sent
indications will be for many generations to come. So far from setting men
free from prison you and I, sensible people as I trust we are, would, if
we could have our own way, put more men in prison than are there now; for
we should send up all who now escape by the wiles of crooked lawyers, and
we should include the crooked lawyers. But behind the prison walls we
should relax the iron discipline--the hideous, degrading, unsuccessful
system of silence and punishment--and substitute a system fair to all men,
a limited freedom, and work in the open air.

A new penology is growing up to take the place of the old. The Honor
System is being tried in many states and, to the surprise of the old
expert, is found practicable. But at Auburn Prison an experiment is in
progress that goes straight to the very heart of the Problem. In the
minds of many the reform of the Prison System has been accomplished when
a cold-hearted, brutal autocrat has been replaced by a kindly, benevolent
autocrat. But so far as the ultimate success of the prisoner is concerned
there is not much to choose. The former says, "Do this, or I will punish
you." The latter says, "Do this, and I will reward you." Both leave
altogether out of sight the fact that when the man leaves the shelter of
the prison walls there will be no one either to threaten punishment or
offer reward. Unless he has learned to do right on his own initiative
there is no security against his return to prison.

"Do you know how men feel when they leave such a place as this?" said one
of the Auburn third-termers to me, during the League discussions. "Well,
I'll tell you how I felt when I had finished my first term. I just hated
everybody and everything; and I made up my mind that I'd get even."

There spoke the spirit of the old System.

During the same discussion another member of the committee, an Italian,
had been listening with the most careful attention to all that had been
said and particularly to the assertions that when responsibility was
assumed by the prisoners at their League meetings there must be no fights
or disorder. Then when someone else had said, "The men must leave their
grudges behind when they come to the meetings of the League," Tony stood
on his feet to give more effect to his words and spoke to this effect:

"Yes, Mr. Chairman, the men must leave their grudges behind. Let me tell
you some thing.

"Two months ago at Sing Sing I did have a quarrel with my friend