Page Twelve
THE UNITED AMERICAN
JULY 1925
year, 1,396,000 returned to them, and these, with the secrecy of the prisons and their control by politicians
natural increase of births over deaths of 497,000, that MUST be stopped.
reduced the loss in farm population to 182,000.
From employes in a prison much nearer than Sing
Although the balance is still in favor of cityward Sing, we have it that a certain warden permitted prison
migration, the figures were held to show a back-to- vehicles to be sent to British Columbia for liquor and
the-farm movement. In 1922 the movement from city upon returning had the liquor brought into the prison
to farm was 880,000, which was 516,000 fewer than for safe hiding. The contents of the cargo were subse
in 1924, while the movement away from the farm was quently used to make the parties of the politicians in
2,000,000, only 75,000 fewer than the previous year.
power as dewy and outright wet as the participants
wanted it, and the warden’s house on the outside of the
prison walls, according to this allegation, was a con
A WOMAN’S CAMPAIGN COSTS
rpHE COST of man’s political campaign expenses has stant scene of revelry, a safe rendezvous at all hours
so long furnished us a subject for grief that it for the regular guys belonging to the clique. These
is akin to a feeling of relief to review the campaign “goings on” furnished at that time a full quota of
expenses of Mrs. Edith Nourse Rogers of the Fifth daily gossip for the prison inmates.
Massachusetts Congressional District who on June 30th
Favoritism on a money basis is another institution
was elected to succeed her late husband, Congressman in our prisons that is making the sought reform of
John Jacob Rogers.
the wayward individual, through a period of confine
The new Congress woman’s sworn statement of con ment, an impossibility.
tributions and expenditures in her campaign was
Let us find the means to place our penal institutions
recently received by the clerk of the House. It showed beyond the control and the influence of crooked poli
the Republican national committee had donated $2,500 ticians and fools.
to her election fund.
Of the $4,097.97 Mrs. Rogers spent $2,132.45 for
WAS SOLOMON’S OPHIR IN PERU?
postage, printing and mailing, which brought the total
GOLD first became a much coveted metal
well under the $2,500 limit fixed for candidates for
the House under the new statute, the specified items vv its I substance came from the land of Ophir, from
being exempt. Virtually all of the balance, her state where, according to the Bible, the Phoenician sailors
who operated King Solomon’s fleet brought the yellow
ment shows, went for newspaper advertising.
Mrs. Rogers attached an affidavit that she had metal to Palestine. Ophir was located in Peru, according
promised no jobs and substantiated her statement with to Dr. Von Hough, an Austrian explorer, who recently
emerged from the premival forests of Peru and Pampas
the customary oath. Her statement is as follows:
Del Sacramendo where he says he met three hundred
I have made no promise or pledges, nor has any person members of an Indian tribe of pronounced Jewish
made such for me, with my consent, relative to the appoint
ment or recommendation for appointment of any person to appearance, speaking a language similar to Hebrew.
any public or private position or employment for the The name Solomon is the most common name among
purpose of procuring support in my candidacy.
the members of the tribe.
The price of a political office is apparently not to
There is a legend current among the tribe says the
be any less for women than men, which is another explorer, of a land of gold known as Ophira situated
way of saying that another bubble has burst.
on the river Hualla, to which, so the legend says, white
men came many years ago and carried off large quanti
PRISON RUM-RUNNING
ties of gold.
Evidently we are not yet through revising and
"117HAT THE average tax-payer knows of the jails
* ■ and State prisons he supports is largely not worth amending many of the disputed and more often un
knowing. Ancient adages have it that it is none of his certain records of the past and the people and races
business and the fences are still high enough to make that have preceded us as inhabitants of the earth. The
it impossible for him to get even an occasional look in. records of the past need yet to be clarified for mucn
Aren’t the politicians running things for us ? Well, is too vague to be beyond a question of doubt. The light
we ought to be satisfied with almost any kind of an that science today is shedding on many records should
answer when we become so inquisitive that we actually not be construed as contradiction but as corroborative
want to know something positive about how our jailers and explanatory evidence of the earlier and simpler
and wardens, as agents for our mayors, sheriffs and narratives of the facts.
governors, are running these institutions for us.
RUBBER GOING UP
Well, here is a “leak” of July 17th from Ossining,
where is located the famous State prison of Sing Sing, WHILE twenty million American automobile owners
where Warden Lawes, in his prison court, (whatever
are demanding rubber to meet current require
that is) imposed a penalty of “thirty days” upon a ments the price of rubber has taken a leap from 17
prisoner charged with “rum-running.” This action cents to $1.12 per pound within a single year.
In search of raw gold men have given health and
was said in the “leak” to be the warden’s first step to
life, but gold has never been sought more eagerly
stop bootlegging in the prison of Sing Sing.
Bootlegging in a prison can hardly be possible with than the American agencies are seeking raw rubber,
out the knowledge and the consent of the warden or while the nation faces a situation that threatens to
his guards. If our prisons have become safe places become more than critical.
Secretary of Commerce Hoover is authority for
for criminals to operate and train others in the art
of breaking the law there is something about the the forecast that the real crisis will confront the
WHEN