Self Help
The groundwork for the release had all been
prepared before I came upon the scene. B_ had done that, by his
good conduct and the service he had rendered those 1729 prisoners.
When he created the world's first prison correspondence school system he created the key that unlocked the prison doors for himself.
Why, then, had the others who asked for his release failed to secure it?
They failed because they used no imagination!
Perhaps they asked the governor for B_'s release on the ground that his parents were prominent people, or on the ground that he was a college graduate and not a bad sort of fellow. They failed to supply the governor of Ohio with a sufficient motive to justify him in granting a pardon, for had this not been so he would undoubtedly have released B_ long before I came upon the scene and asked for his release. Before I went to see the governor I went over all the facts and in my own imagination I saw myself in the governor's place and made up my mind what sort of a presentation would appeal most strongly to me if I were in reality in his place.
When I asked for B_'s release I did so in the name of the 160,000 unfortunate men and women inmates of the prisons of the United States who would enjoy the benefits of the correspondence school system that he had created. I said nothing about his prominent parents. I said nothing about my friendship with him during former years. I said nothing about his being a deserving fellow.
All these matters might have been used as sound reasons for his release, but they seemed insignificant when compared with the bigger and sounder reason that his release would be of help to 160,000 other people who would feel the influence of his correspondence school system after his release.
When the governor of Ohio came to a decision I doubt not
that B_ was of secondary importance as far as his decision was concerned.
The governor no doubt saw a possible benefit, not to B_ alone, but to
160,000 other men and women who needed the influence that B_ could supply,
if released. And that was imagination!
It was also salesmanship!
In speaking of the incident after it was over, one of the men who had worked diligently for more than a year in trying to secure B_'s freedom, asked: "How did you do it?" And I replied: