_Wickersham on Prison Reform and Parole._--The attorney general of the United States said at Omaha that in the battles of economic forces for supremacy, the law must be obeyed, even though it seems to favor one class as against another. Punishment in some form, declared the attorney general is still necessary in our land to prevent crime. He discussed at length the broad question of punishment for crime and the administration of the federal parole law. Modern penal legislation, he said, is based on a recognition of the expediency of endeavoring to reform the criminal. Mr. Wickersham favored the extension of the parole law to include life prisoners. He regarded it as an incongruity that prisoners sentenced to long terms for vicious crimes should be eligible for parole when the man convicted of second degree murder must remain in prison for life. Since the parole law was placed in operation last autumn, only one prisoner had violated his parole. The two hundred prisoners who were paroled from the time the law was put into effect in the autumn of 1910 to June 30, 1911, earned nearly $22,000, whereas, if they had remained in prison, the attorney general pointed out they would have been a charge on the government. Mr. Wickersham expressed the belief that the parole boards should be enlarged by adding two unofficial persons selected from among prominent citizens of the locality in which the prison is situated. * * * * * _Base Ball in Prison._--At Omaha this question was vigorously discussed, not unfavorably, but as to the day or days when the game should occur. J. K. Codding, warden of the Kansas penitentiary, told of base ball and other recreations for prisoners in his institution and the discussion which followed the general expression was that base ball, athletic contests, moving picture shows and other recreations render prison discipline easier by affording opportunity to reward those who do well and to deprive of pleasure those who break the rules. The statement of Chaplain Le Cornu of Walla Walla, Wash., that Sunday afternoon in his institution is devoted to base ball, raised a protest from others, particularly Warden Codding of Kansas and Warden Saunders of Iowa. Mr. Codding said he didn’t let the men play ball on Sunday because he didn’t expect them to advocate Sunday ball when they got out. Mr. Saunders said his men played Saturday afternoon; that he would allow the men to play Sunday if they couldn’t play any other day. Warden James of Oregon said he not only had base ball games, at which the men were allowed to root until they were hoarse, and weekly moving picture shows, but he intended this fall to put in a gymnasium. Several wardens said the reason that prisoners in many prisons are locked up all day Sunday is that the state is too stingy to hire a few extra guards.