HOME AND EDUCATION

...The members called upon their fellow women-citizens for help, but comparatively few responded...

...He appeared before Judge Shortall— recently elected to the Superior bench—who placed the bail at $3,000 cash...

...It took much work to get signatures to the petition...

...annie besant...

...It is a short drive from the questionable beach resorts to this residence district...

...That the honest police judge was the exception, and not the rule...

...But every attempt to carry out the platform pledge thus far has been blocked...

...The cries of the girl assaulted by Hendricks, attracted the attention of a man and his wife returning home in their automobile, through a short cut across the park...

...The above extract from a personal letter has a strong appeal to me, both because of the principle involved and because I long to see Wisconsin take a more advanced position in this matter of prison labor...

...Women should be interested and active in support of this reform...

...A young attorney, interested in reforms, looked up the record of Judge Weller to find a long and continued score of cases of criminal assault...

...This will doubtless continue as a permanent organization, and be a power for good...

...what matters it if our schemes of a moment are found to be useless and thrown aside...

...This reduced the expense of the recall to a very small amount, and removed the principal objection of the law-abiding citizen...

...to be upright, not to be successful...

...to be essentially, not outwardly, respectable.—robert Louis stevenson...

...dismissed, dismissed, dismissed !—one a repetition of another...

...Few of these men, who appeared before Judge Weller, were "sent over," the majority, by dismissal of their cases—even where evidence was conclusively incriminating—were practically given a license to continue in their monstrous crimes...

...that if there was any blame attaching to any person or cause it was to be laid at the door of the 'system...

...This recall was started and carried to a successful issue by a little band of earnest and courageous women...

...They requested, however, to be let out...

...Home and Education Conducted by BELLE CASE LA FOLLETTE The Recall of An Incompetent Police Judge in San Francisco By ELLA COSTILLO BENNETT THE BIGGEST THING that has happened in California since women obtained the suffrage is the Recall of Judge Charles L. Weller...

...The girl who was assaulted lived in Ocean-side, a suburb, near the beach...

...However this little band worked day and night...

...Hendricks' attorney protested against what, he termed, excessive bail but Judge Shortall refused to lower it...

...In criminal assault only in one case was the bail placed beyond five hundred dollars, and once it was as low as fifty dollars...

...If the legislature takes no action, no doubt both of these contracts will be renewed for long terms...

...The life we have thrown into them, the devotion with which we planned them, the strength with which we strove to carry them out, the sacrifice with which we offered them to the success of the mighty whole, that enrolled us as sacrificial workers with Deity, and no glory is greater than the glory of personal failure which ensures the universal success...

...The man got out and rescued the girl, who hysterically clung to him for protection...

...FOR many years it has been the opinion of the majority of people of San Francisco that its police courts were thoroughly corrupt...

...Judge Weller's answer to this— after its details were investigated and exposed, was that it happened a long time ago (six years) and that he couldn't get at the exact age of the little girl...

...The average bail in these cases was less than $300, whereas the average bail for offenses against property was close to the five hundred mark...

...There was sufficient against the judge in his general incapacity to realize the eternal fitness of things to condemn him without bringing additional charges in the way of corruption...

...Hendricks acted so pleasant as to calm their fears, and stopped to take in another man, evidently waiting...

...saying, "There has been entirely too much of this sort of thing in San Francisco, and it is time to put a stop to it some way or other...

...The recall has only been tried out once before in the state, in Palo Alto recently, where a man on trial for embezzlement—since convicted—refused to resign from his position as state senator, and this is the first time the recall has been applied to the judiciary, although by indictment Los Angeles had recalled its mayor before the passage of the Recall law...

...The women of Oceanside established a Recall league with Mrs...

...that it was customary for one judge to reduce the bail of another judge...

...This meeting was held, after announcement in the paper, and later, another meeting which Judge Weller attended to defend himself...

...It was also discovered that the police judges, who were receiving $300 a month each, were, as a usual thing, only working two hours a day, for only occasionally did some of them hold an afternoon session...

...The girls, aged sixteen and seventeen, did not fully realize the intent of the man but thought it was intended as a joke...

...La Follette: "your well known sympathy with the strug-gles and hopes of working women must he our only excuse for calling your attention to a matter that is of vital interest to women wage earners in many trades...

...The escape of Hendricks brought forth denunciation and resentment against Judge Weller who had virtually given a criminal an opportunity to escape...

...THE WOMEN of this little residence district had their own neighborhood club and were naturally indignant over the fact that a daughter of one of their neighbors had been so horribly attacked...

...Indeed they could not afford the expense of circulars to every voter, and so compromised by sending to all registered women, and a few to men, though they would have much preferred to have reached each voter direct...

...What made Judge Weller's leniency all the more flagrant, was that Hendricks had once before been in court accused of the same offense...

...The girls refused this attention whereupon he forced them in the automobile and started...

...The petition finally had a surplus of reliable names, and the campaign commenced...

...When Hendricks' case was called for trial, that pervert had jumped his bail...

...Later the machine was stopped and one girl was dragged by Hendricks into the bushes and finally a chloroformed handkerchief was resorted to showing the man went prepared for such occasions...

...The case, like the majority of its kind, had been dismissed...

...This is all the more unfortunate because the contract of the Paramount Company expires in January, 1914, and that of the Reliance Sterling Manufacturing Company in October of this year...

...The following day, Hendricks was arrested, charged with criminal assault...

...In the Reformatory at Green Bay the inmates are leased to the Reliance Sterling Manufacturing Company, the "Prison Labor Trust", and sew overalls and jackets, work which is everywhere done by women in free factories...

...but Registrar Zemansky, who has been very fair to the women, announced that the recall could be placed upon the ballot with the two propositions that were to be voted for on April 22nd...

...that Hendricks was a married man, with two children and his wife about to have a third...

...He always added to this, however, a long recital of his pedigree, and laid great stress upon the fact that his father before him had held a position of honor...

...The women's clubs and organizations took no active part in the recall although a few individual members did...

...The evidence was so revolting as to be almost unbelievable that a judge could dismiss the case...

...In Wisconsin, for example, the men in the penitentiary at Waupun are employed in knitting hosiery for a corporation known as the Paramount Knitting Company...

...The other man, apparently influenced by the knowledge that the grls were virtuous, assured one of them safety, and begged Hendricks to desist, but was ordered at a pistol point back into the automobile...

...Judge Weller boasted that there had been no charges of corruption against him but there were certainly rumors of such and some people held tenaciously to their opinion of his dishonor...

...It will be sufficient that it is there, primed, pruned, and ready for immediate discharge should the occasion require it...

...Lawyers were especially wary about signing, and nearly all office holders were opposed...

...Yours truly, National Free Labor Association, By william phillips, Secretary...

...Further investigation brought forth some startling and horrible details...

...Working Women and Prison Labor "Dear Mrs...

...to be good, not prosperous...

...Alice Best as president...

...Entirely too many cases were dismissed and too many friendless and poor were receiving unduly long sentences...

...What matters it if you and I look like failures...

...This last probably to balance the number of offenders who went in and out of the court un-sced...

...The fight against the white slave traffic, and the leniency with which some accused of that crime had been treated, had awakened many to a realization of the condition of things in our city, and a feeling of indignation was smouldering in some women, whose hearts yearned over the downfall of their unprotected and younger sisters, and the torch was applied in the following case: One Albert Hendricks had criminally assaulted a young girl after forcibly bundling her into his automobile, and driving to an obscure part of Golden Gate Park...

...This defense constituted the sole excuse he had to offer, and was often repeated during his campaign (against the recall...

...A few able, and brilliant, men gave their time and eloquence to the cause and addressed big meetings where they met with response and promises of support at the polls, which promise was kept, for on the right of April 22nd the election returns showed that a young attorney, Wiley P. Crist—well thought of—had defeated Judge Weller for re-election, and that the latter must step down and out from the office he had disgraced...

...Two days after, Judge Shortall was called out of the city and Police Judge Weller, upon the request of the attorney for the accused, accommodatingly lowered the bail from $3,000 to $1,000...

...This recall has demonstrated two things: first, that it is a powerful weapon in the hands of the people for self-defense, and secondly, that the citizens of San Francisco are going to have cleaner, better police courts than they have ever had before...

...Resolved, that the General Federation of Women's Clubs declares itself as opposed to the contract system of prison laobr, and to every other system which exploits his labor to the detriment of the prisoner...

...and that we urge upon the several states the advisability of establishing healthy out-door work for able convicts, remedial care for the feeble and degenerate and industrial education for all who have the potentiality for reform...

...Several girls in the neighborhood had complained of men's accosting them and it was evident that it was not safe for girls to go for a visit, after dark, to a friend's home a block away...

...One prominent member suggested the holding of an indignation meeting against Judge Weller, and the starting of a recall to take so delinquent and incompetent a judge from the bench...

...Oceanside women have their own neighborhood club...

...It would be difficult to find anywhere a better statement of the conclusions which experience have proven to be effective and wholesome in solution of the problems of prison labor than that made in the following resolution adopted by the General Federation of Women's Clubs, at its last biennial convention: "Whereas, club women having discussed throughout the country, under the auspices of the Industrial and Social Conditions Committee the problem of prison labor, and said Committee having submitted to careful scrutiny the reports of investigations in this field by the National Committee on prison labor and kindred local committees...

...and it also means that there will probably be no need of using the weapon again for some time to come...

...Another dismissed it with a sneer, the former, however, swung in line at the very last, with a big and strong editorial in its favor...

...THE soul asks honor, and not fame...

...We refer to the concentration of the competition of convict labor in women's trades...

...The women were handicapped for lack of funds, taking up collections among themselves for funds with which to send out campaign literature...

...It means that the Recall in the women's hands has been tested and found good...

...As the men's trades are fairly well organized and can use the ballot to protect themselves, there has been a shifting of the burden of convict competition to the shoulders of women, with a resulting lowering of the wage scale in the industry affected by such competition...

...cases against men being dismissed where the charges were of the most atrocious character, and in two cases, continued abuse of little girls...

...Press support was very poor, one of the big papers taking no sides, and soon condensing even its news on the subject...

...It was still further disclosed that people who had business with them regarding bail for clients, or friends, would have to seek the judges at their residences, clubs, on the golf links or some place of recreation...

...This girl and a friend were returning home from an errand when Hendricks invited them for a ride...

...But before the recall movement was well under way, the police judges were holding regular afternoon sessions, and in a case of criminal assault Judge Weller placed the bail at $5,000...

...One flagrant case of dismissal was that of two men continually abusing the same little Mexican orphan girl whom they kept for that purpose...

...Women who were interested, but who could not go about to work on the outside, directed envelopes and folded the circulars...

...The Secret An old man whose health is his pride, When asked for his secret, replied: "If it's long life you're after, Be free with your laughter, And fresh air and water beside...

...So Hendricks was locked up...

...Judge Weller—which is not usual with police judges— even had a good social standing, and the people of his set, as those of the tenderloin, were indignant about the recall, and rallied in numbers to his support...

...what matters it if our petty plans crumble to pieces in our hands...

...In fact an investigation was made of all the police judges' records, and while there was much to complain of in the others, they were so far above Judge Weller's in the treatment accorded cases of criminal assault on girls, as not to be in the same category...

...Information regarding two cases of alleged bribery was given to some woman of the Recall League, but it would take much time and be difficult to verify these, so they were never run clown...

...His defense was that "the attorney had promised his client should be there for trial...

...There was much talk and opposition against causing the taxpayers the expense of an election...

...And we further affirm that the products of convicts' labor should be consumed by the state, and that the profits therefrom, above the just cost of his keep, should be used to support such dependent family as he may have...

...The Republican platform of last year in Wisconsin called for the abolition of the contract system and a recommendation to that effect was made in the inaugural message of Governor McGovern...