Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1895-08-22
n Just Sentence.


The statement by Judge Gafey when
ne sentenced ex-Treasurer Taylor to
i've yearsimprisonment at hard labor,
says & leading editorial in thI st. Paul
Pioneer Press, that he considered the
greater crime OF the prisoner at the
BAR his gathering the state's funds and
attempting to force a compromise
.ather than the use of the states
money in the first instance for his
PERSONAL objects, will be thoroughly
endorsed by all right thinking people.
1t has frequently been a reflection
upon the administration of justice in
this country, that the petty clerk who
yielded to temptation and embeZzled
= few hundred dollars would receive
the fullest penalty OF the law, while
those who used positions of trust to
wreck savings or loan companies and
who squandsred the savings OF widows
and orphans, as we'll ss OF Others, or
those daring deiaulters who confiscat-
I'D the contents OF state treasures,
have been allowed to compromise
with the agents of justice for a frac-
ton of their thievings. 1t is no won.
der that under such an administra-
ton Of justice tcere have even been
some instances where men, coolly
recognizing the limits of the laws pun.
tative powers in the existing statute,
have deliberately stolen an amount
which in their deadened consciences
recompensed them for the fullest pos
sible punishment. These extreme
offenses, without a mitigating circum-
stance, because OF a deliberate inten.
ton to commit a crime for a consid-
sration, are known to Massachusetts,
and New York Jurisprudence, but for.
tunately are no longer met with be-
cause of the increased rigor Of the
laws enacted giving the judge a wide
latitude in pronouncing sentence. To
supplant them have come these later
cases, altogether too frequent, where
the criminal expects to purchase q
mitigation OF sentence with some OF
the fruits OF his crime, leaving him q
margin OF profit.
The acceptance of stolen funds upon
such a condition is a terrible mistake.
1t may lessen the losses in d single In
stance, but it is likely to ne a costly
economy, for it tends to teach men
that embezzlement becomes less OF q
crime, as the size of the amount taken
increases. They should be taught
that punishment will accord with the
extent OF the wrong doing, and with
their knowledge implied from their
business or political position, that
they understood the enormity OF their
crime. The authorities have escaped
criticism in most instances for this
partial sale OF justice, when the al
lowing OF complete immunity TO the
criminal would have opened the eyes
OF the people to the danger of com.
promising with crime. Revenge is not
a necessary ingredient of the enforce
ment OF criminal laws, but something
OF the determination manifested by
England in using the machinery OF her
foreign department to watch year
after year the movements OF JabeS
Balfour, that arch defrauder OF re.
cent times, until she could seize and
carry him to the bar of Justice, thus
emphasizing to the possible wrong
doors under her government that
there is no spot on the globe where no
IS sale from the law against which No
sins, would do more to prevent future
Manages and Taylors than a dozen
light sentences imposed in considers-
ton of self surrender.
Judge Gafy is to be commended
for passing over the section allowing
only a two years sentence for en-
bezzlement and sending embezzlerT ay-
Tor to the fullest limit for grand ar
ceny. 1t is assumed that this pro.
ceedine is legal or the Judge would not
have taken it, and it is to be hoped
that no hidden loophole can be found
through which the prisoner may es-
cape what the public will pronounce
q far lighter sentence than he deserv'
ed.
Word has been received at Sioux
Falls of the very mysterious disap-
pearance of the 11-year-old daughter
OF Hans Render. living 20 miles eas,
OF that city. The generally accepted
theory among the neighbors Is tina.
the young girl fell into the hands o.
tramps or gypsies.