“I am heartily in favor of legislation which would prevent the exhibition of pictures showing any action which in real life would be a crime.”—Chief of Police Corbitt of Newark.
“I think they are the cause of 20 per cent. of our crime, especially of petty larceny. These shows cannot locate in our town.”—Nutley.
“In my opinion, moving picture shows are bad for women and children. I know where children steal to get money for shows; also where women neglect their families to go.”—Weehawken.
“Children are inclined to steal in order to go there; also neglect their studies.”—Passaic.
“I had a case drawn to my attention of a five-year-old boy who attended a cheap picture show where there was shown a picture with a hold-up in it. This boy’s mother was ill. The child got an old revolver, walked into his mother’s room and told her to throw up her hands. When he was asked where he had learned that he answered he saw it in the show. I believe if the revolver had been loaded some one would have been killed.”—Hackensack.
Big Brothers in Atlanta and Macon.—Atlanta’s probation system for adults, which embraces drunkards, vagrants, wife beaters, deserters of families and the like, is to be materially enlarged in scope and made more efficient through the development of a volunteer probation force of 100 business and professional men who are willing to give a few hours of their leisure time each week in an effort to save the men and youths who come under the supervision of the probation officer. This volunteer force will work in conjunction with Officer Coogler and the Prison Association of Georgia, which has headquarters at 404 Gould building.
In Macon, Lewis J. Bernhardt, agent of the Georgia prison association, has secured 100 names of Macon people who will aid in the perfection of an organization in that city to cope with conditions in the city and county prisons and convict camps and to aid in securing a better penal system for Georgia.
Radical Experiments in Oregon.—According to the Newark Evening News, Governor West of Oregon has inaugurated an “honor system” with astonishing results. Chains and stripes have been abolished. Convicts are put at work outside the prison walls, without guard on roads, farms and buildings, on their word that they “will not throw the governor down.” They are given a chance to fit themselves for useful callings, are assured of parole, with work at good wages, when they deserve it. There have been but three attempts at escape since the system was inaugurated six months ago. The new system is carefully worked out. The state prison aid society works with the state parole board and governor to find remunerative employment for paroled men. Men that have proven reliable and efficient on prison work are recommended for parole; a job is secured them. If they get a better one they can take it. But they must work! And every man of the fifty paroled in the last three months has made good.