“Should Use Better Judgment” from the October 7, 1926 Door County News
SHOULD USE BETTER JUDGMENT
Farming out inmates of the reforatory or any other penal institute in a state park during the summer season is to say the least very indiscrete. It matters not whether the park is located within the boundaries of Door county or any other municipality.
These parks are the state play grounds for summer vacationists and it is at this time of the year that they are used for this purpose and no other. Campers plan on occupying the premises. They have their families with them as a rule.
In this county many hundreds of young girls occupy the state camp. These do not care to have to come in contact with inmates of a penal institution. It is not elevating nor is it entirely safe.
If the governor did not lack poise, judgment, tact and diplomacy he would not infer that he labored under the impression that the local Chamber of Commerce thought that the inmates were vacationing at the park in this county, when he stated “I do not understand that they are there for recreational purposes.” No one else had any such idea either. But the members of the local organization knew that their presence was a menace and an injury to the state park.
It is up to the board of control to insist that no penal labor be employed in the state parks during the summer vacation period in June, July and August. There is plenty of time before and after these months in which to use the inmates if desired.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
[Earl Mitchel LaPlant is listed as the President of the paper above the column where this and other editorials were printed.]
Articles about Peninsula Park
http://doorcounty.substack.com/t/peninsula-park