Professor Ellwood blames the present and former officials for thinking every attack on the system was a personal attack. They resist and make impossible every effort which is made to ascertain the real state of affairs. This is in contrast with the Kansas officials, where the conditions in the penitentiary are just as bad. There the warden and his helpers are doing all they can to reform the prison system and conditions. Dr. Ellwood points out that the general knowledge of these conditions has done much to defeat the whole aim of criminal law in Missouri. Judges and juries are inclined to show undue leniency toward accused and convicted persons. They hesitate to send them into such a place. Yet with this general knowledge, it is hard to arouse the people of the State to action because the institution turns thousands of dollars into the State treasury every year. The only large opposition has come from labor unions. Several years ago a law was passed abolishing the convict labor system. It was never enforced and in the last legislature it was virtually repealed. The authorities were authorized to renew contracts for labor at 75 cents a day for each prisoner. Thus the system was continued which made it possible to continue the traffic in drugs. Also they continue to punish individuals for crimes for which the system is responsible. With more than a hundred contractors’ agents within the walls, it is clearly impossible to stop the smuggling. The existence of contract labor is not the most serious fault, according to Dr. Ellwood. In the Missouri penitentiary, first offenders and hardened criminals intermingle. No school exists in the prison. Punishment, not reformation, is its dominant note. Several of the cell-houses are antiquated in their arrangements. A warden once said he never knew a man who was benefited by his confinement there. A penitentiary physician told Dr. Ellwood there was as much dissipation within as outside the walls. The only separation of prisoners is for punishment. A full and thorough investigation of conditions is the remedy. An industrial reformatory is a necessity. These are the two things which should be done at once by Missouri, says Prof. Ellwood. * * * * * _A New Prison for Kansas._--According to the Kansas City Star, the commission to investigate and suggest plans for a new Kansas Penitentiary at Lansing is to go to work at once. The commission is to visit all of the new prisons in the country and study the plans worked out in those institutions for the humane, sanitary and convenient housing of the prisoners. The State architect is to accompany the commission to gather ideas for the rebuilding.