in current affairs, present in every normal consciousness, the ground principle so long obscured from our educational systems and religious observances by reason of mediaevalism and institutionalism, so blurred in our common life by excess and artifice, so misused in prison labor systems, is now rallied for its appropriate use in the scheme for reforming prisoners. Successful legitimate industrial performance involves native or acquired capacity and disposition for useful work. This in turn demands such development of physical energy that exertion is pleasurable or not painful; it requires a degree of mechanical and mental integrity which verges on morality and, indeed, is of the same essential quality; there must be sufficient dexterity for competitions, and stability equivalent to reliability that insures a commercial value to the services. It is the observation of experience that such an effect can be produced by industrial training; and, moreover, the possession of means, produced by exercise of the honest qualities made necessary to successful labor, conveys to the workmen a stimulus as of achievement, the ennoblement of proprietorship, and suggests some sense of solidarity of interests which prompts to prudence, thence to proper fraternity of feeling and conduct. After such a course of training and actual achievement, when the prisoner is sent out, on conditional release, to the situation arranged for him, possessed of his self-earned outfit of clothing, tools, and money, having left behind a margin of his savings to be added to from time to time or drawn upon to meet exigencies; after his sustained test on parole under the common circumstances of free inhabitancy, is he not, ordinarily, entitled to reasonable confidence that he will live and remain within the requirements of the laws? The formation of such a new social habitude is an educational, therefore a gradual, process which requires time as well as practice. Whatever of real value may attend the preaching of disinterested benevolence to the outside general inhabitants, it is, as an independent agency, of little use for a community of common convicts. Such of them as might be moved by such an appeal are, usually, scarcely normal, and their responsive benevo lent acts are likely to be injurious. Fellow-feeling for comrades may prompt to crimes, collusions, and public disorder. The same may, properly, be said of prescriptive moral maxims, generally, and of the possible effects of personal entreaty. Also effort, such as is commonly made to induce a habit of moral introspection, is believed to be a mistaken policy. The state standard of practical reformations is not the product of inward moral contrition; more naturally contrition is consequent on reformation. When reformation is accomplished contrition is useless and often harmful. It was deemed not an encouraging indication when, as occasionally happened, a prisoner on his admission to the reformatory, answering interrogatories, flippantly said: "I am going to reform;" not encouraging, because it showed no real purpose or some vague diverting notion of reformation quite aside from the real thing. The most hopeful response was felt to be when a desire was expressed or felt to learn some trade or income-giving occupation. Moral suasion and religion are recognized as reformative agencies in our prison system, but no particular niche is prescribed for them such as is assigned to other agencies. Moral tone and the religious consciousness are a flavoring quality immediately penetrative. It is a savory attribute inherent in and emanative from the humblest as the noblest effort and exercise intended for any betterment. CONCLUSION Neither punishment nor precept nor both combined constitute the main reliance; but, instead, education by practice-education of the whole man, his capacity, his habits, and tastes, by a rational procedure whose central motive and law of development is found in the industrial economies. This is a reversal of the usual contemplative order of effort for reformations-the building of character from the top down, to the modern method which builds from the bottom upward, and the substratum of the structure rests on work. This better order of procedure is in accord with the method of human development foreshadowed by the allegorical scriptural Eden episode; and it does not preclude the highest aim and attainment. The far-reaching reformatory possibilities of work are admirably pointed out by Professor Drummond. I quote: Work is an incarnation of the unseen. In this loom man's soul is made. There is a subtle machinery behind it all, working while he is working, making or unmaking the unseen in him. Integrity, thoroughness, honesty, accuracy, conscientiousness, faithfulness, patience-these unseen things which complete a soul are woven into the work. Apart from work these things are not. As the conductor leads into our nerves the invisible force, so work conducts into our spirit all high forces of character, all essential qualities of life, truth in the inward parts. Ledgers and lexicons, business letters, domestic duties, striking of bargains, writing of examinations, handling of tools-these are the conductors of the Eternal! So much so that without them there is no Eternal. No man dreams integrity, accuracy, and so on. These things require their wire as much as electricity. The spiritual fluids and the electric fluids are under the same law; and messages of grace come along the lines of honest work to the soul, like the invisible message along the telegraph wires. The principles of the American Reformatory Prison System as here set forth are as yet incompletely practiced; but, more and more, men are learning that the eternal verities are within. the acts and incidents of the daily life, that the public safety hinges upon a proper adjustment of individual and collective relativeness, and that the fulcrum of leverage is economic efficiency. This better view is fraught with promise for better public protection by means of rational reformation of offenders. IMPROVEMENTS IN INDUSTRIAL LIFE INSURANCE 1 CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON THE PRESENT FORMS OF LIFE INSURANCE FOR WAGE-EARNERS The "industrial insurance" forms are of chief interest in this article. Industrial insurance in this connection means a system of weekly premium insurance, under which the agent solicits business, writes applications, collects premiums, takes proof of death, and pays claims at the house of the workingman. It is the method most popular in this country with persons of small means, because it fits in with the weekly reception of wages, requires apparently the least sacrifice, does not call the workingman away from his occupation, and offers absolutely safe guaranty that the insurance will be paid in case of death. By taking the published rates of some of the leading companies we can form the best judgment possible of the present situation. INFANTILE TABLE WEEKLY PREMIUM 3 CENTS-PREMIUMS CEASE AT AGE 75 1 This article is designed to supplement the writer's Industrial Insurance in the United States, chap. vi, and especially articles in American Journal of Sociology in 1907-8. I desire to mention Industrial Life Insurance, Its History, Statistics, and Plans, published by the Spectator Company, New York. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and the Prudential Company have furnished new materials. Infantile whole life.-The Metropolitan table offers indemnity in case of death of a child when the age at next birthday is two to nine years. No premium greater than 5 cents weekly is taken. The amount payable increases with the time the policy has been in force, from under six months up to eight years. INFANTILE WHOLE LIFE Payment of Premium ceases on first anniversary of date of issue after insured reaches age 74 Amount payable provided death occur after Policy has been in force for the following periods, for a weekly premium of 5c. Explanation of the infantile table.-When the person to be insured is less than ten years of age next birthday, the amount of benefit payable depends upon the length of time the policy has been in force. Thus, if a child is five years of age next birthday when the policy is issued, and the policy remains in force three years, the insurance for a weekly premium of five cents will be $110. After the policy has been in force four years the insurance will be $150, and after it has been in force five years it will provide for a payment of $175 at death. By this time, however, the child will be ten years old next birthday, and thereafter the amount of insurance will remain at $175. No further premiums payable after insured reaches age seventy-five. LIMIT OF INSURANCE In no case will any policy be written for a greater amount of insurance than set forth in the following table, nor will any policy be written which together with any other insurance then in force, in this or any other company, would make the total amount of insurance in force exceed the amounts stated in this table: In some cases, after a five-cent infantile policy has been in force for some time, a three-cent additional policy may be written, or two three-cent policies may be written in some cases, but the above rule as to the limit of amount of insurance must be rigidly followed. |