The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1888-09-05
MaxiIns Misleading.

InpOSteIS tndn 10 permit one worthy ana
needy person to suffer, " or. varying the form
of the adage. that hundred criminals
might better be set free than that one inno-
cent person be punished-s by most persons
accepted as moral axiom. but it needs
to be carefully analysed. Doubtless
it is the dictates of humanity that
no helpless child of want should be
left to starve, as it is the dictate
cumstances should be made to endure an
undeserved penalty. So far as it is possible
in the wise administration of our charities,
and in the vigorous execution of our laws
to prevent such wrongs, they ought to be
prevented. But these maxims are often
quoted to justify indiscriminate aims giving
or lax enforcement of criminal laws. es-
pecially if the victim happens to belong to
the 50 called upper ten. 1t is when we are
making choice OF methods that they are
generally appealed to; and thus they aUe
made to mean that method which lets
loose upon society a hundred tramps Or
hundred criminals, in order to avoid the
risk OF infiicting suffering upon one inno-
cent person, is better than a method which
Furnishes with the hundred mscreants one
innocent person. Now. it is to be remem-
bered that all our legal and charitable ma
chinery is imperfect Our best discrimina-
tons are never infallible. No matter how
cautious our methods may be, we shall
sometimes punish innocent men. 1t is
only rude approximation to perfect justice
that we can hope for. The question bv
which OuI administration should be tested is
simply this: What methods will accom-
plish the most good and the least harm?
Some harm we shall surely do, and much
good we shall surely leave undone, if we
adopt the wisest methods which it is pos
sble for us to devise; but we must choose
measures which, on the whole and in tke
lOngrun. will secure the greatest good to the
greatest number. When we find that the
administration of systematic method of
pOOr-relief has resulted in failure to reach
and relieve some worthy person, our SYM
pathy for the sufferer is aroused. and we
are inclined to denOunce and abandon the
system. 1t has put an end to mendcancy;
it has lifted many families out of pauper-
ism into self-support; it has furnished en-
plOyment and livelihood to multitude; but
it has left undOne one thing that it ought
to have done. This one failure, in the eyes
of some sentimentalists, vitiateS all its good
work. It were better to feed a hundred
beggarS than to let one worthy person 90
hungry. The suffering of the one worthy
person deserves our compassion; but what
of the hundred beggars? Is there nothing
to deplore in the injury done them by the
misapplied charity that encourages them to
pursue their life of shame? Are there no
tears for the moral degradation into which
they are sinking?
Suffering, too. is surely waiting for them
If they go OH in that path. Most OF them
will become criminals. and through their
depredatiOns upon society an indefinite
amount of injury will be inflicted upon
innocent persons. Is no account to be
made of this? If we must choose between
a method which, in order to avert suffering
from single individual, lets hundred beg
gars loose in society to destroy themselves
and prey upon the honest citizens, and a
method which turns the hundred beggarS
into the paths of honest industry, but in
doing so fails to relieve one worthy sufferer,
there ought to be no great hesitation in max
ing the choice. Yet there are thousands of
sOft-hearted and shOrt-sighted philanthro-
pists who are able to see no farther than
the case of the individual sufferer. and who
are ready to say that the system which has
failed to bring him relief must be defeated
even though it has prevented hundred
times as much suffering as it has caused
The case is quite as clear with respect to
the criminals A great evil is that one in
nocent man should be punished; but those
who declare it less evil to set a hun
dred scoundrels. who are deserving of the
name, free. do not always comprehend
what is meant by the saying. The future
victims of these hundred scoundrels are en-
titled to little compassion. These are the |
people that near sighted philanthropy al
ways forgets. Moreover, the consistent |
following of this maxim by courts and
juries results in assuring all intended crmi-
chances to escape to one chance of cOnvic-
md fhnc afi l., eoa