states that the jute mills can not be a success under the restrictions
of the present law, and urges that they should be run on a business
basis, for a profit. It continues, "One source of profit would be to
make use of the granite owned by the State" (at Folsom). It suggests a
consolidation of the two prisons at Folsom, where, with prison labor
and free power, and granite on the ground, a model prison could be
constructed. Warden Aull, of Folsom Prison, in discussing the subject
in 1896, said that for nine years the improvements there have employed
the convicts, but now some new scheme must be devised. "The convicts
must be kept at work. Every consideration of discipline, economy,
reformation, and health demands this." But he believes that it will
not pay the State to make shoes, blankets, clothing, brooms, tinware,
etc. (as has been suggested at various times) for the eight thousand
inmates of our State institutions. There are over two thousand
convicts at Folsom and San Quentin. Only a small part of these, he
says, could be utilized in making goods for State institutions, nor
would there be any profit unless manufacturing was on a large scale
for the outside markets as well. The experiment that New York is
making will be watched with much interest here.
The California labor unions recently adopted resolutions favoring "the
quarrying of stone by convict labor, and the placing it upon market
undressed at a low figure, in order to give employment to
stone-cutters, stone-masons, and others employed on buildings." The
State rock-crushing plant, if kept running, will utilize the labor of
about two hundred and fifty convicts. Any advance beyond this point
means open war with all the labor unions.
Evidently the time when the prisons of California are to be entirely
self-supporting is still remote, and the public as well as the union
need much more education upon the subject. Some reduction of expenses,
together with any utilization of convict labor that indirectly
benefits a few classes, is all that can be hoped for at present, but
ultimately the reformation of the criminal by making him capable of
self-support as well as anxious to live in peace with society, will be
recognized as the aim of wise penal legislation.
There is no doubt but that many profitable industries can be found, as
yet unnaturalized in California, and therefore coming only
incidentally into competition with existing industries, but well
adapted to prison labor. One of these industries is the growth and
preparation of osier willows of many species, and their manufacture
into many useful forms, especially into baskets for fruit pickers and
for wine makers. Another possible industry is the growth and
preparation of various semitropic species of grasses and fiber plants,
from which hat materials, mattings, the baskets used in olive-oil
manufacture and a multitude of other articles can be made. The sale of
crushed rock at Folsom should, of course, be at a price which at least
pays for the sustenance of the convicts employed. The enormous water
power of the prison should ultimately be fully utilized for
manufacturing purposes.
Let us now turn to a consideration more in detail of the separate
prisons, and to a brighter side--that which concerns the men who are
doing the best they can with a bad system. San Quentin, the oldest of
the two, has been for six years under the wardenship of an able and
attractive man, William E. Hale, formerly Sheriff of Alameda County.
Those who have read the wonderfully interesting reports of the
National Prison Convention are familiar with his methods and views.
The report for 1895 (Denver meeting) shows that Warden Hale, in the
breadth and sanity of his views, easily takes rank among the best
wardens of the country. He thoroughly understands California and the
Californians, and while progressive has never attempted the
impossible. In his various reports and addresses he especially urges
more industrial schools, better care of children, and more
kindergartens, such as those established in San Francisco by the late
Sarah B. Cooper. And, indeed, who can read Kate Douglas Wiggin's story
of Patsy without recognizing the value of kindergartens in the
prevention of crime? The San Francisco police once traced the careers
of nine thousand kindergarten pupils, and found that not one had ever
become a law-breaker.
Last summer San Quentin was the scene of an "epidemic of noise" on the
part of many of its inmates. Some of the newspaper accounts of the
affair were painfully exaggerated, and the prison management in
consequence was severely criticised. The fact is that the outbreak was
quelled rapidly and effectually, without outside help, with only a few
days' interruption of work on the jute mill, and without injury to any
person. A hose was simply turned into the noisy cells until their
inmates were subdued.
There have been very few escapes in the history of the prison, and
none in recent years. Its situation, on the extreme eastern end of a
rocky peninsula of Marin County, projecting into the bay of San
Francisco, is extremely well chosen for safety and isolation. The
State owns a large tract here, but it is very poor soil, and much of
its surface clay has been stripped for brick-making, so that no income
from it is possible unless more bricks can be made and sold. The
prison accommodations are extremely cramped, and large quantities of
brick should be used in needed extensions. Many small industries could
be carried on here, if permitted, for water carriage to and from San
Francisco is very cheap. Heavy manufactures requiring expensive steam
power are not justified here.
The abandonment of the large State improvements at San Quentin seems
contrary to the dictates of economy. Equally unwise is the suggestion
that it be made a prison to which only the most dangerous classes of
criminals should be sent. On the other hand, Folsom, with its quarries
and water power, seems fitted for a receiving prison, where all
convicts, without exception, should be placed on indeterminate
sentences at hard labor, and from which, on good behavior, on the
credit system, they might be removed by the prison directors to San
Quentin, there to work at more varied but no less self-supporting
trades. The ponderous jute-mill machinery should all be transferred to
Folsom, where power is now running to waste. At San Quentin, first,
the State should adopt more advanced reformatory methods.
Official statistics of the two prisons contain many interesting
features. In mere numbers the increase during the past two decades has
not kept pace with the increase in the State's population. San
Quentin at present usually contains about fourteen hundred and Folsom
about nine hundred, but an increase equal to the gain in population
would give them three thousand instead of twenty-three hundred. Even
during the so-called hard times of recent years there has been no
marked additions to the criminal classes in California, and the two
great strikes--that of the ironworkers and that of the railroad
brakemen and firemen--led to surprisingly few violations of the laws.
Close observers say that there has been a marked increase during the
past decade in the number of tramps, and that petty criminals have
increased everywhere. But there are no statistics of the county and
township jails. It seems certain that many villages and small towns,
even where incorporated, have increasing trouble with gangs of
hoodlums who are rapidly fitting themselves for State prisons. The
reform schools have been largely recruited from this semi-criminal
element, but stronger laws, swifter punishment, more firmness in
dealing with young offenders, and, in brief, a higher grade of public
sentiment on the part of citizens of small towns is evidently
necessary. According to recent discussions in the New York Evening
Post, the same sort of thing occurs in staid New England, and there,
as here, it is one of the most serious problems of the times. From
such a class of idle and vicious boys the prisons will hereafter be
recruited, rather than from newcomers.
The nativity tables of both prisons show that the number of
California-born convicts ranges in recent years from eighteen per cent
in 1890 to nearly twenty-five per cent in 1895-'96. In that year in
San Quentin, out of 819 American-born convicts, 314 were born in
California, 68 in New York, 44 in Pennsylvania, 41 in Illinois, 36 in
Ohio, and 35 each in Massachusetts and Missouri. Oregon sends 12,
Arizona 10; Washington and Nevada are represented by only one apiece.
The Southern States, excepting Kentucky and Virginia, send very few.
Something the same proportion throughout holds at Folsom, and fairly
indicates the States from which the population of California is
chiefly drawn. The total of American nativity at San Quentin is
sixty-four per cent; at Folsom, as last reported, it was about
sixty-five per cent. Of the foreign born (thirty-six per cent at San
Quentin), 99 out of 481 were Irish, 82 were Chinese, 56 were German,
49 were Mexican, and 44 were English. No one doubts that the laws are
strictly enforced against the Chinese and the Mexicans (meaning
Spanish-Californians); the other classes have votes and influence, and
often have better chances for avoiding punishment for misdeeds. Japan
contributes only one convict to San Quentin and two to Folsom. The
Chinese as a rule go to prison for assaults upon each other
("highbinding"), for gambling, or similar offenses, but seldom for
crimes against Americans. The Mexicans generally come to grief from
an old-time _penchant_ for other people's horses, or from drunken
"cutting scrapes."
A racial classification attempted at Folsom showed that out of 905
convicts 704 were Caucasian, 89 Indian and Mexican, 62 Mongolian, and
50 negroid. I do not find this elsewhere, so it may stand alone as
merely one year's observations.
Of much more importance are the statistics of illiteracy, kept for a
term of years. Warden Hale reports in 1896 that out of 1,287
prisoners, 120 can neither read nor write, 220 can read but can not
write, and 947 can both read and write. Of course, many who are rated
in the third class read and write very poorly, and a careful
classification in terms of the public-school system is essential to
clearness. Warden Aull, at Folsom, reports that out of 905 convicts, 6
are college men, 81 are from private schools, 53 from both public and
private schools, 582 have attended public schools only, and 147 are
illiterate, while the remaining 36 call themselves "self-educated."
According to the evidence of the wardens, no full graduate of any
American university has ever been an inmate of either prison. The
so-called college men were men who had spent some time at a college of
one kind or another. So-called professors appear among the convicts,
but I have been unable to discover that any professor in an
institution of standing has been at either San Quentin or Folsom since
its establishment.
The preceding statistics of illiteracy are defective, but some
additional light can be had from the tables upon occupations. Among
905 prisoners at Folsom, 96 occupations were represented. In round
numbers, thirty-four per cent were mechanics, twenty-nine per cent
were rated as laborers, twenty per cent were in business, and seven
per cent were agriculturists. But a closer analysis of the statistics
on this point shows that nearly fifty-seven per cent of the entire
number came from the following occupations: acrobat, barber,
bar-tender, butler, cook, gardener, hackman, hostler, laborer,
laundryman, mill-hand, miner, nurse, sailor, vaquero, and "no
occupation" (22).
The classification of crimes is very complete in all prison
statistics, and usually follows the legal phraseology. Nearly all come
under three great divisions--crimes against property, crimes of anger,
and crimes which arise from a perverted sexuality. From year to year
the proportion in these great divisions varies but little. In 1894 out
of 1,287 convicts, 796 were sentenced for crimes against property, 358
of which were for burglary, 170 for grand larceny, and 39 for forgery;
there were 343 commitments for assaults and murder, 188 of which were
for murder in either the first or the second degree; lastly, there
were 85 commitments for rape and other sex crimes. This was a typical
year, and will serve to illustrate for all and at both prisons.
The terms of imprisonment are long: out of 1,300 men in one annual
report, 143 were for life, and 392 for ten years or more. Over 300
prisoners had served more than one term, and some were even serving
their eighth term. Some at Folsom have reached their twelfth term. The
ages of the prisoners have ranged from sixteen to eighty-six, but the
danger period is evidently between eighteen and forty.
All of the prison officers agree respecting the bad physical condition
of the convicts. Many of them are weak and ill when they enter the
prison; many are the victims of unnamable personal vices. The
physicians at San Quentin in 1895 reported 27 cases of scrofula, 30 of
syphilis, 22 of epilepsy, 29 of opium habit, 62 of rheumatism, 70 of
typhus fever, and 124 of general debility. Medical statistics at
Folsom show similar conditions, aggravated by the malarial climate of
that locality. The death rate, formerly higher at Folsom than at San
Quentin, is now considerably lower, owing to the much better
accommodations for the prisoners, and the hard outdoor labor required.
In 1896 it was but .79 of one per cent.
It is gratifying to observe that the cost of maintenance of the
prisoners has been gradually reduced. Nearly thirty years ago
legislative committees reported that the cost of running the State's
prisons was four or five times as much in proportion to the inmates as
that of any other State in the Union, and that the prisoners lived
better than the average landowner. More economical methods were
gradually adopted, and by 1891 the cost per diem of a convict was 40
cents. This has been still further reduced; at San Quentin to 30.45
cents, and at Folsom to 32.50 cents.
There will always be outside criticisms of the food supplied as "too
good for convicts," but it is merely that of ordinary field laborers,
with much less variety. Under California conditions it could not well
be made cheaper. If the food statistics of the prisons were so
compiled as to separate the butter, olives, raisins, canned fruit,
etc., properly used on the tables of officers and wardens, from the
articles purchased for the prisoners, much misapprehension would be
prevented.
As long as the State pays the entire expense bill, however, there will
be a natural restiveness on the part of the taxpayers; the prison
management, no matter how careful it is, must suffer for the sins of
the system. The present directors and wardens are intelligent and
honest men, who could put the prisons on a self-supporting basis if
they had the authority and the necessary means for the plant required.
A comparatively small amount of manufactures would pay the daily
maintenance of the prisoners, and thus render the management much less
subject to public criticism.
This article is already as long as seems desirable, and I must close
without describing the California reform schools, which are
comparatively new, but have attracted much attention. At some future
time I may have an opportunity to take up that subject.
THE SCIENTIFIC EXPERT AND THE BERING SEA CONTROVERSY.
BY GEORGE A. CLARK.
In the November number of the Popular Science Monthly for 1897, Dr.
Thomas C. Mendenhall reviews at some length the workings of the Bering
Sea Commission of 1892. Dr. Mendenhall was himself a member of this
commission, and his account of its inside history is interesting and
instructive as throwing light upon the after-work of the Paris
Tribunal of Arbitration for which it was to prepare the
natural-history data.
Dr. Mendenhall naturally finds little to commend in the work of his
colleagues, the British experts, but he does not stop there, and
proceeds to generalize in an uncomplimentary way regarding scientific
experts as a class. For example, he lays down the following just and
admirable rule for scientific investigation: "It should be commenced
with no preconceived notions of how it is to come out, and judgment
should wait upon facts," and then continues to say: "Justice to the
man of science obliges the admission that, take him in his laboratory
or library, with no end in view except that of getting at the truth,
and he generally lives fairly up to this high standard; but transform
him by the magic of a handsome retainer, or any other incentive, into
a scientific expert, and he is a horse of another color."
It is not the purpose of this article to argue the cause of the man of
science, or to say whether or not this arraignment is just. It is the
intention merely to bring into contrast with the notable example of
failure which Dr. Mendenhall cites, an equally notable example of
success on the part of the scientific expert. If I mistake not, this
simple comparison will be all the vindication the man of science
needs.
To understand the full force of Dr. Mendenhall's article, it must be
remembered that it appeared on the very eve of the meeting of a second
Bering Sea Commission called to consider the selfsame issues which
occupied the attention of the commission of 1892. The article
therefore stands as a prediction of failure for the new commission.
Nor does Dr. Mendenhall leave his meaning obscure in this regard. He
says, "It is difficult to see what good will come from further
discussions, investigations, or declarations"; and his conclusion is,
"It will be impossible to know absolutely which group of scientific
experts (American or British) was right in regard to pelagic sealing,"
this last subject being the rock on which the commission of 1892
split.
It is not necessary here to go into the details of this first
commission. These are given in Dr. Mendenhall's article. Two things
only are essential to bring this meeting into contrast with the one of
1897. These are the instructions under which it was organized and its
final report. Both are brief. The first is comprehended in the
following statement, quoted from the Treaty of Arbitration of 1892:
"Each Government shall appoint two commissioners to investigate
conjointly with the commissioners of the other Government all facts
having relation to seal life in Bering Sea, and the necessary measures
for its protection and preservation."
The commissioners duly visited the fur-seal islands in Bering Sea,
made their investigations, and were called together at Washington to
deliberate upon the results obtained, and to prepare a joint report
for the guidance of the Tribunal of Arbitration then about to convene
at Paris. With Dr. Mendenhall was associated, on behalf of the United
States, Dr. C. Hart Merriam. Great Britain was represented by Sir
George Baden-Powell and Dr. George M. Dawson. The commission began its
labors on the 8th of February, and completed them on the 4th of March
following. Its final report, shorn of verbiage, consists of the
following colorless statement: "We find that since the Alaska purchase
a marked diminution in the numbers of the seals on and habitually
resorting to the Pribilof Islands has taken place; that it is
cumulative in effect, and that it is the result of excessive killing
by man." One half of the work set for the commission--namely, measures
for protection--was left wholly untouched.
In view of this meager and unsatisfactory result, it is perhaps not to
be wondered at that Dr. Mendenhall should grow skeptical of the value
of expert scientific evidence. But had he sought a cause of the
failure of 1892 he might easily have found one more rational than the
alleged "handsome retainer," or other "incentive."
It is manifestly true that the man of science can legitimately appear
as an "expert" only when his evidence is desired on some line along
which he has done work. An invertebrate morphologist is not an expert
in electricity; nor a physicist in the habits of pinnipeds. One only
of the four gentlemen, called upon in 1892 without their own consent
to act as experts, had even a passing knowledge of the life history of
marine mammals. Dr. Mendenhall was a physicist, Dr. Dawson a
geologist, and Sir Baden-Powell something of a sportsman. Dr. Merriam
alone, a mammalogist of the first rank, was a scientific expert in any
proper sense.
Moreover, the investigations conducted by the two commissions were,
from a scientific point of view, of the nature of a farce. Less than
two weeks were spent upon the islands, and that at a date in the
season least favorable of all for observations. This meant that the
greater part of their information was got second-hand by the
commissioners.
In marked contrast to the findings of the joint meeting is the
individual report of the American commission, prepared largely by Dr.
Merriam. This stands out as a notable contribution to the subject of
which it treats. Though largely a compilation, so well was the work of
sifting and weighing evidence done, that not a single statement of
fact in it has proved fallacious, and the more exhaustive
investigations of 1896 and 1897 corroborate its conclusions in every
particular. This was the work of the true "scientific expert," and he
can ask no better vindication. The joint commission contained
"experts" of another sort, and its report was necessarily different.
The second Bering Sea Commission came into existence in much the same
way as the first. An agreement was reached in 1896 between the two
nations whereby the entire fur-seal question should become the subject
of a new investigation. This agreement was the outgrowth of
dissatisfaction on the part of the United States with the workings of
the regulations of the Paris award.
The new investigation was begun at once and extended through the
seasons of 1896 and 1897, and again the experts were called together
at Washington to agree, if possible, on a joint statement of fact. The
scope of the investigation and the object of the joint meeting are
succinctly stated in the following words quoted in the preamble of the
commission's report: "To arrive, if possible, at correct conclusions
respecting the numbers, conditions, and habits of the seals
frequenting the Pribilof Islands at the present time as compared with
the several seasons previous and subsequent to the Paris award."
In the commission of 1897 the United States were represented by Dr.
David S. Jordan and Hon. Charles S. Hamlin; Great Britain, by Prof.
D'Arcy W. Thompson and Mr. James M. Macoun. It convened on the 10th of
November and concluded its labors on the 17th, reaching a full and
satisfactory agreement.
It will best serve our purpose to give the final report of the
commission of 1897 in full. Two reasons make this appropriate: First,
the substance of the sixteen concisely worded propositions of which it
is made up can scarcely be stated in fewer words than the original. In
fact, instead of condensing them, it will be necessary to amplify and
explain many of the points made in order to be sure that they are
clear to the lay reader. Second, the report has for some reason
received practically no notice in the American press, and it is to be
feared that the importance of the document has not been fully
appreciated by the American public.
1. There is adequate evidence that since the year 1884, and
down to the date of the inspection of the rookeries in 1897,
the fur-seal herd of the Pribilof Islands, as measured on
either the hauling grounds or breeding grounds, has declined
in numbers at a rate varying from year to year.
This proposition is in effect a restatement of the first clause of the
agreement of 1892, but it is much more definitely put. The decline is
not made to date vaguely "since the Alaska purchase" (1867), but
"since the year 1884." This latter date is significant for a number of
things. Prior to it for a period of thirteen years there had been no
difficulty in securing the normal quota of 100,000 skins annually. In
other words, up to that time the herd had remained in a state of
equilibrium, yielding a maximum product. Again, this date marks the
advent of pelagic sealing in Bering Sea, and the beginning of that
remarkable expansion of the industry which culminated ten years later
in 1894. The decline of the herd is thus made synonymous with the rise
of pelagic sealing.
The real significance of this proposition, however, lies in the fact
that the decline is declared to have been continuous to the present
time. In other words, it did not stop or even slacken with the season
of 1894. In this season, it will be remembered, the regulations of the
Paris award, avowedly for the "protection and preservation of the
fur-seal herd," went into effect. Translated into direct statement,
this proposition is an admission that the regulations have failed of
their object.