THE STATE PRISONS' COMMISSION

Photo copied from Grip's Historical Souvenir of Cortland.

Cortland Evening Standard, Monday, December 30, 1895.

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

The State Prisons' Commission.

   The state commission of prisons, of which Hon. W. J. Mantanye of this village is a member, has agreed upon its annual report to the legislature. This report, which was prepared by Mr. Mantanye and approved by the other members, will be a very important document as it outlines and recommends a system for the employment of the convicts consistent with the provisions of the revised constitution which requires that the convicts shall be kept employed, but  that after January 1, 1897 their labor or the product of it, shall not be farmed or contracted out, or sold or given to any person or corporation, except that their labor may be for the state or its political divisions, or the product of it may be disposed of to the public institutions of the state or its political divisions.

   Through some inadvertence no appropriation was made to pay the expenses of the commissioners, but the report shows that the commissioners have proceeded just the same in view of the exigencies of the case, and have visited and inspected prisons, reformatories, penitentiaries and jails, and have called for and obtained the statistics required. They have called before them all prison, penitentiary and reformatory officials, representatives of manufacturing and labor interests and those specially informed as to prison matters, and have listened to their views and interrogated them.

   The report reviews the operations under the present law under which labor has been contracted out on the "piece price" plan, or by manufacturing to some extent on state account for sale in the open market. It appears that during the past two years of business and industrial depression the convicts have been idle much of the time and the avails of labor were light, so that the deficiency amounted to about as much as the entire expense of maintaining the convicts.

   The report shows that the unfair competition caused by contracting out labor so cheaply has disturbed the market, injured some industries and driven others out entirely, injuring both the manufacturers and laborers, while the state has been the loser as the amount received barely covered the expense of keeping buildings and machinery in repair. That manufacturing on state account for sale in the open market worked even more disastrously, for the reason that the cry against prison made goods forced the state to sell below the prices that other manufacturers could afford, and thus had the same effect in disturbing the market, while the large expense of commissions and expenses of sales agents made it even more expensive to the state.

   The commission therefore arrives at the conclusion that it is time to try another plan—to try the one provided for by the constitution.

   The commission has called for estimates from all public institutions of the supplies purchased by them annually of such articles as can be manufactured in the prisons, and finds that it is practicable to have such estimates each year, and upon them base a distribution of the labor of filling the orders among the several penal institutions. All of the labor of the convicts in the Blackwell’s Island penitentiary is devoted to the use of the public institutions of New York City alone and cannot half supply them. The convicts cut stone, make fire escapes and furniture and building supplies of various kinds, and in this way New York City gets the full value of the labor of its convicts with all the profit on it, instead of contracting it out and then buying at higher prices for the use of the city institutions. Stone cutting can be done in the prisons and wood working, also iron working, furniture, clothing, shoes, and many other industries carried on, all of which would furnish useful trades to the convicts. Any article of furniture can now be duplicated in prison shops.

   Heretofore there has been no connecting link between the prisons. The state prisons are under the superintendent. The reformatories are under independent managers, and the penitentiaries are county affairs. The penitentiaries have been in a strife to get long term prisoners, and have been permitted to take convicts from federal courts out of the state and now have about 800 from out of the state to be supplied with labor and compete with free labor.

   The penitentiaries were first intended as county jails or workhouses in counties where large cities had sprung up making jails insufficient, as in New York, Brooklyn, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo. But they have procured laws permitting courts to sentence felons for five and even ten years to penitentiaries, thus mixing them with the mere misdemeanants and breaking down all efforts at classification under the Fassett law. The state has to pay penitentiaries for keeping felons though it has prisons of its own where it can keep them cheaper and utilize their labor which is now given the penitentiaries.

   Some of the cities where these penitentiaries are located complain that it makes them a dumping ground for criminals from all over the United States and the state, as they are discharged at the penitentiary door when their terms are ended, and many of them stay in preference to going to their former haunts.

   The commission having power of inspection and recommendation over prisons and jails and penitentiaries can bring all into one system. They can receive estimates and distribute the labor. It is just as easy to send orders to state factories as to others and will be far more economical to the taxpayers, for they will save the full value of the convict labor and the profit. It brings no more labor in competition with free labor than now, but so regulates it that it will reduce taxation and not be merely a source of profit to contractors and salesmen, leaving the state to purchase at full price to supply its needs.

   There are about 80,000 people in the various public institutions of the state, in hundreds of buildings, all requiting supplies of clothing, furniture and improvements to buildings, etc, every year. The manufacturing and labor interests are willing to forego the profits they get from the sale of their products to public institutions rather than have the markets disturbed by the unjust competition of contracted out labor, or of manufacturing and selling at reduced prices.

   The state also has several thousand acres of land in the vicinity of Clinton prison, and by making that prison a place of confinement for those afflicted with pulmonary diseases, they can be benefitted by profitable outdoor work, and the other prisons relieved of contagion. Raising vegetables and a canning industry for use of hospitals and asylums is practical there also.

   The commission recommends new buildings and electric lights in cells, all of which can be provided by convict labor and the plants used for that purpose can assist in other public buildings.

   The commission recommends a more thorough classification of the convicts, as was intended by the Fassett law but which was rendered difficult by the system of contracting out, and by the herding of felons and misdemeanants in the penitentiaries where life men are put with ten day men.

   The commission recommends a general revision of the prison law to bring it in accord with the constitution as to the employment of convicts; forbidding any institutions taking, convicts from without the state, and forbidding the penitentiaries taking felons and keeping them with misdemeanants.

   It also calls attention to the fact that convicts have been worked on the roads in this and other states with marked success—no chains being required and no more guards being required than for the same men in the prisons, those convicts who are on the last year of their terms usually being selected for highway labor. It recommends a further trial, and that the counties be given power to utilize their short term convicts in highway labor, and be permitted to raise the necessary moneys for such purposes.

   The report is exhaustive, covering about thirty pages besides several pages of statistical tables, and it calls attention to the duty the state owes to itself and its citizens that the convicts should be so treated that when they return to the world again from their seclusion they shall not be worse than before, but rather be made better. An extension of the reformatory system and education of convicts is also recommended.

    The commissioner also recommends that all executions take place at one prison which should be disconnected from any prison for confinement of convicts, as the executions excite the convicts and the machinery for lighting is not adapted to the purpose of executions. It also recommends that the commission be directed to distribute among the penal institutions the industries necessary to supply the different public institutions and to make the necessary rules and regulations therefor. That each penal institution report annually its capacity for furnishing supplies needed in the various institutions and that the latter furnish annually estimates of supplies required, so that through the commissioners the industries may be diversified and each penal institution be assigned its part of the necessary manufacture.

   In this way the state may keep all convicts employed and save the full value of the labor and the profit, instead of contracting it out at low prices and then buying at large prices.

WANTED A NEW SUIT

And so He Burned His Old One up in a Stove.

   Richard George was committed to the county jail some time since by a justice of the peace in Solon on the charge of stealing a bicycle. He has remained in jail ever since and in his solitary moments has evolved a novel way of procuring a new suit of clothes. One day last week he deliberately thrust his whole suit into the stove and while it was going up in flames he probably had visions of new suits of the best broadcloth floating through his imagination. The days slowly passed, but no clothes came until on Saturday Sheriff Hilsinger, thinking the prisoner had undergone sufficient punishment, applied to Superintendent of the Poor Miner and the clothes were procured. Doubtless Mr. George would not fare as leniently should he attempt the same thing again.

THEY HEARD JOE JEFFERSON.

Fine Theatre Party From Cortland to Ithaca Friday Night.

   Seventy-seven Cortland people took a trip from Cortland to Ithaca Saturday night to hear the celebrated actor, Joseph Jefferson, in his masterpiece, "Rip Van Winkle," at the Lyceum theatre in that city. The company was joined at Freeville by forty-one more from Dryden. The trip was a very easy one, as plenty of [trolley] cars were waiting at Ithaca to take all down the hill. The theatre was filled to the doors, all the seats being taken and chairs even being placed within the orchestra pit.

   It is sufficient to say of the principal actor that he was Jefferson, and that tells the whole story. The Rip Van Winkle of Washington Irving would have fallen far short of its present popularity had it not been for Joseph Jefferson to dramatize it and put it on the stage. As played, it is wholly Jefferson's conception and he has made it famous. The support was excellent and every one was more than paid for hearing it.

   Cortland people were favored with some of the best seats in the audience and that this was true is due to the energy and enterprise of Dr. L. S. Ingalls, who stayed up all night with six other men whom he had hired in order to hold their places in the choice for seats, so great was the demand for tickets. Those who attended certainly owe him a debt of gratitude and would most heartily recommend him as a suitable party to send out in advance again to select seats for them. Out of the seventy-seven tickets from Cortland he failed in only fourteen seats of getting the choice of the purchasers made in advance, and what he had to substitute for these were just as good as the ones desired.

   Superintendent Allen saw to it that the train service on his road [E. C. & N. R. R.] was the very best and also secured a half fare rate for his friends on the electric road. The train reached Cortland on the return at just 12 o'clock and three street cars in waiting soon carried all to their respective homes, including the McGrawville party.

Christmas Cantata at McGrawville Opera House.

   Upon ascertaining that the Presbyterian Sunday-school, in toto, were not to enter into special preparations for a Christmas celebration, the superintendent of the primary department, Mrs. J. J. Cowles, upon consultation with the general superintendent of the school, decided to prepare a Christmas cantata. Accordingly, beginning with the 9th of the present month, she has been actively and incessantly engaged in the preparation of a delightful cantata entitled, "Santa Claus and His Fairies", in the presentation of which at the opera house on the evening of the 23d inst., more than fifty-two persons took part. The post graduates of the department and a few others from the prospective intermediate department, being upon invitation, included in the number.

   Mrs. F. H. Forshee, a teacher in the main school, rendered valuable assistance in taking the character of Margaret and in drilling the Busy Bees, who showed by their meritorious performance, how the little Busy Bees had been improving "each shining hour." Santa Claus with his light and airy troupe from fairy land was a very pretty conception, and their parts were most admirably performed throughout to the great pleasure of the audience. Miss Jack Frost, decorated with icicles and otherwise suggestive of nipped noses and tingling ears, was an unique character and well taken.

   The Junior Endeavor brigade in their song and parade and dumbbell drill did much credit to their instructor. The ragged little street-waifs in their plaintive songs and dialogue, awakened much sympathy and no little amusement, and the three young boot blacks, with their professional kits and dress, and their native bootblack wit and wisdom, elicited bursts of laughter. But it remained for the four sleepy little misses, in night robes, with lighted candle in hand, to quite captivate the hearts of the audience as they sang, and searched for Santa.

   The recitations, the vocal solos, duets, choruses, in short all the parts were most creditably and pleasingly rendered. It has been observed by many who were in attendance that the cantata was one of the best entertainments of the kind ever given in McGrawville. At the conclusion of the cantata the presents on the Christmas tree and upon and about the table in front of the stage, were distributed to the children and audience.

   Mr. A. P. McGraw received from the Sunday-school as a token of appreciation of his faithful services as superintendent, a beautiful swinging rocker. Mrs. J. J. Cowles was kindly remembered by her primary department, receiving from them a pretty red plush-bottomed rocker. The ladies of the congregation also made her an elegant gift of a very handsome black silk dress. The pastor, Rev. J. J. Cowles, received from his congregation a beautifully bound Standard dictionary and holder, gifts highly valued by him.

BREVITIES.

   —The new wooden frame bicycle invented by Mr. A. M. Dewey of Washington, D. C., is on exhibition at Beaudry's.

   —The Ladies Literary club will meet at Mrs. J. L. Watrous', Clinton-ave., tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon at 3:30 o'clock.

   —The annual pew renting of the First Baptist church will be held Tuesday, Dec. 31, 1895, from 2 to 5 in the afternoon and from 6:30 to 9 in the evening.

   —Mr. Ridgeway Rowley has increased the Galpin relief fund by a $5 bill. There is still an opportunity for others to move in a similar direction and to do much good.

   —The Y. P. C. U. of the Universalist church will hold its quarterly business meeting to-morrow night at the home of the pastor, 27 Charles-st. All members are urged to be present.

   —New advertisements to-day are—J. A. Jayne, page 6; Bingham Bros. &

Miller, page 8; Bennett & Hartwell, page 4; Warner Rood, page 4; Stowells, page 6; Case, Ruggles & Bristol, page 2; F. I. Graham, page 2.

   —M. H. Ray of the Arlington hotel has settled the civil action brought against him by the village for violation of an ordinance regarding excise by payment of $50. James Riley settled a similar action by payment of $35.

   —Two tramps applied at the police station last night for lodging. This morning Chief of Police Linderman gave them an invitation to exercise their muscle in cleaning up the cooler which they did and were allowed to depart.

   —We learn from the American Druggist that Paul T. Carpenter of Cortland, who filled Frank Starr's position at A. B. Brook's pharmacy while Mr. Start was sick, has passed the examination before the State Board of Pharmacy and is now a licensed druggist.—Ithaca News.

   —The pastor of the Presbyterian church and his wife will be "at home" to all their friends at 25 Prospect-st. on New Year's day from 2 to 6 o'clock and from 8 to 10 o'clock. They extend a cordial welcome to all friends to call upon them at that lime.

   —Edward Hughes, who claims to hail from Ithaca, is boarding with Sheriff Hilsinger, having been held for the grand jury by Justice of the Peace James Hines of Harford. Hughes is charged with grand larceny in taking about $40 and some jewelry from the house of Henry Vincent, overseer of the poor of that town.

   —For the information of some parties who were planning to go hunting on New Year's day we are requested to say that the game laws as revised by the legislature of 1895 provide for the closing of the game season for woodcock and partridge on Dec. 31, and that violations of these laws subject the violator to a fine of $25 for each bird killed.

   —The Elmira Telegram of Sunday published as a supplement a sheet containing fine half-tone cuts of the newly elected officers of the Cortland branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. The pictures include those of John F. Dowd, county president; Charles Corcoran, local president; William Kennedy, vice-president; M. V. Lane, secretary; J. L. Burns, financial secretary.

   —Mr. John Hallock of Cortland, who has been for some time at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home at Bath, N. Y., died at that place on Dec. 27, aged fifty-three years. Deceased was a member of the Fiftieth New York Engineers. Mr. Hallock has long been a subscriber of The STANDARD and just before his death wrote to renew his subscription to the paper. He was taken sick and the letter was not sent until after his death when it was forwarded with a statement of his decease by one of his attendants.

HEAD END COLLISION.

Crosstown Car and Baggage Car Met on Church-st.

   The first collision that has occurred on the new electric road took place this morning at 10:30 o'clock at the corner of Railroad and Church-sts. Passenger car No. 7 was rounding the Baptist church corner going east when it met the baggage car coming from the opposite direction. Before the brakes could be set the cars met, slightly smashing the ends of each. No one was injured and a few hours' work will put both cars in shape again.