The reluctance of these prison officers to shape their course to the new requirements, I believe, was based upon sincere conviction. The influence of their attitude upon results can only be conjectured. In this connection it ought to be stated that these officers asserted that whipping was less inhuman than the substitutes provided. These substitutes were chaining-up and dark-celling. The former consists of fettering the convict’s wrists at the end of chains suspended from above at such height as to cause him to stand erect, but flat-footed, with his arms extended as high as they will go. There have been some complaints that convicts have been chained so high as to require them to stand tip-toe. The possibilities in the use of the dark-cell were illustrated in the Harlem farm tragedy. A part of the prison system’s losses from operation were admittedly due to the following named causes: 1. Heavy damage to cane crop of 1911 by freeze. 2. Damage to cane and other crops in 1912 by drouth. 3. Burning of certain shops in Rusk and Huntsville prisons, the losses aggregating $286,931. Neither the indebtedness nor operating account were affected to the full amount of this loss, for only about $60,000 was expended in replacements. But both indebtedness and operating loss were further swelled, to an unmeasured extent, by reason of the interruption and disorganization of industries; for a time there was no work for many of the convicts to do. There was also evidence in the investigation to show that the plan of organization was imperfect. For one thing, the commissioners were serving under the statute, with their terms limited to two years, and they were therefore subject to removal in the event of change in the office of governor. Also, under this law, they were serving in the dual capacity of directors and executive officials. The system, therefore, had three heads of co-equal authority. Much of the testimony indicated that this system did not work well. The men who wrote the prison bill in 1910 did not originally intend to provide such a system, but at the last moment they changed their bill in response to an eloquent plea in behalf of the “commission form of government.”