Iron County register., 1890-01-30
MERCY AND JUSTICE,

See If IL is not Good Gospel Sermon
in Disguise-What Our Youth Should be
Taught in the schools.
ALBANY. y. Y, Jan. 22-The State
Bar Association met here yesterday.
President Arnoux addressed the Associ-
alton, and was followed by Colonel r
q. Ingersoll.
Colonel 1ngarsolfs address was on
Grimes Against Criminals" In his
most eloquent vein the Colonel re-
counted the cruel treatment of crimi-
nais in past times, and drew attention
TO the fact that the severer the punish
ment the greater increase in crime. He
attributed this to the brutalizing Of the
people through the infiiction and con-
temptation OF such punishments. He
then suggested the inquiry why men
should commit crimes at the risk of tor
ture. or death. or degradation. His an
swer was that mems minds and natures
may be so deformed that it IS just as i'm
possible for them TO do good as IS is i'm
possible for some men to be sculptorS or
philosophers. The criminal should not
be punished any more than the man
physically deforTned. But society must
protect itself against criminals, though
1t should not punish them.
Here Colonel Iugersoll gave some sta
tistics showing that while in 1850, with
a population of %, 600. 900 we had be-
tween 5000 and 1000 prisoners, in 1880,
with $4,000, 900 population, we had s.
900 prisoners. In 1859 we had II, 900 in
sane; in 1880 we had 81. 0O0 insane. This
shows that our system of punishment is
not preventing crime and insanity from
ha in,
population. In 1880, too, there were 81
900 homeless children, and &c, 900 pau
pers in almshouses. Was there any con-
nection between this fact and the num-
Der of prisoners? The speaker. after
arguing that degradation of prisoners is
almost certain to prevent reformation,
went on 10 say:
For hundreds of years the world has en-
zieavored to destroy the good by force. 1t
~ds impossible to destroy the longing in the
heart of man for liberty and truth. Is it not
possible that brute force and cruelty and re-
venge, imprisonment. torture and death are
as impotent to do away with vice de-
strOy yirtue2 TO me L has always been Il
mystery how the average m1n-l<nowing
something OF the weakness of human nature,
something OF the temptations to which he
himself has been eXpoScd-re:uembering the
Evil of his life the things he would have
done had there been opportunity, had he alb
-soluteIy known that discovery would be i'm
possibie-should have feelings of hatred
toward the imprisoned. Is it possible that
the average man assaults the criminal IN
spirit of self defense: Does he wish to CON
vince his neighbors that the evil thought
and Impulse We're never in his mindz Are
his words a shield that he uses to protect
himself from suspicion: For my part, L
sympathizc sincerely with all failures, with
the victims of society. with those who have
fallen. with the Imprisoned, with the hope
less, with those who have been stained with
verdicts OF guilty, and with those who, in
the moment OF passion, have destroyed. rs
with a blow, the future OF their lives. How
perilous, after all, Is the state OF man. 1t is
the work of a life 10 build great and splen-
did character. 1t is the work of a moment
to destroy i: utterly, from turret to fOunIa-
ton stone How cruel hypocrisy il. Is
there any remedy? Can any thing be done
for the reformation of the crininal3 He
should be treated with kindness. Every
right should be given him. consistent with
the safety OF society He should neither be
degraded nor robbed.
After portraying the pitiable condi-
tion of the ex-convict in his struggle to
get work and live an honest life and
picturing the usual result-exposure,
discharge, renewal OF crime and return
TO priSon-the speaker asked:
Why should the state take without com
pensation the labor of these men! And why
should they, after being imprisoned for
sears, be turned out without the means of
support2 Would it not be far better, Tar
more economical, to pay these men for their
labor, so that when released the convict Will
have several hundred dollars of his own,
enough to make it possible for him to com
g;neEce business on his own account, enough
to keep the wolf of crime from the door of
A5s heart: suppose the convict comes out
with five hundred dollars. This would form
a Breastwork, a fortress, behind which the
man could fight temptation. II this were
done. thousands of convicts would think of
pententiares as the place in which they
were Savcd-thcy would feel that the YER
dict of guilty rescued them from the abyss
of crime. The heart of the poor convict in
stead of being filled with malice would over
flow with gratitude. He would feel the
benefits of this course; and the result would
be good, not only to him but to the Nation.
If the convict worked for himself, he would
do the best he could, and the wares pro-
duced in the penitentiarics would not
cheaper the labor of other men. There are,
however, men who pursue crime as a Voca-
tomas profession What shall be done
with these men and women? Put one thou
sand hardened thieves on an island; compel
them to produce all they eat and use. Those
who worked would not permit those who
did not to enjoy the result of their labor
Such "A community would be self-support-
ting. Let women of the same class be put by
themselves. Those who are beyond the
power of reformation should not have the
liberty to reproduce themselves. tn ey
should dwell apart and dying should leave
uo heirs
Colonel Ingersoll then argued against
the death penalty for murdererS, and
gave striking instances showing that
judicial killing not only does not deer
from murder, but inspires to further
murders He also remarked that such
killing encourages mob violence, as the
mob reasons that the criminal should be
killed anyway, and might as well be
killed without trial a.s with. Returning
to the question of reforming criminals,
Che orator said:
If we are to change the conduct of men,
we must change their conditions. Extreme
poverty and crime go hand in Eand. AS
long as children are raised in the tenement
and gutter. the prisons viii grow full The
gulf between the rich and the poor viii grow
xidar and wider. One will depend on cum
ming, the other on force. 1t is u great ques-
tion whether he who lives in luxury can af-
ford to allow others to exist in want The
value of property depends, not on the pros
rerity of the few, but on the prosperity of a
very large majority. The poverty of the
many is perpetual menace. II we expect
q prosperous and peaceful country, the citi-
gems must have homes. The more homes,
the more patriots, the more virtue, and the
more security for all that gives worth to life
We need not repeat the failure of the Old
World. To divide lands among successful
generals; or among favorites of the crown,
to give vast estates for services rendered in
s1,.a,, oil of