New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-07-18
EDUCATION BRINGS REFORM

Moral and intellectual Education the only
True Preventative Of Crime.
1t is an unquestionablc fact that in
those stages OF civilization where pun
ishments have been most arbitrary, most
l3swift md horrible, there has always been
the greatest amount of the worst crimes
In the localities where mob law prevails
most, and lynehings for rape and mur-
der most frequent, those crimes appear
/ to increase. When the human mind is
without governing control over itself
it cannot be turned from crime by fear
! Of punishment hereafter. In those ages
Of the w@rld when every criminal be-
lieved he would roast forever for his
crimes in a literal hell of fire and brim-
stone, crime was rampant to far greater
extent than now, though the punishment
inflicted for it, by authority were often
extremely horrible. Men were often
torn asunder by horses, hoiled alive by
oil, burned at the stake, crucifed, buried
alive and otherwise made to suffer in.ie-
scribable agonies before the inexorable
but tardy death came to their relief.
But neither the cross, nor the stake nor
boiling in oil, nor the fear of eternal
punishment has ever prevented crimes
among those who have learned selfcon-
troll. If they have, history does not show
it. What it does show is distinct ratio
| of crime to lack of mental and moral de-
velopmect. The great majority of per-
sons in this country have been so educa-
ted that they can control their baserpas-
sions. If this were not so, says the Oval,
(Pa.,) Ledger, democratic self govern.
ment would be an idle dream and the
only choice would be between complete
anarchy and complets despotism.
The value Of the law is for those who
obey it, because if they do obey it, it pre-
vents them from ,aking q lawless ven
geance and thereby increasing the
strength of the lawless spirit. Every
man who obeys the law helps to put
down the criminal spirit in himself and
Others. Every man who does not obey
it, who takes lawless vengeance, in
creases the criminal spirit in himself and
Others. Every lynching makes more
rapes and murders.
Self-government is the only means Of
prevention for crime, and to be capable
OF self-government, man must he cdu-
Gated both morally and intellectually
His intellect cannot he developed to
self government if his morals are unedu-
Gated; and it is fruitless and foolish to
try to educate tho morals of any free
man without educating his intellect.
Mob law and lynehing not only do not
lesson the number of the crimes which
are made the pretext for those outbreaks
for savagery, but they undoubtedly in
crease them. The effect of them is to
lower the moral tone of the whole COM
munity, and give new impulse crime
ward to the less developed. Let not the
people of Nippenose have the hideous
nonsense that lynching is the enforce
ment of the superior natural law. Lynch
ing is murder. neither more nor less, no
matter what pretext or provocation may
be offered. The only way to diminish
such crimes is to educate men to obey
the law and govern themselves. This is
the only way in which crimes of the most
inhuman and barbarous sort have been
diminished; it is the only way in which
crime can be diminished. Prison Mir.
ror.