Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-11-29
SOCIETY'S CRIMINALS.
Extracts From an Interview With
Col. Robert G.. Ingersoll.
We Are Well, in a Measure, Response
BILE for the Existence of FelOns-
The Burglars Beginning-NO
Reforming Power IL Re
venge- AnOther View.

Reforming Power il Re
venge-AnOther View.
The probability is that society raises
its own criminals. It plows the land, sows
the seed and harvests the crop. I believe
that the shadow of the gibbet will not
always fall upon the earth. I believe
the time will come when We will know
too much TO raise criminals-know too
much to crowd those who labor into the
dens and dungeons that we call tene
ments, while the idle live in palaces.
The time will come when men will know
that real progress means the enfranchise
ment of the the whole human race, and
that our interests are SO united, so inter
woven, that the few cannot be happy
while the many suffer. In other words, it
will be found that the human race is in
terested in each individual. When that
time comes we will stop producing Grim
inaIs, we will stop producing failures, We
will not leave the next generation to
chance; we will not regard the gutter as a
proper nursery for posterity.
People imagine that if the thieves are
sent to the penitentiary that is the last
Of the thieves; that if those who kill
others are hanged society is on a safe and
enduring basis. But the trouble is here:
A man comes to your front door and you
drive him away. You have an idea that
that mans case is settled. You are mis-
taken. He goes to the back door. He is
again driven away. But the case is not
yet settled. The next thing you know
ne enters at night. He is burglar. He
is caught; he is convicted; he is cent to
the penitentiary, and you imagine that
his case is settled. But it is not. You
must remember that you have to keep ali
the agencies alive for the purpose of
taking care of these people. You have
to build and maintain your penitentiaries,
your courts of justice, you have to pay
your judges, your district attorneys, your
jUries, your witnesses, your detectives,
your police-all these people must be
paid. So that, after all, it is very ex-
pensive way of settling this question.
THE BURGLARS BEGINNING.
You could have done it far more cheap
ly had you found this burglar when he
was a child, had you taken his father and
mother from the tenement house, or had
you compelled the owners to keep the
tenement clean; or if you had widened
the streets, if you had planted few trees.
if you had had plenty of baths, if you had
had school in the neighborhood. If
you had taken some interest in this fani-
ly-some interest in this child-instead
of breaking into houses, he might have
been builder of houses.
There is, and it cannot be said too
often, no reforming influence in punish
ment; no reforming power in revenge.
Only the best of men should be in charge
of penitentiaries; only the noblest minds
and the tenderest hearts should have the
care of criminals. Criminals should see
from the first moment that they enter a
penitentiary that it is filed with the air
of kindness, full of the light of hope.
The object should be to convince every
criminal that he has made mistake; that
he has taken the wrong way; that the
right way is the easiest way, and that the
path of crime never did and never can
lead to happiness; that the idea is mis-
take, and that the government wishes to
wishes TO open his intellectual eyes; wishes
to so educate him, to 80 elevate him, that
he will look back upon what he has done
only with horror.
LIKE WILD BEAST.
| This is reformation. Punishment is
| not. When the convict is taken to Sing
| Sing or to Auburn, and when a striped
suit of clothes is put upon him-that is
to say, when ne is made to feel the deg
| radiation of his pcsition-no step has
been taken toward reformation. You
have simply filled his heart with hatred.
Then, when he has been abused for sever,
al years, treated like wild beast, and
finally turned out i'll the community, he
has no thought. ia majority of cases,
except to "get even" with those who have
| prosecuted him. He feels that it is a per-
secutiOn.
Another view of the subject is this: I
have read that of fifty criminals who had
been executed it was found, 7 believe, in
nearly all the cases that the shape of the
sknll was abnormal. Whether this ia
| true or not / don't know, but that some
men have tendency toward what we call
crime / believe. Where this has been as
| certained, then, it seems to me such men
should be placed where they cannot null
tiply their kind. Women who have a
criminal tendency should be placed where
they cannot increase their kind. For
hardened criminals-that is to say, for
people who make crime a business-it
would be better to separate the sexes; to
send the men to one island, the women to
another. Let them be kept apart, to
the end that people with criminal ten
denotes may fade from the earth. This
is not prompted by revenge. This would
not be done for the purpose of furnishing
| these people, but for the protection OF
| society-for the peace and happiness of
| the future.-New York World Inter
view.