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Orient

American Standards on American Ships

IF you are going to the

Orient, sail on an American ship! Before you make any further plans send the information blank below for complete descriptions of the five magnificent"President" ships that sail from Seattle. They have no superiors across the Pacific! They sail from Seattle via Victoria every 12 days-the most frequent service! The Oriental ports of call are Yokohama, Kobe, Shanghai, Hongkong and Manila.

Every prospective traveler should investigate. Send the information blank now. There is no obligation!

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PERSONAL GLIMPSES

Continued

"The best in the world."

"How does this fellow Blitch treat you?"

"Blitch is a prince."

The State farm covers 18,000 acres in
Outside
Union and Bradford counties.

the miles of wire fence that surround the
farm, Superintendent Blitch is not in
control. The State road camps, subject
to drastic probes during the recent legisla-
ture investigation in the use of whips and
other brutal treatment to prisoners were
not connected with the State farm.

Private inquiry by the reporter during
his stay failed to bring even a hint from
any of the convicts that disciplinary
measures used at the farm were of brutal
nature. On the contrary, all of the pris-
oners queried were loud in their praise of
Superintendent Blitch's humaneness.

It is a noteworthy fact that during the recent investigation not a word of criticism was spoken against the Raiford farm. It is also worth remembering that during the National Prison Congress held here in 1921, such nationally known prison workers, as H. Hastings Hart, were vigorous in their praise of Superintendent Blitch's methods of handling prisoners. Several attending the congress referred to the Raiford farm as a model prison and to the honor system in vogue there as one of the most progressive steps in prison work ever undertaken in the country.

But Superintendent Blitch possesses the vision which has been a potent factor in making the State farm a credit to Florida, and he has consistently worked to that end. He has abolished physical punishment. He has eliminated the "snitch." He has put men on their honor. And the system has worked.

Real cooperation in discipline between prison wardens and inmates may seem a bit far-fetched, yet the writer informs us that

"The men see an advantage in cooperation," one recent, visitor to the farm declared. "It is to their interest, and the accomplishments of the past five years are a credit to the prisoners and to the directing executive."

"How do they punish you here?" the reporter asked the gray-haired convict.

"We have a place of solitary confinement, but you've got to be real bad to get into it. Then they give you bread and water for a number of days."

"How about the road camps, don't they put you on them, too?"

"Not unless you try to escape and then you'll go on the hard roads."

Every State prisoner is first committed
to the State farm. There he is examined.
If he is physically able for road work, he
is sent to a road camp. If not, he is kept
at the State farm. The 400 prisoners at
Raiford are not physically able.

Nine men escaped from the State farm
during 1922, Superintendent Blitch told
Six of them
the Times-Union reporter.
were captured, two of them wrote for funds
with which to return to the farm, and the
ninth man is still at large.

"Do you mean to tell me that two
escaped convicts, after being at liberty for
months, wrote you asking for money to
return to the farm?" the reporter asked.

"One man got as far as New Orleans when he wrote me that he wanted to

return-that he was tired of dogging. I send him a ticket, and a few days later he returned. It was the same in the other case. This man was in South Florida."

"How about the man who is still at large?"

"I'm expecting to hear from him almost any day, wanting to come back home," the superintendent said, and, smiled.

There are eight paid men at the farm. They live on the premises with their families, unarmed. There are guards, just scores of them, but they are convicts, serving long terms, and they do not carry

guns.

"There hasn't been a gun or a revolver on the farm since Mr. Blitch came here

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five years ago, Farm Manager William Brown said. "I brought one here with me, but it was disposed of immediately after my arrival," he added.

As an illustration of the humanness as well as humaneness with which the superintendent treats his charges, the article quotes Orlando F. Lewis, general secretary of the American Prison Association as having said:

Superintendent Blitch led me into the woman's quarters inside the stockade. There were three white women and some thirty negresses, mostly young. I saw an old mammy with spectacles sitting in a corner; I saw a young negro mother with a sober-eyed baby of, perhaps, four months, drest in white. As Superintendent Blitch called, "Hello," I saw a young negress open a wide mouth, giggle, wriggle with delight and shout: "Oh Lawsy!" like a child. The women watched the big man move swiftly through the room where some were ironing, some washing clothes, some doing not much of anything.

Superintendent Blitch stood on the

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Here in this

Strange paradox of life. room were murderesses, scarlet women, thieves, wantons, outcasts of a race that is. They sang in simple, unpretentious manner. That is the spirit of Raiford!

But the spiritual is not strest at the expense of the practical, for

Thousands of dollars are brought into the State farm each year by the products put on the market from the farm.

The following is a report of crops planted and to be planted this year:

Corn and beans, 500 acres; corn and peanuts, 230 acres; corn and peas, 100 acres; peanuts, 100 acres; oats, 150 acres; sorghum, 200 acres; rice, 75 acres; sugar cane, 42 acres; cayana cane, 20 acres; Jap cane, 40 acres; sugar corn, 50 acres; cow peas, 100 acres; merker grass, 150 acres; cotton, 40 acres; rape, 60 acres; sweet potatoes, 75 acres; hay crops (peas, etc.), 200 acres; cabbage, 10 acres; onions, 10 acres; green beans, 15 acres; Irish potatoes, 10 acres; cucumbers, 24 acres; watermelons, 27 acres; tomatoes, 10 acres; collards, 10 acres; strawberries, 4 acres; turnips, okra, mustard, etc., 20 acres.

Following is a report of the vegetables sold by the farm during March, April, and May of 1923:

One hundred and sixty-four crates of strawberries, $775.01.

Five hundred and four crates of onions, $874.22.

Seventy-three barrels of Irish potatoes,

$502.99.

Sixty crates of Irish potatoes, $108.65. Nine crates of squash, $3.60.

Eight hundred and thirty-seven crates of cucumbers, $1,557.09.

Two hundred and eighty-eight crates of cabbage, $668.72.

One thousand, two hundred and ten hampers of lettuce, $1,069.91.

The total net returns were $6,784. Regarding his arrival at the farm five years ago and his procedure in bringing about much-needed reforms, in accordance with his own ideas, Mr. Blitch said:

"On arriving at the State farm, I was surprized to note an absence of cooperation between the management and the prisoners, and yet I should not have been surprized, as under the old régime this was neither asked nor sought on the part of the officials. I reached here on a Monday night and spent the week 'looking on.' Three men escaped from under the gun the first day I was here and one the second day.

"The next day I went into all four dormitories and had a heart-to-heart talk with the inmates and begged and urged their cooperation, assuring them of better

conditions and fair treatment. Quite a few guards and foremen attended these meetings out of curiosity and practically all of them and many of the prisoners did not take me seriously-thinking I was an idle dreamer, or that I was trifling with them. But as the time passed and my Sunday morning heart-to-heart talks to the inmates began to have effect, I could feel the organization growing stronger.

"A number of the under officials and

foremen, including the captain of the camp, commenced to see the justice and fairness of my proposition and to be willing to assist me in putting them into force. So far as most of the prisoners were concerned, their response was almost instantaneous, for

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soon they could see that justice and fairness were being dealt out to them without partiality. I began to cut down the whipping, and some guards complained that the prisoners were getting insolent and talking back. Right at this juncture, I let the guards know that only such men as could get the work done without whipping and friction would be retained. Some quit and others did not quit soon enough and their pay was stopt. The organization among the inmates had become so strong in ninety days after taking charge that the guns were removed.

"As soon as this was done the doubting Thomases saw I was in earnest, and inmates and foremen rallied to the standard and our honor system was well launched. The inmates by this time began to feel that they were participating in a spirit of helpfulness, and saw that the former brutal, overbearing attitude of keepers and officials had ceased.

"Every activity of this great plant is manned and run by the prisoners, from the sawmill and power plant through the railroad, blacksmith shop, paint shop, plumbing shop, shoe shop, sugar, grist and rice mills, and every other work that we have. The men under proper treatment and

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