Shoe making,
Tailoring,
And in summer Agriculture and Horticulture.
The city could rent a thousand acres of land in Westchester County on which garden produce could be raised and sold to the poor at low figures, which would give employment to from 500 to 1,000 persons. From the middle of April till the middle of October they could live in tents, which in many cases would greatly improve their health.
The cultivation of the soil under proper restrictions is a most healthful labor and cannot fail to show good results if properly carried out. French penologists and reformers speak of the system in the highest terms and recommend its adoption all over the world. If necessary these convicts could be used in works of irrigation or canals for the Federal Government, or indeed, the carrying on of public works in any part of the country.
M. Demetz, a French philosopher and founder of the Mettray Reformatory in France, has, for many years, advocated the cultivation of large tracts of land by criminals. His motto has been, “Reclaim the land by the man, and the man by the land.” Since 1850 France has had agricultural colonies for young offenders in crime, where they are compelled to stay from six months to two years. They cultivate the soil on a paying basis, and the success and management of the farm colonies has been eminently successful, as only seven per cent. of their numbers return again to crime.
French economists think that money has never been more wisely spent than for such institutions, as the returns show that ninety-three per cent. of the inmates after their liberation become useful members of society.
It seems to us that no country in the world would carry out penal colonization schemes with greater advantage and better results than the United States.
The peaceful conquest of large tracts of lands in this State, means the acquisition of more domain within our own borders, in which there may be homes and farms for hundreds of our surplus population.
There are several thousand criminal and vagrant idlers who at the beginning of winter go before Justices of the Peace in the country towns and are committed to the county jails for several months, where they live in idleness on the fat of the land. Such people ought to be in some colony and kept there till cured of their delusions.