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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 1924)
f" THE OREGON STATESMANrSALEM, OltEGON SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 7, 1924 TP1 Our Country's I I KADIO OUTFIT DEMONSTRATEP IN CHEVROLET SEDAN I I I m Our Country's Greatest Problem by WARDEN A. M. DALRYMPLE, O. S. P. Bead at the National1 Meeting of the America a Prison Association, t Salt Lake City When Victor Hugo wrote his f anions Lea MIserables he made his hero. . Jean Valjean," , say: "There are no bad herb, nor bad men; there are only bad culti vators." a Thia was a broad and sweeping statement; but surely we will all ezree that, there .are many bad cultivators. -"' ..vV-' We can not hope to gather figs from thistles. i We will neTer pick perfect fruit from trees that are not cared for. The greatest asset any nation may possess i not wealth, not commerce. , It Is good citizenship, a citizenship that lorea and has confidence In its govern ment and its institutions and la loyal to ti country's flag. " If I were to say what I think are the chief causes' for the increase in crime,' I would set down, en vironment, disloyalty and thought lessness. ,"' '- v;l : : '- i'--".. j If I were asked what I -think of prisons, jails . and reform schools as reformatory Institutions I would be compelled to say that la tine cases out of ten, these 3 the making of good boys and men out of bad ones is concerned. Habit la a dangerous chain that Linda the public as well as the individual. Habit of thought and tctloa on the part of the public Las built jails, and prisons, and co-called reformatory institutions for the Incarceration of thosa who tare violated the laws we have :-ade for what we are pleased to call the "protection of ; society." Hiht here I want to point out i-st one of many instances that have come under my observation been warden of the Oregon state penitentiary where four hundred and thirty men and boys are con fined, and I am sure that many sfnllar cases may be found in every prison in the country:' A man to sentenced to a term of ten years' in prison.; He leaves behind a wife, and four -boys, the children: ranging I In ' age from three to twelve years, all too small to contribute to th support of the family which is left destitute. This family lives In an Isolated section of the state. A! few days ago the wf e wrote a letter to the husband in prison relating the sad state of affairs at home j: saying she felt everyday that she "would beeome insane, and suggesting that the easiest and v best way out of her troubles was to jump in the river flowing close by her door. I have no solution to offer for this problem and similar ones, but there; must be 3 solution, and a correct oner for' obviously- it is wrong for the state -f or society to take away the bread-winner and leave his family : of five to f flounder in poverty And want helpless charges upon the public apd eventually to; Join' the , ever increasing army of criminals and derelicts. How rhas society been, protected In this case? If en vironment exerts aar influence up on the lives of children, what shall: we 'expect of. these- four? And bear in mind that I am only I citing' a single instance la many thousands. V:;3'; , ".;. v';'; f-I have, heretoforeej called at tention to the power of habit and its influence . upon the public as well as the individual. The Amer- irtng the ten months that I have lean people .have, fallen. Into the 7 W , i:dtoecycle '2- REAL BARGAIN ' .n.U FLne Tlicc-srcc J ' ' ' '. !. . Electrically EqulrpcJ Li GccJ CcnJIlfca" C e KJ i, Eolance ca Eosy 'Terzsa , w.: Scott . THE. CYCLE MAN" ' '! ' EI CYCLES, T.IOTORCYCLES AND REPAIRING W i Something, entirely new in the radio appeared on the streets of Salem last week. The outfit was in a Chevrolet sedan recently pur chased from the Newton Chevro let Company. It was operated by H. B. Churchill of the Churchill Hadlo Shop, Salem. The outfit consists of a modified super-het- rodyne, 7-tube back set working on a two foot loop ; with a non power loud speaker which waslo cated in the back seat of thef se dan. ' : : ;' ? : ' Mr. Churchill's main J object of the experiment was to locate certain- radio interference which has been bothering amateur;' operators in Salem. He has succeeded in finding some of the interference and V ig trying to remedy; this through, the telephone company. Mr. .Churchill ' is . going to' give some more time to these demon strations and endeavor .to locate further interference. The! ' pic ture; above is the same type car as Mr. Churchill is driving. , t ? habit of enacting laws, and at every seBsiom of the national con gress each member, seems' to run a race with all his fellows in an effort to outido'them In the pass ing of more laws. And so it is with our state legislatures.' Every session, finds a lot of new and needless laws upon our statute books- and : it takes an unusually clever citizen to conform to them all. - . , " Again, the courts have fallen into the habit of enforcing these laws ome of them. We have in the Oregon state penitentiary X today a man sen tenced to five years imprisonment for writing a chek for ten dollars on a bank in which he had no funds. He attempted to cash the check, and was arrested and cent up for five years though he had not received a dollar- and no one had lost anything. But the judge had somply fallen into the habit of saying "five years" to all com ers, and that's all there was to it. I am glad to say, however, that at a recent meeting of the parole board a recommendation . was made that the sentence be cut down, and- in . compliance r there with Governor Pierce commuted it to two years, which, the Lord knows, is enough. M 4 I ; have often wondered why boys, or men, but especially boy who are first offenders, are sen tenced' to prison, for crimes such as forgery, larceny, burglary or embezzlement, where only a small sum of money or Its equal value la Involved. How infinitely better it would be for all concerned If the court in its wisdom could say to the offender: "You have-taken what did not belong to you; I will give you three months or three years to pay back in full , what you have taken and when you have fulfilled . your obligation your plain duty ae a citizen the slate is. wiped- clean and there is no blor left upon your good name. ; By this method the loser has re gained what he lost and he who took it has fulfilled an obligation which has made him a better man than any term, short or long, in uwJJlGL( C t mmsmy 'mm mm mm , ' Buy a : guaranteecl useel car and ieliminatei tHe first 'depreciation, wheh is the greatest expense m owning an automobile. . " ; ' ; j. v ;We put. th'e-price in. plain view on tKe windshield: j jTlis correct ear model is also printed, on the wind- chield. : ' : r . ; .' : . " ;' - ': : ! ye do not est Uiclc fipeedometersy as; tKat is a deceit cars are priced for the- transportation they, will deliver, irresp ective of - the mileage they; have - gone . , J . G TG Phono 885 Hc-cf th'a xsl:es and model3 here now: Ford Tourinffs, Coupes, 2-Uoor J '4-Ecr Sedans, Willys-Knight Touring; Oakland 4-Wheel-BniIte Tour ing Z ', u . -: aker . Light Six Touring ; Dodges, j open : and closed ; Superior ZlzZzli cf C.-vrc!ct,.c"on r.rd closed; Stars,. several models The biggest- z in t.. j V. :i-r.ictt3 villcy. the penitentiary coujd possibly have done abd society is a Wt bet ter off. My theory la that "an oupce of prevention llf worth a pound of cure," and th.at .it is bet ter to help a man -or boy go straight than it ie to reform him after he has taken the crooked path. " ;--: ' .: Organized society should take every precaution to ; preserve its members, for every time 4ne ,s lost by ostracism and branded an outcast criminal, then ;the :social structure has been weakened to just that extent. i , j - And in the light of this5 we find sheriffa, district, attorneys, police men' and Judges who .often' seem to - take a ' goo4 ' deal of pleasure whenever they get a conviction and the' state's attorney tries, his best ,to send every man brought before him" to the penitentiary. J -ilJot'maay years afcoI Vas a newspaper reporter and It was my business to attend trials in' police and other courts. J- have1 seen boys brought into court for the first time charged with some of fense and I have seen them, 'trem ble like frightened rabbits s the judge or prosecutor,! trained . In court procedure, fired- question after question at the prisoner who often' did . not know the meaning of the terms they used, nd I have known them to convict ithem- eelves through their "owns ignor ance, being too poor; to employ counsel to defend then). And this leads me to believe f that some steps should be taken to jchange the present court practice and fur nish a competent defender tor the prisoner as well as a! prosecutor for the state. Better yet, let the state's attorney stand in the same attitude oward he accused as he takes' .In behalf of the state, and Instead of a merciless prosecutor lit him act in the 'capacity of advisor. . J f 1 1 do not think many men are railroaded to prison, though many have told me they were. But I do know that many boys and men are made criminals py long sen fences who might be saved, to so ciety if leniency wer shown at the proper time.. ' . Thoughtlessness : I have eald that thoughtlessness H one of the chief causes of cirme, especially In the young and the great majority of our inmates now are young men. A hoy of twenty has not the experience or the understanding of a man of mature years and consequently should not be expected to bear equal responsibility. But the law makes no distinction and too often the courts do not. The result is that our prisons are full, j ! : : X f I am partial to columns of fig ures and a mass or dry statistics. I. seldom read them; But! a few days ago I! came upon an I article written by Edward Ii; Smith and published in "Busine33,M a Detroit magazine. In which he shows that the cost of crime in Uhe United States is $10,000,000,000 annual ly. This' vast sum la, divided and classified as thefts, robberies, for geries, embezzlements, arson and all other dishonest i transactions and the expense of prisons. Jails, police forces,, courts and reforma tory, institutions. : Sorfhe greatest atid most dangerous problem con fronting us; today is CRIME. . i , . A. M.' Dalrymple. 1 i. THE FIRE HAZARD PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 6. Forest fire conditions remain ser ioua throughout the Pacific; coast states, according to early Septem ber bulletins received today by the Western Forestry and Conserva tion.' Association from protection agencies from Montana to. Calif ornia. Light rains in August en abled gaining control of outstand ing fires but it is again extremely dry. From novr until the first fall rain is the period In which to fear strong wind and low humidity. Professional, fire fighters,; remind the public that last year -85 of the season's losses in Oregon and Washington were in September and. that Sept. 12, 1902, was the famous "black day" in these states when; noon was , like .midnight from the smoke of blazing forests ; ' So far,, while 1924. has been one of the most dangerous seasons of history extraordianry fire organ ization and expenditure have been aided by absence f protracted dry wind and, except for heavy, dam age to reforestation on open lands. highly successful . under the ad verse circumstances. . The reports just received contain the first offi cial estimates of losses; which, al though still preliminary, go far to correct the conflicting statements which have been current. They indicate that outside the Govern ment's ' national forest I holdings, the damage up to date In the five western states amounts to about 91.250,000, not including that to forest reproduction. About half a million dollars represents stand ing timber loss; nearly as much in destruction of loga and logging equipment; while quarter of a mil lion is damage to settlers and mis cellaneous community property, nl the three heaviest timber states, the total losses, outside notloanl forests,, apear to approximate; in Washington, 1500,000; California $475,000; Oregon, 1185.000. Government losses have not been compiled but may approach 13,000,000. s California I has suf fered most, i In that state the for est service has already spent $425,000 in fire ftehtlner and mill has a-largely-augmented emergen cy rorce Including rangers brought m zrom Arizona and New Mexico and seven detachments of troops usea ior patrol. Throughout the coast many national forests are still partly or wholly closed ' to visitors. o'-r: --. :. j A similarity In the reports re ceived from state, federal and pri vate forest officers alike, through the five Pacific states, is the be lief that the 1924 season teaches the necessity of more police re striction. The extreme hazard has been given wide publicity and in general the public has respond ed. ? There; have also been over -400 prosecutions of fire law vio lators. Nevertheless, -man-caused fires due to carelessness or will fulness are still occurring daily. About 5500 fires have - been re ported already this season. By far the greatest source has been the forest visitor class, using lands not Its own, including campers, sportsmen, smokers, motorists, berry pickers and the like. These have been responsible for from 30 to 47 of the fires, according to region and agency reporting. Lightning comes perhaps next In some regions, with the remainder alloted mostly ; to land-clearing, railroads, logging and otber Indus trial use ,,0! fire. Numerically, loggers' fires are few, but t'., i f w careless ones are responsible fur a heavy per cent of the damage for they are in tbe worst situations. Incendiary fires have been num erous, 184 being reported In Ore gon out of a total 84 0 In that state. California has had about 1500 fires already this year; Washington about 950. ' ; Authorities agree that from now on. the greatest danger lies, In hunters, land-clearing settlers and careless burning of logging flash ings. .The hazard will remala great until after1 heavy alrn, for dry wind and low humidity may fire not completely extinguished. Due to the world peaca short age Mexico is having . trouhlj again, In Paris the fashionable lrlj are going without stockings, , per haps so they won't have to eo without men. ' . " Battery and Eleclrlear Serrice Buys a-Dandy ' Guaranteed Battery ' v. for d FdfcT, Chevrolet, Star or Overland, and many other makes. " It is a full sized battery and well insulated. 90 Amphere-hour capacity. ' ? ;Gqme m and See This Battery We give authorized electrical service on the following cars: : Rolling Dort, Willys-Knight, Buick, Flint, StarJ Oldsraobile, Chrysler, Maxwell, Oakland, Jewett, Packard,. Chevrolet, Durant, Gardner, 'Hu;r.:3 bile, Nash, Overland, Studebaker. . E. H. BURRELL f - ' 4 :y. Electrical &tid Battery Service 238 NORTH HIGH STREET ! ilAKES HIGHWAYS SAFER i:In their efforts to reduce the number of. automobile accidents at grade crossings certain rail roads have decided ) d : prosecute those who crash through i closed gates, thus damaging; railroad pro perty ',.,'. ; . f - . ! The time . will come when all much-traveled highways will pass overhead or - underneath, railroad tracks : ' : . , . ? i , , .Signs .Indicating .the streets are one-way streets shoftld beiiilum itated at night. ; . ' ! j -j It . Is good : for , tbe pedestrian 1 3d good for the motorist to make it easy to operate a motor car, . The cities with the most! motor :ztz are tt.cost p'-rrrcus. if I! it. 'I nl hi i I M I Common hi Mcdar-C3& imports a motor device that ' Gchc3 a prtHgrn cs eld cs tha actomobilg incrcsiry. 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On3 trhl u-ill rcvc4 ' its escclbnce to you i 1 Hizh Street at Trade .
