The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 96, July 1992 - April, 1993 Page: 30
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
whipping, chaining, and dark cells. Farming operations did not pro-
duce anticipated revenues; instead, the state usually sustained annual
financial losses and accumulated huge debts.8
Social feminists who assiduously lobbied for political and social
changes provided the energizing force for reform during the i920s.
Impelled by the women's suffrage campaign and other political ac-
tivism during the World War I period, Texas women's leaders estab-
lished contacts with a national network of social feminists who main-
tained "faith in the intrinsically moral nurturing, and domestic nature
of women." Women in many other states advocated social justice re-
forms in child welfare, alcohol abuse, education, working conditions,
and juvenile justice as well as penology. Indeed, Texas social feminists
believed that prison improvements might eradicate crime in their state.
Representing an array of organizations such as the League of Women
Voters, the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs, and the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union, the reformers criticized inefficiency and
poor administration. Elizabeth Ring, one of the most prominent lead-
ers, doubtless articulated their sentiments: "We have a right to expect
after being heavily assessed as taxpayers, for the conviction and mainte-
nance of [an] offender of the law that [he] be returned to society at the
end of his term as an asset rather than a further liability." Ring and her
contemporaries viewed crime as especially vexatious to the spouses and
children of convicts."
8Crow, "A Political History," 215-216; James Robertson Nowlihn, "A Political History of the
Texas Prison System, 1849-1957" (M.A. thesis, Trinity University, 1962), 110, 126-141
Chaining entailed the binding of a prisoner's wrist at the end of chains suspended to the ceiling
of a building. See Tom Finty, Jr , "Troubles of th Texas Prison System," in Delznquent (Jan.,
1914), 5-1o. A reporter described a typical dark cell as a "4 x 8 hole with sheet iron lining"
with air emanating only from a tiny space "between the floor and the door meeting place."
Convicts placed in dark cells usually received only bread and water diets. Houston Chronzcle,
Aug. 19, 20 (quotation), 1912; Nowhn, "A Pohtical History of the Texas Prison System," 114
See "Texas Penitentiary Investigation Reports," unpublished MS by unknown author In Mc-
Callum Family Papers (Austin-Travis County Collection, Austin, Texas). The prison system op-
erated profitably only during the World War I era of 1916-1918 when farm prices reached an
exceptional level and during 1924 and 1927. J E. Pearce, "History of Efforts at Reorganizing
and Relocating the Penitentiary System of Texas," unpublished MS located in Prisons Vertical
File and Scrapbook (Eugene C Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas, Austin, cited
hereafter as BTHC); Texas State Board of Prison Commissioners, Annual Report (1924), 9,
Ibid. (1927), i
9Prison reform attracted women activists at least as early as World War I. See Minnie Fisher
Cunningham to Mrs. Virgie Dobbs, June 16, 1918, in Minnie Fisher Cunningham Papers
(Houston Metropolitan Archives, Houston Public Library), and Cunningham to Mrs. T. A.
Coleman, Nov. 8, 1918, in ibid. These leaders also urged the enforcement of prohibition laws,
federal assistance for mothers and infant health programs, abolition of child labor, improved
public education, and an end to legal disabilities for women, as well as the development of state
and local parks and libraries, promotion of interracial cooperation, and better roads and high-
ways to augment the welfare of farm women. For a discussion of social feminism see Estelle B.
Freedman, Their Sisters' Keepers Women's Prison Reform zn America, 1830o-930 (Ann Arbor.
University of Michigan Press, 1981), 39; Nicole Hahn Rafter, PartialJustce Women zn State Przs-
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 96, July 1992 - April, 1993, periodical, 1993; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101215/m1/56/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.