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Show A Life-Saving City. Salt Lake is a rich and growing city. We brag a good deal about our Improvements, our advancement, advance-ment, our schools, our churches, our hospitals, our theatres, but after all what ar wo doing for the dwellers here who havo homes with no comforts, com-forts, or no homes at all? To run down, arrest, and try to imprison criminals costs a largo sum every year. If some of that could be diverted to make the lives of unfortunates less destitute of hope, would it not be better? In The Outlook, from the pen of Frederick C. Howe, is a statement of what the city of Cleveland Cleve-land is doing and which should be thoughtfully read. A brief synopsis is as follows: Two years ago in tho Cleveland campaign it was charged by the candidate opposed to Mayor Johnson that un-dw un-dw c.e Johnson administration the workhouse had failed to make money out of tho prisoners. The answer was: "We are not trying to make money out of prisoners; we are trying to make men." The inspiration behind what is going on is Dr. Harris R. Cooley, who has been Director of Charities Chari-ties and Correction during the seven years that Tom L. Johnson has been mayor. Dr. Harris was formerly a minister of a disciple church. No one in Cleveland knows or cares what his politics is. To him the question has been: What does society so-ciety owe to its poor, its weak, its destitute, its friendless, its offending members? not, "How to get rid of them with the least trouble?" to not try the kind of punishment to make tho boy, the girl, the woman, the man more vicious and less self-respectful tlwm thoy were before. Dr. Cooley's idea is that the drunk, the vagabond, the petty offender and tho unfortunate woman need help rather than punishment, so he has caused I kindness to take the place of punishment, help I has been substituted for fear. The field of hta op- I erations is called the Cleveland Farm Colony. It I is a beautiful nineteen hundred acre farm which I lies back ten miles from the lake. There hun- 9 dreds of prisoners are at work, but there is no I convict attire, no guar'l, no stockades. The men I are put upon their h.aor and very seldom break I their parole. They work in the soil, in the quarry, in the shops; they raise their own food. Dr. Cooley told Mr. Howe: "We have no I guards; no stockade; there is no one about the I place, so far as I know, who oarries as much as a I stick or a revolver. We trust these men, because we trust them they respect the trust." I Four or five years ago Dr. Cooley paroled a I large number of men from the workhouse. A I -storm of protests were raised. He justified his I courso in these words: "The rich avoid imprison- ment by paying the fines which the police court I imposes. The poor cannot pay their fines be- cause they are poor, and are sent to the work- house in consequence. That is imprisonment for I debt, a debt due the city. Imprisonment H for debt is contrary to justice and humanity." I Now the doctor has his own way. The policy is I greatly improving the city. The grounds of the I farm have been beautifully laid out, there Js space I for years of improvement. Whoa it reaches its I full form there will be the workhouses, there will I be apartments and shops for the different natlon- nlities and sexes. Classes where old and young I can be educated in elementary studios. There will bo all sorts of handicrafts; there is ostab-I ostab-I lished there a tuberculosis hospital and a cemo- tery. Then in another direction the city has on a farm of 285 acres established a model farm for I wayward boys sent there from the juvenile court. The boys are taught to work, taught in studies corresponding with the city schools; they have I pet animals, dogs, ponies, etc. The city parks have become playgrounds; there are bath houses I and a great gymnosiuim, and bands play inj,he I parks. The parks are now the people's commons, I and the work of saving the citys human wreckage I is under full progress. |