ar my throat and read the address which
follows.

The Superintendent of Prisons and Warden Rattigan have kindly given
me permission to carry out a plan which has been in my mind for some
time; and to carry it out successfully I need your cooperation--both
officials and prisoners.

As most of you doubtless know, I am chairman of the Commission on
Prison Reform appointed by Governor Sulzer to examine into the Prison
System of New York State, determine what changes would be desirable
and formulate legislation necessary to bring about such changes. The
members of the Commission since their appointment have been quietly
at work informing themselves as to the manner in which the present
System works out, its effect upon prisoners, the measure of its
success as a means of reducing crime throughout the state.

It must be evident that any such examination, seriously undertaken,
is an extremely complex and difficult matter. Not only are
trustworthy statistics absolutely lacking by which to determine the
more obvious facts, but statistics are manifestly impossible to
secure regarding the deepest and most important parts of the
problem--for instance, as to the psychological effect on the
prisoners themselves of the Prison System, both as a whole and as to
certain specific rules and regulations.

For much of the most important work of the Commission, therefore, we
must fall back on such experience of life and knowledge of human
nature as its members may possess. And it is with a desire to extend
my own knowledge and experience in the service of the Commission that
I ask your help in carrying out the plan to which I have referred.

When a man wishes to understand as fully as possible the temper and
character of the people of a foreign country--England or France, Germany,
India, China--he can consult a great deal of printed matter; but he will
not be satisfied until he has made a personal visit to the country itself.
For instance, I have but the merest smattering of the French language, and
I have been privileged to know socially but very few Frenchmen, yet my
visits to France have given me an infinitely better idea of the country
and people than I could ever have received from books. The actual sights
and sounds of a country seem to provide the foundation for a far better
understanding of its history, a mor