Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-01-24
me ADailv Heraldv
ERIDAY, january "a, 1890.
lngersoli,s Criminal Molokai.

lmgersOll,s Criminal M0lokai.
The suggestion of Col. Ingersoll, in his
late address upon crimes, that he would
place hardened criminals upon an island
where they would have to make their
own living, and separate the sexes 30
that the breed might not be reproduced,
if it could be carried out, would doubt
less enure to the safety and benefit Of
society. But the QUESTION arises, how
and where are We to draw the line be-
tween criminals whose reformation is
hopeless and those who may not be per.
fectly hardened? It is true there is a
grade of criminals away down in the
depths Of their class that there could
be no doubt about, and even
amongst these there may be some
susceptible of reformation. But to draw
. line through the center of the class
that becomes convicts and arbitrarily
deport one-half of it to Ingersoll island
and leave the other to the common
prisons, would doubtless operate un-
Justly to individuals in both halves.
Criminals cannot be sorted out like po-
tatoes or onions according to size, and
one lot condemned to perpetual punish
ment and the other to the chances of
the ordinary penitentiary. The other day
William McGlory left st. Louis hotel
and carried off by mistake the satchel of
q fellow-guest. When he got to Kansas
City he discovered that he had the wrong
satchel by the contents. Whilst his
should have only contained change OF
linen, the other was packed with over
one hundred thousand dollars worth OF
negotiable securities and other valua-
bles. Mr.. McGlory at once rectifed the
mistake by returning to st. Louis, hand
ing over the satchel that did not belong
to him and receiving his own. Ten
years ago VIM. McGlory would, in such
q partition of criminals as Col. Ingersoll
proposes, have gone to the island of
perpetual punishment. There would
have been no doubt about his
case, for he had sounded the whole
gamut of the criminal scale, from it's
highest to it's lowest tone. Yet for ten
years McGlory has been a bright and
shining light in tho ranks of reformed
reprobates. He has been class leader
in religion, and gone down into the slums
he so long foundered in himself to drag
out the wretches that are still there.
Nor is McGlory the only instance of
reformation amongst what we commonly
consider the hopeless criminal class
We might cite "Awful Gardner" Sim
Mcdonald and many others. 1t is in
these moral eccentricities that we would
be puzzled to lay down an inflexible
law of separation of the criminal classes,
and draw the line between the hopeless
and the hopeful depraved. If seated
crime were like leprosy, scientifically
defined and unmistakably located, Col
Ingersoll's Molokai for the incurable
criminal would be a good thing for soci
ETY. without being a bad thing for the
individual McGiorys who should be
sorted out for perpetual punishment
When Col. Ingersoll lays down the broac
proposition, that as long as the worlt
sees great thieves succeed in their stu
pendous robberies and receive the hom
age. of society, there will be little
thieves to fill all the prisons, hs
is right, Extreme poverty ant
crime 60 hand in hand" and
the true way to reduce crime anc
the number of criminals is to reform
bad and unequal laws-laws that oppresl
one class for the benefit of another class
laws that favor all sorts of grabs anC
spoliation-lsws that help to make thu
rich richer and the poor poorer-law
that grind the people with unnecessar,
taxation and imposts, Jet these be re
formed, and let this reformation be sup
plemented with right instead of wron
systems Of distribution, and there viii
be fewer little as we'll as big thieves t.
vex society and perplex the humanita
rian.