The farmer and mechanic. [volume], January 19, 1915, Image 1

About The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??

Image provided by: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library, Chapel Hill, NC

                
h
Established 1877.
RALEIGH, N. G JANUARY 19, 1915.
VOL. C. NO. til.
DEVELOPMENT OF RESOURCES
THE NEED IN NORTH CAROLINA
Running a State of Thirty-one Million Acres On a Produc
tion of Eight Million Eight Hundred Thousand Acres
of Necessity Means a Tight Squeeze.
IJION u. kutij-:ii.
.v-iley Heights Jan. 1G.- J like this
; , h.'cuiiH1 it is prophetic. As I
;..'; out over the far reachir,.; stretch
,.: :i:iproducti country I can sec
, things. No, brother, that is a
v r 'iir gurss. Not dreams of the im
; i.-.ity of spac and of the poetry of
ji.,-. fovcM. and that kind of romantic
(i' 'iires. that 1 see is cold ai.d figury.
.. . j.ies when it is in piles, and when
1- ',i ..- not jingle it rustles, for it is
! .tn not thinking just at the pres-
that the proves were the first tem
pi nor f the souh of the breeze
i:; ;hf pine tops, nor of that dine,
. r-dhable as it n.ay seem, but of the
re-edged material things. the
U: i you count in dollars, and bales
bushel.-.
ib-re is a block of five thousand
4. r-s of land about to enlist in the
;- o ve e of the State. When the tax
,t -.v .-.' rs looked the tra over the
li t tinv they put it down for a few
i"u :m acre to the common con
tribution. When the next assessment
is made that figure is going up, and
by the time this improvement has
! vii completed and men are at work
it, the property making it produo
thi:ig. and shelter families and taking
e of the w:nts of mankind the tax
i: will pay will be several times what
r. h.j-i bHn in any year of the past.
Let us say that its contribution to
th" State and county revenue will be
thr -e time what it was. It will be
fr more than that much, but it is
v.'i. to figure in slnall vnits rather
than big ones.
HE DEALS WITH PRISONERS
AS IF THEY, TOO. WERE MEN
One Swallow Does Not Make a Summer, But Sin a: Sine's
First Month Under Warden Osborne Makes an Im
oressive Showing.
Carolina is going to be a great deal
bigger than it is before the end
comes. The only place on earth where
the taxes do not increase all the time
is the cemetery, and if any of you
think North Carolina has the makings
for a grave yard you have to guess
again.
There is not a single item calling
for public money today but what is
going to call for more, with possibly
some minor exceptions, and while i
am in a confidential mood I am going
to add that we are all going to clamor
for more taxes. We are only begin
ning to build good school houses and
good roads, and good hospitals, and
to take care of all public matters. We
have thought that the State is limited
in its ability to provide for the things
it would like to have, but tha is a mis
take. The State is not limited in its
ability to pay, but in the development
of those resources that in time to
come will pay liberally.
In our present situation the ques
tion of taxation is a mighty pressing
one. But when the nve undeveloped
acres of Cumberland county are join
ing with the one developed acre to
help pay the public expenses we will
see where the trouble has been. We
are running a State ot 31,000,000
acres on the production of 8.800,000
acres, and as long as we try to do
that it will be a tight squeeze.
At just the age when the average
man rich in honors and money begins
to plan a life oi" en.; e Thomas Mott
Osborne.-a graduate of Harvard and a
man of affairs, equally well known in
business and political ci xes. has ac
cepted appointment a? ''den of
Sing Sing prison, say.-? . , in the
Philadelphia North A me.
For many years the name ,f
has stood for everything one
ro nvouL Tn sons:, drama and t. V
it has served to a ccentuate the drea
and dangers of prison life. And not
without just cause. For its prox
imity to the nation's metropolis of
crime, New York; its abnormal popu
lation of first offenders always the
hardest to handle and its unfit phy
sical condition have given it a record
replete with troublous times.
Only a year ago last July the in
mates mutinied and set lire to the
shops. A few months beiore tnat tne
man who then was warder .et. it nec
essary to carry a loaded pistol when
in the prison yard. Yet on the after
noon of Sunday, December b, just a
week after he had taken office, Ward
en Osborne assembled all the prison
ers in the chapel and before saying a
word to them asked every guard to
withdraw.
As yet no man justly can assay the
ultimate worth of the hour which
followed an hour of frank speech
between one free man and 1400 men
who will be on the level with him."
Now, he had ordered away the
guards that he might discus with the
prisoners fifteen almost revolutionary
North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Let us do a little comparison. Penn- confined for crimes -ranging from
sylvama is a btate somewhat less ib pocket picking to murder. In corn-
size than North Carolina. With two mon with a- majority of those who
and a half million acres less than have given thought to the great prob
North Carolina Pennsylvania has lem of nrison conduct, always we
North Carolina ha a land area of J three and a half times as many people have contended that the first need is
r.l. .'), )i)f acres. f that amount on her smaller area as North Caro- annointment of honest, high-grade
i. V. ::.'0' is improved, or just a shade Una has. North Carolina has as much men to take charge of prisoners. And
'' ve a quarter of it. undeveloped resources as Fennsyl- while it is too soon, to estimate- the
-Now, suppose we could improve the vania, but Pennsylvania has develop- value of this "longest step yet taken
uii'r three-quarters and make it pay ed more. Pennsylvania's bigger pop- jn the advancement of the new pen
V. ...-. 1 A . ? . 1 I . 1 j . . t -a 1
i.ii'"" nines as mucn taxes as u uoes. i uiation nas carried tne ctate aneaa ology," it is the duty of every person
Wh.it would the State do with all the I faster. Therefore Pennsylvania has a interested in the betterment of men
"'y much bigger tax Income. Pennsyl- ami conditions to know something of
incroacM? Productive Power. vania pays to the counties for thz an hour which may, in years to come,
nue tne legislature is rigunng out support ot the public schools over t,e remembered as mothering a new
& w.iy to Increase the revenue of the seven million dollars a year, and the epoch.
r.ie is tne time to stand nere on counties ana towns aaa a lot more to Twr wppku nr. or to this occasion
th'so highlands and think about the that. Pennsylvania pays another mil- Osborne informally had visited
ln?lius that come from increasing lion a year for the support of the nor- the prison and talked to the inmates.
'.r.e productive power or the-iana or mai schools ana other special schools Afthat time he said to them
uie -?tate. inis part or noice county oi tnat cnaracter. 'ennsyivania gives "Our new system will be founded on
A.n mi irom i.umuenanu. since, uiv tne neaun uej.artment over a minion the true manhood of every man here
t-'-n-iu.-j was taKen. vvnen tne census a year. Pennsylvania gives tne nospi- an(j the correcting of wThat have been
count wa: made Cumberland had tals three millions a year, and to the your mistakes and weaknesses of the
1'.000 acres of improved farm lands, insane hospitals over a million. The ,..ct rpil ' cH1i iri vprv mnn omp
fid 18,000 acres of unimproved and prisons get a million. The homes and thing which can be appealed to a
improved lands, or more than five institutions get over a million. Pub- sense of manhood, fair plav, a will-;u.r.-
of unimproved land for every he printing gets close to half a mil- Inness t0 be on the level with a man
ir oi improved land, ow suppose non. ine state miutia runs ciose to
'hit the r 4.1.000 acres could be mp.de three-quarters of a million.
f' p-y three times as much tax as Pennsylvania wrould feel poor if it
they pay now. What would be the had to pull through on less than
mjii t i ' i i i 4. , ....3 i- !,:.-, .in. . i j. U".wucikj ---- .
!." ". -oum wuum w umi, imw.un uu-ui.-, x yi in TO cha e in the ruleg SUggested by the
.,;,U, T 7: ... 'u,"Atu,,M-V:d"ut n"L ,JUU5 taU Ulg Golden Rule Brotherhood, the Sing
; .ne nenau- at trie present writing a ueas iNonn Carolina. gi organization modeled on the Mu
i .1 V. Ifthri.m n - . r -.--.-c-,'.4'e. 1 . I t I I ? i , r I 'nnntrli-n ,nn V. r, c --v. Y.Artrvl a I
"wiiiioiiii, n uv i r ii lino jlj ka, jl viiiic,! i umu iiao juui c J ic ,
''ii.r'.et of Hoke and Cumberland. Mr. and the people are developing the re
loiin.on can tell how to increase the sources of the State, and the re
uses of the State so that there will be sources pay the taxes and never think
Ji want of money, for he has had a about it. The care of land that raises
wide experience. lie has taken this tobacco vvorth a hundred dollars will
I lout county land, which when he got pay a dollar taxes more cheerfully
P d l about two or three cents an and more profitably to its owner than
' te tuxes, and he has made it so the acre that raises nothing and pays
hat it producer, almost an average of three cents an acre, for the one makes
bale nf cotton and sixty or seventy the money to pay its bigger tax while
"labels of corn to the acre. On that the other digs up the tax from the
Mt'd now he pays probably from five pocket of the owner and the payment
' twenty times as much tax on the of the small sum is a dead loss.
.o re, and on some of it I venture he Because Pennsylvania has over
bays fifty times as much tax to the eight million people utilizing her re-
v s when he got it. Mc re than courses that State has finer homes,
nut he is raising about eight o nine finer schools, finer churches, finer
hunilrod bales of cotton a ye.r on roads, finer public buildings, bigger
'bis land, and employing a lot of peo- libraries, and everything on a more
bl vho also pay taxes. Senator expensive and convenient scale,
b.bnson has shown a couple of '.hou- Pennsylvania does not have things
' ii tl neres of land how to increase its more expensive and convenient be-
t'lxes with profit to everybody con- cause it is a wealthier State, but be-
'rit,i. The proces.4 is simply in cause it has more people developing
fiaki?.; the land productive. the natural resources of the State. In
Not t'tiliiiyr HcMui-ces. 1850, when Pennsylvania had the
Nf.rth Carolina is like a boy who same population that North Carolina
growing too fast for his clothes, has now Pennsylvania collected taxes
n.e State i. making progress so rap- to amount to four and a half million
"y that it can not keep up with its dollars. The Siate had more resources
daily expansion. It is growing, but it then than now, for in that time she
H not developing its resources fast as exhausted a great many things,
onou-n f(r nH wants. To get more 't she had nothing like the income
tuxe we want more land brought into because she had not the peoplep to
l't(luctive condition, and v want it utilize 'the natural resources. And
j-nfre soon, for I am going to break a tnat is exactly the situation with
JdUe bit of news to you this morning.
t.K- !'vuuf of the State of North1 (Continued on Pase Sixteen.)
tual Welfare League in the Auburn
penitentiary. It may be remembered
that under the name of Tom Brown
Mr. Osborne once spent a week as a
prisoner in Auburn, in order to tes
for himself the accommodations and
treatment there accorded.
Important Change Asked.
The most important change asked
by the Sing Sing prisoners was that
they might be permitted to discipline
themselves, without initial interven
tion of warden or keepers. Their re-
j quest, in part, was thus couched:
"We ask that the system of discip
line be materially altered, and that
the executive committee of the broth
erhood, sitting as a court, shall be
allowed to examine all minor cases
of discipline and determine, if prac
ticable, the nature and extent of the
penalties to be inflicted.
In the words of an outsider who
was present, "Mr. Osborne replied
that he was fully in sympathy with
the suggestion, and that he would
carry the idea further and allow the
brotherhood to decide all v reaches , of
discipline, with appeal, where the jus
tice of a decision was disputed, to the
warden's court, which is composed of
the warden himself, the principal
keeper and the prison physician."
As Frank Marshall White says in
the Outlook, "Even so short a time
ago as a year the suggestion on the
part of the convicts in Sing Sing that
they be allowed to try one another for
infraction of t h. p-i.-oo rubs v. ould
have bf en regarJ'd as u n impudent
ebullition of hu:.i..:"
Yet, .;ee how .-wife i1-- i r pons
of even the ragged remnaot of a let
ter nature to the spirit of confident--' !
For one of the chief requests made !
the prisoners was that the beds in th
dormitory the former chapel, where
the over-low from the cells i accom
modated, and the most comfortaMe
0 in the prison to sleep -W- .
first to those in unites who ar-.
mg from heart trouble or epilp
sy . who are crippled.
Needless to say, this was gra nted.
Indeed, all but two of the brother
hood's suggestions weie agreed to by
the warden, and the.-e two were taken
under consideration and probably vvill
be granted.
Hereafter, as a result of that jn
lour s straight talk betwen varden
and prisoners, Sing Sing inmates may
visitors on any Sunday or holi
day. They may write and receive a-s
many letters as they choose, and ac
cept small sums of money for tobacc
and like "luxuries." They mav accept
shoes and sweaters from friends on
the outside "though, since gray i-
the fashionable color here," added th-
new warden, "you will please stipulate
gray sweaters!''
In a word, sixty minutes of thai
Sunday afternoon served to set in
motion in the most famous prison in
this country changes which may have
a lasting effect upon. crime and crim
inals everywhere. That brief inter
val marked the passing of a prison
dedicated to the barbaric sj'stem of
punishment by retribution and its re-
dedication as "a hospital fcr diseases
of the soul."
This rich man who is investing his
years of success in larger service to
humanity believes the present system
is wrong in proceeding upon th the
ory of revenge. Recently he said :
"A very few moments of serious
consideration will show us that in do
ing this the law undertakes an im
possibility, and an impossibility which
tends to bring the whole system into
disfavor, if not contempt.
"It is absolutely impossible for any
human being for any number of hu
man beings to weigh and determine
the guilt of each criminal by the mere
facts of his crime. It is still more im
possible to gauge the amount of crim
inality in this one as compared with
that one; these are things which
transcend the powers of humanity;
they rest with God alone.
"Who can determine the exact
amount of responsibility which each
one of us carries? Wrho can estimate
the inheritance, the early training,
the effect of environment, the in
fluence of others, the results of infore
seen circumstances, in order to find
the exact amount of real blame de
served by the perpetrators of each
and every crime and the relative
amount of punishment it would b3
fair to give to each?? So, as this is
manifestly impossible, the lav.- prac
tically ignores the whole psycholog
ical problem, and confines itself al
most entirely to the crudest possible
set of facts in each case. But it is
happens that the crude facts are the.
least important and the psychological
facts are the most important in de
termining the real guilt of the crimi
nal." To illustrate this, Mr. Osborne
points to two of the noted criminals
of fiction Bill Sykes in Dickens'
"Oliver Twist" and Don Jose in Meri
mee's "Carmen" the one a hardened
ruffian vho, after murdering his mis
tress in cold blood, would continue a
criminal if set free; the other a weak
willed fellow who, if released after
stabbing Carmen in an outburst of
passion, would return to his first lov
and settle down to a law-abiding life.
Each is a murderer; yet, as Warden
Osljorne says, "to place two such men
in one and the same category, to deem
them guilty of the same crime, is to
shut our eyes to all the facts of hu
man nature, while to mete out to them
the same punishment is to be ridicu
lous as well aa inhuman. Yet under
i
r
! f
1
. r
(Continued on Page Sixteen.