412 THE PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL POWER
recommending the release. Three days later the pardon was signed and
B--walked through the big iron gates, a free man.
I have cited the details to show you that there was nothing difficult
about the transaction. The groundwork for the release had all been
prepared before I came on the scene. B--had done that, by his
good conduct and the service he had rendered those 1,729 prisoners.
When he created the world's first prison correspondence-school system
he created the key that unlocked the prison doors for himsel£
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. But they jailed to supply the
governor oj Ohio with a s~fficient motive to justify him in granting a pardon} for
had this not been so, he would undoubtedly have released B--Iong
before I came on 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 do not doubt
that B-was of secondary importance as far as his decision was