The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1895-05-15
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

AIJ6r al 6At6Uueu e6peTlu6uG Will
imprisonment for life in lieu of cap
ital punishment, Michigan goes back
to the good old Bible punishment for
murder and will hereafter hang her
murderers. That is the first CLEAN of
returning reason we have eeen for
many months, and even years. We
have had by far too much progress,
in the late past. We are getting too
far away from the old fashioned way
of doing things; we are trading our
conservatism for sentiment. We are
going too fast and we are making too
much haste, Instead Of there being
but one cause of divorce, or one iusti-
hcation for applying for that remedy
for our domestic woes, there is now
hundred or more, and such is the mum.
ber of them now granted that many
couples, when they retire for the
night, are uncertain as to the prOpriety
of occupying the same bed because,
one or the other, or both, may have
been granted divorce and the docu-
ment may be then in the postoffice. So
too, Of murder. 1t WAS once so that if
a man killed another, except in self-de-
fence, he was hanged. Now, man
with ten thousand dollars may
kill an army of men and he is
laughed at as fool if he is hanged
Instead of doing away with capital
punishment, we honestly believe it
should be extended to great number
of crimes other than murder. We be-
lieve that man, or woman either,
who deliberately commits seduction
should be hanged upon conviction. We
believe a man who deliberately de-
bauches another's home or Injuries his
child or leads an innocent boy into sin
or debauchery, should be hanged. We
believe man who betray5 a trust
where there is any considerable sum
or important interest concerned, ought
to be hanged. Indeed there are
over an hundred crimes in our
judgment, which merit death. Crime
is, at this age, too safe
pursuit. Men hazard toe little when
they make up their minds to step aside
from virtuous paths or when they want
their neighbours money.
Let the lecherous, the debauched,
the dishonest and wicked understand
that their lives are at stake when they
enter upon 3 course of crime and be
assured that ninety-nine out of every
hundred will pause and become hon.
est and remain innocent from fear of
the dreadful consequences to follow
detection and conviction. If men will
not remain honest, pure and faithful
because it is right to SO live, and
wrong not to live honestly, cleanly
lives, let them be forced to do it by
making penalties which they are afraid
to face. Nor should these stern de.
crees of law hold only against the poor
and the wretched and those of no in
fuence. The dire penalties should hold |
against the rich, the powerful and the |
influential villain as against the poor
est, Let there be no distinction. Let
the president of the United States, |
the senator in congress, or diplo mat of
high rank stand before an outraged |
law, no higher ami with no better |
chance than the poorest offender, and |
in very short time there will be no
sane criminals and asylums instead of
halters and penitentiaries will be the
rule,
We do not suffer sufficiently for our
sins. We get off too esaily. The courts
and the jurleJ are too complaisant, too
easily bought, bull-dozed, ,Or they are too
cheaply purchased. We are conte nd
ing with q dreadful epidemic of crime
and we are overlooking the one potent
remedy for the dread disease. We
must dispense with a little of oar PRO.
gress" and go back to the ld-fashioned
remedy, the halter, if we would coz
tend successfully with the ever-rising
tide of murder, Seduct ion, thieveIy
and debRuchery.