Among the resolutions adopted were the following:
That the committee appointed to arrange for the International Prison Congress be given authority to add to its membership as it seems desirable, and
That Whereas, the Congress of the United States had extended through its President an invitation to the International Prison Congress, which was first organized under the initiative of this government in 1870, to hold its Eighth Congress at our national capital in 1910, and said invitation has been accepted;
Resolved, that we respectfully ask Congress to make a suitable appropriation for the preparatory work of the International Association and for the entertainment of the Congress, as asked for in the estimates of the State Department, and we pledge the cordial coöperation of the American Association in making the Washington session memorable.
That the Congress of the American Prison Association indorse the plan advocated by the National Child Labor Committee and other organizations for the protection of children, for the establishment of a children’s bureau under one of the departments of the national government, for the investigation and publication of facts relating to child labor, including those relating to the correction and reformation of juvenile delinquents.
The following resolution was referred to the Board of Directors for action at the next congress:
In recognition of the high moral character of many life men in our penitentiaries, it is resolved that a committee be appointed who shall make suitable investigations and report next year upon the advisability of extending to this class of prisoners the benefits of parole.
The following are the Presidents for the year 1909: American Prison Association, Dr. J. T. Gilmour, Toronto; Wardens’ Association, E. F. Morgan, Richmond; Chaplains’ Association, the Rev. Aloys M. Fish, Trenton, N. J.; Physicians’ Association, Dr. Daniel Phelan, Kingston, Canada.
Reported for The Journal,
J. F. OHL, Official Delegate.
JUDGE LINDSAY AND HIS COURT
I first met Judge Ben B. Lindsay in his home city of Denver, Colo., in 1906. A remark he then made impressed itself strongly on my mind, namely, that he owed his position as judge of the juvenile court to the women. In Pennsylvania such support could be only moral. In Colorado it was in this particular case both moral and political, inasmuch as in said State women have the right of suffrage. It is to the everlasting credit of the women of Denver that in a struggle involving a great moral issue they should have stood by the man who has made it his life work to save children from criminal careers, and whose defeat had been planned by hostile elements.
I again had the pleasure of meeting Judge Lindsay in the fall of 1908, on the occasion of a visit to his court. With my personal card, I sent in my membership card in the Acting Committee of The Pennsylvania Prison Society, and was promptly shown into the courtroom and given a seat near the judge. He wore no ermine, not even the judicial silk gown; nor was he seated behind the usual high desk of a judge. As I entered he was standing beside an ordinary table, and later sometimes rested against it. The boys and girls brought before him handed him the reports of their recent conduct. His manner toward all was the kindest, and his language was so plain and simple that none could fail to understand. He would receive a report card from the hand of a small boy, read it, and then comment on it. If the report was good, he would commend the boy and encourage him to persevere in his course; if not good, he would express his sorrow. “Now, Johnnie, what’s the trouble? It makes me feel real bad to have such a report from you. Now don’t you think you can do better if I give you another chance? I think you can. Just make an effort and I am sure your next report will be better. If not, we will have to try some other plan.”