The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1878-11-22

While Governor of this State learned that
the suffering for crime. as rule fell not upon
the offender but upon his family. When l
look over our penal laws, their titles to my
mind, read between their lines, "Acts to pun
ISL Uires and children Of those who ViolIte
their terms" was constantly appealed to to
pardon convicts for these reasons, and in some
cases by the wives Of those who made the
complaints upon which the wrong-doer was
convicted. When this was told to them, their
answer was, that while that was true, yet
when their husbands were in Jail, where they
were fed aud warmed, their wives and their
children were left to starve and freeze for
want of support.
There is no perfect way of dealing with
crime, but there is no worse way than the sys-
TEN Of this State. Some years ago lead
ing lawyer of New York travelled through
Egypt. He met the chief of wandering
tribe of the desert, and among other things,
he told this wild ruler of our laws, and the
ways we dealt with crime lie was heard
with astoni,hment, and for the first time he
himself was struck with their absurdities
After his return he used to say that
he was never so thoroughly ashamed of
his country as when he was telling his simple
minded auditor what laws we had upon these
subjects, and how they were enforced
| While we may not frame perfect systems
much can be done to make better state of
things-to simplify justice, and to break up
tendency to disorderly conduct aud to vagran-
cy. We can not hope to make any marked
Improvement in our jas. Each county must
have one, and its population will determine
the character Of its place of confinement
| Those in charge of them will be frequently
changed, and save in the large cities the num-
Der and character of the inmates will not ad-
init of classification, etc.
| The first change should be one that will al
low our judges to impose punishments other
than sending the offenders to these common
schools Of vice.
As nothing can be worse than our present
laws, there..can be no harm in trying new plans
We must have new jails, as there are cases
| "hNu 'hS SaiSNJ VI sOclSty makes IL necessary
to loek men up. But, as a rule, other re-
straints can be used which will check, not teach
crime, Our laws only allow two punishmemts
to be inflicted for minor offenses-fnes or i'm
prisment and these must be imposed with
out regard 10 age, sex, condition, or circum-
stances. The law demands these, it matters
not what moral or material mischief they may
do. As rule, fines infict distress on families
aud friends, while jails are gateway to a
course Of wickedness which leads to the State
prisons. For these reasons no punishments
are inflicted until the offenders have grown
into hardened criminals who excite no sympa.
thy There is no power to deal in a right way
with the first step in crime, with acts of min
gled error and wrong-doing 1t has been my
duty to look into a great number of such cas-
es and have given much thought and study
to our statutes with regard to them. Next ic
moral and religious influences, we must rely
upon the wisdom of our laws with regard to
youthful offenders. 1t is comparatively an
easy matter to deal with crimes