OSBORNE WILL DISCUSS PRISON REFORM TONIGHT

The most successful prison reformer in the country, Thomas Mott Osborne '84, will speak this evening in Peabady Hall, Phillips Brooks House at 8 o'clock on "Crime and Criminals". This lecture, which is open to all members of the University only, is being given under the auspices of the Harvard Christian Association.

Mr. Osborne's career has been devoted to a struggle for reform in various fields' of human activity, crowned by his successful battle with the reactionary prison administrators which had formerly possessed complete control over most prisons in the United States.

Was Once in Journalism

Immediately after his graduation from the University he entered journalism and became president of the Auburn Publishing Company, which published the "Auburn Citizen". From this field of activity he was quickly drawn into politics. After a defeat in 1898 as an independent candidate for the Lieutenant Governorship of New York State, he was elected Mayor of Auburn in 1903. He gave the city an administration marked by reform and progressive action on various problems of municipal government.

It was not until later in life that Mr. Osborne became actively interested in the problems of prison reform. In 1913 he was appointed chairman of the New York Commission on Prison Reform, which went into a thorough investigation of conditions then prevailing in New York state prisons and elsewhere throughout the country. During this investigation Mr. Osborne spent a week in the Auburn prison as a convict. His report which he issued after his experiences there gained, him nation wide prominence for the first time, and soon after he was appointed Warden of Sing Sing Prison.

Throughout his stromy term at the head of this famous institution the eyes of the nation were focused on him. Newspapers and magazines throughout the country recorded, with attitudes varying from admiration to hatred, his achievements in this position. His indictment by the Westchester Country Grand Jury in 1913 and the prompt dismissal of the case by the judge in charge, increased his reputation, but he resigned his wardenship soon after ward.

Since that time Mr. Osborne has had more experience with crime and criminals. He served as Commander of the Noval Prison at Portsmouth, N. H. from August 1917 to March 1920, when he was relieved at his own request