conditions are mass
ing themselves for trouble in the im
mediate future I recommend him to
read Ernest Poole's recent article, "A
Blind Revolutionist" in Everybody's,
which Is not an Anarchist magazine.
Chaos in the Future
So here wo have the true problem,
set out In all its nakedness. The slum
district is unquestionably increasing
in every city, under the pressure of
certain economic conditions. With the
increase of the slum district comes an
Increase both of the poverty that in
cites to crime and on the individual
types iiuil take to it as naturally as
a duck takes to water. And these con
ditions, while threatening to bankrupt
us in the present, menace chaos in the
not distant future. ,
To my thought all attempts to banish,
or even control, crime while preserv
ing intact the conditions that give it
birth are the wildest of Utopian
dreams. It comes from the slums, and
the slums come from—shall we call
them 'defective" social arrangements?
The correction, therefore, of these social
(Infects is the flrst Item in the pro
gram of the genuine criminologist.
But Mrs. Booth thinks she can Solve
the riddle by prayers and convict
homes.
Some years ago I wrote sarcastically
of those "who can find it in their hearts
to visit tho workers of the slums, and
the prisoners in the modern hells we
call 'penitentiaries,' and exhort them
to thank God for his mercies." I now
tell Mrs. Booth that I expressed most
accurately the view of the average
convict.
Furthermore, as regards the convict
home solution of the question, I re
peat what I wrote quite recently in an
other publication: "They (convict
homes) may be the best things pos
sible under existing conditions, but to
my mind it is clear that the salvation
of a discharged convict will be found
in restoring him to fellowship with or
dinary people, and not In throwing him
once more into the companionship of
those with whom he shared the peni
tentiary life. To mass weak people Is
but to accentuate the general weak
ness, for everybody knows from his
own experience that energetic company
begets energy, and vice versa."
I doubt, therefore, the beneficence of
Mrs. Booth's work even in the matter
of convict homes, and I am profoundly
convinced that she is misleading the
public when she uses her great gift of
eloquence to hypnotize it into the sup
position that the crime problem can be
cured by individual penitence, induced
by prayer. It cannot. It is a natural
growth, and of all the truths the pub
lis is called on to face courageously
this seems to me the most imperative.
It is because, alone of all kindred as
sociations, the Prison Reform league
appears to me to grasp this truth, that
1 stand by it and foresee for it a certain
future, however great may be the dif
ficulties that atie;-d its infancy.
ASSAILS LABORER
CRITICISING WORK
IRONWORKER CHARGED WITH
DEADLY ASSAULT
Dispute Over Proper Method of Driv.
ing Rivets Has Serious Results
for Employe of Llewellyn
Company
As the result of a dispute over the
proper method of riveting bolts in a
boiler, Victor Massi, 2!) years old, a
hoilermaker's helper employed at the
Llewellyn iron works, was struck on
the head with a money wrench and in
curred a fracture, of the skull. Later
Petective Ingram arrested Tunbro
Linares, an ironworker, and locked him
up in the city jail on a charge of as
sault with intent to commit murder.
Massi and Linares were working in
the same gang; that wa.s riveting plates
in a boiler. According to the story of
the former, Linares began to find fault
aucl made several remarks to the effect
that Massi was ignorant of the correct
method of fitting bolts. This angered
Massi and he called Linares a vile
name. The rani worked in .silence for
several minutes, and when Massi, who
was bending over withdrawing a faulty
bolt, raised up, Linares, It is alleged
rushed at him and struck him on the
forehead with a heavy wrench,
Massi was taken to tho receiving
hospital, where the police surgeons per
formed an operation and removed a
pieoe of bon* that was pressing on the
brain. The wifo of the Injured man
became hysterical when she, saw her
husband lying on a hospital couch and
almost collapsed when she was told he
wa.s in a serious condition and night
die.
Eat at the Ango.us grill.
LOS ANGELES HERALD: MONDAY MORNINO. I'E7Un TARY 28. 1010.
CARRIES INJURED
YOUTH ON BACK
BOY IS WOUNDED IN HILLS
RABBIT HUNTING
COMPANION BEARS VICTIM OVER
MILE FOR ASSISTANCE
Young Nimrod Is Accidentally Shot
While Attempting to Prod An
imal from Hole —Taken
to Hospital
Bleeding from a wound in his right
foot as the result of an accidental
discharge of a small caliber rifle,
Howard Hinton, 16 years old, was car
ried by a companion, T. J. Bomley,
from Baldwin's hills, two miles from
the city limits, near the Santa Monica
line, nearly a mile to a house where
emergency treatment was obtained.
The two young men were rabbit
hunting in the hills yesterday after
noon. Bomley was armed with a
shotgun and Hinton was using a tar
set ride. After wandering about for
a short time Bomley saw a rabbit and
shot at it. The animal was slightly
wounded, and the lads followed it for
several hundred yards, then saw it
disappear in a hole.
Both ran up expecting to find it dead
at the, edge of the burrow, and when
they found that the animal had crawl
erl further in they attempted to prod
it out. Bomley was poking in the hole
with a stick and the other lad was
standing in front waiting fpr the ani
mal to run out.
He was leaning with tho muzzle of
the gun resting on his right foot. Sud
denly the rabbit appeared, and Hin
ton, considerably excited, attempted
to raise the gun to his shoulder and
accidentally pressed the trigger before
he lifted it from his foot.
Refused to Leave- Him
The wounded lad cried out with pian
and sank to the ground. His compan
ion removed the shoe from the wound
ed foot and made a bandage out of
his handkerchief and bound the foot.
Young Hinton attempted to walk,
but the pain was so great that he fell,
After walking less than twenty-five
feet he told his companion to leave
him and go for assistance. Bomley
refused to desert his friend and leav
ing both guns, he placed the wounded
boy on his back and staggered with
his heavy load to the nearest house,
almost a mile distant.
After the wound was washed and
the flow of blood stopped, Bomley
notified the University police station,
and the auto ambulance conveyed the
injured lad to the receiving hospital,
where the wound was dressed by Po
lice Surgeon Wiley.
The bullet was located by means of
the X-ray, but it was not deemed ad
visable to perform an operation to
remove it.
•Hinton is an apprentice at the. Hip
ollto screen factory and lives at 2121
West Twenty-seventh street, and
Bomley lives at 2154 New Orleans
street.
MUNICIPAL BAND
PLEASES THOUSANDS
Great Throng Enjoys Sunday After
noon Concert in Central Park.
Program Has a Wide
Range
"Art has no fatherland, and all that Is
beautiful ought to be prized by us, no matter
what clime or region has produced it."—
Weber.
With this as its concert text the Los
Angeles Municipal band, under the
direction of Harley Hamilton, pleased
an audience of approximately iiOOO per
sons in Central park yesterday after
noon. It was the largest audience that
has greeted the band this winter at
its Sunday afternoon concerts and in
dicates an increasing popularity.
Quite appropriately for Sunday con
certs the printed program bears a
text, a quotation from one of the great
music masters which bears on art and
Is directly to the point. The thought
for yesterday was taken from the Ger
man composer and emphasizes the
ancient truth that the beautiful of any
nation belongs to the world.
The program yesterday had a wide
range, from De Witt's "The Racket at
Gilligan's," Irish medley, to a grand
fantasie on "La Boheme" (Puccini).
Hewing close to artistic lines the ren
dition of the Puccini number might be
open to criticism, although from a
popular viewpoint it was acceptable,
and serves the purpose of educating
the masses In the higher realm of
tones.
The concert Ripened with Verdi's
"Aida March," and was followed by
Fauchey's "Passionement Valse." Will
E. Bates and B. T, Halberg were
heard in Bont's cornet duet, "Swiss
Boy." The flrst part of the program
dosed with Clcrice's "Le Pilou, Pilou,"
a new and very pleasing dance.
Other program numbers were:
"Merry Wives of Windsor" (Nicolal);
intermezzo, "Les Cerises" (Cremieux);
"Seguidilla" (Canzona Espanola)
(Bohm); "Coach Horn Galop" (Hans)
and "America."
TO HOLD INQUEST ON BODY
OF AUTO ACCIDENT VICTIM
Coroner to Decide Whether Driver of
Motor Car Is Responsible for
Fatal Event
An Inquest will he held at Loidsburg
today over the body of Andrew Slievly,
72 years of age, a prominent citizen of
that place, who died at his home Satur
day afternoon soon after being struck
by a motorcar driven by c. P. Smith.
Shev'ly was accustomed to taking
long rides on his bicycle into the coun
try. While on his way to Pomona
Saturday he was overtaken by Smith
driving an auto. The latter, it seems,
turned out to pass Shevly, who steered
his bicycle to the same Bide of the
street and was struck. The dead man
is survived by a widow and a son. The
funeral arrangements will be made
after the Inquest.
ACCUSE BOYS OF ROBBERY
Charles (Joldsmlth. Lee Farnsworth
and Qlenn Karnsworth, ranging in age
from IS to 20, were arrested by Patrol
men Bcals and Qregory in Main street
early yesterday morning and booked
at the central station on suspicion of
having entered a meat market and
stolen some butchers' tools. They will
he held in Jail pending an investiga
tion by detectives.
The; EQUITABLE LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY of THE
UNITED STATES
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 19, 1-910.
TO POLICYHOLDERS:
PThe following synopsis of the Annual Statement, as of December 31, 1909, is submitted f«r your
information :
1909 1906
TOTAL ASSETS - - ■■"-. - - - - - $486,109,637.98 $472,339,508.83
TOTAL LIABILITIES - - - - - - »- 400,837,318.68 391,072,041.93
Consisting of Insurance Fund $393,223,558.00 and
$7,61 3,760.68 of miscellaneous liabilities for 1909.
The Insurance Fund (with future premiums and interest)
will pay all outstanding policies as they mature.
" TOTAL SURPLUS - - - - - - - - 85,272,319.30 81.267,466.90
With an increasing number of maturities of Deferred
Dividend Policies this sum will in tims decrease.
■ ■ :■ .. ■■■•
NEW INSURANCE PAID FOR (including additions
$3,852,143 in 1909 and $3,540,621 in 1908) - |^g 110,943.016.00 91,262,
This is an increase for the year of 21 per cent, and was ,
secured at a lower expense ratio than in 1908. ,
-"INCREASE* IN OUTSTANDING INSURANCE IN 1909 - 8,869,439.00
COMPARED WITH A DECREASE IN 1908 - - 13 > 647,8! MM»
An improvement of $22,517,253.00 as compared with 1908.
FIRST YEAR CASH PREMIUMS (excluding on additions) 3,774,321.27 2,724.976.59
This is an increase of 38^ per cent, as compared with 1908.
TOTAL AMOUNT PAID TO POLICYHOLDERS - 51,716,579.04 47.861,542.69
DEATH BENEFITS - - - ■.-".- 20,102,318.67 20,324,002.65
97 per cent, of all Death Claims in America were paid
within one day after proofs of death were received.
ENDOWMENTS - - - - ... 6,321,554.41 4,830, 770.
ANNUITIES, SURRENDER VALUES AND OTHER
BENEFITS ...... 15,683,665.88 »4i696.354.»6
DIVIDENDS TO POLICYHOLDERS - - - 9,609,040.08 8.011,015.78
1910 dividends to Policyholders will approximate . < ' ;''■
$11,000,000.
DIVIDENDS TO STOCKHOLDERS .... 7,000.00 7.000.00
This is the maximum annual dividend that stockholders can
receive under the Society's Charter.
OUTSTANDING LOANS TO POLICYHOLDERS - - 59.954.933. 57,053,555.28
EARNINGS FROM INTEREST AND RENTS - - 21,074,013.95 20,636,405.61
OUTSTANDING LOANS ON REAL ESTATE MORTGAGES 97.532,648.03 97,570,767.22
TOTAL EXPENSES, including Commissions and Taxe. - - 10,436,729.64 9,756,447.46
The average gross rate of interest realized during 1909 amounted to 4.50 per cent, as against 4.45 per
cent in 1908, 4.39 per cent in 1907, 4.26 per cent, in 1906, 4.03 per cent in 1905, and 3.90 per cent in 1904.
The condition of your Society is constantly improving. The growth, of new business at a reduced
expense ratio and the increase in outstanding insurance manifest public recognition of die (act
GEORGE A. RATHBUN, General Agent /My A Q /k^b>,
Wilcox Building, Second and Spring Streets, (Srl<p<PCi^l4?Jf^f JA^ \
Los Angeles, California. PRESIDENT
• '.
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All stock purchased for cash or upon payments will share in all quarterly cash dividends. Small stockholders absolutely protect-i
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No one has ever failed to get their money back if they wanted it.
No commissions paid to anyone for selling stock.
From sto 1000 shares can be purchased. >
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