Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-07-03
NOTES AND COMMENT.
What the People Are Thinking, Saying
and Doing.

If the Democrats don't watch out.
the Populists will get control of the
Chicago convention.-G lobe-Democrat.
In which case it would be the only
real, genuine Democratic national con-
vention that has been held in this
country for nearly 40 years.
Hon. Andrew d. White, eX-Minister
to Russia and present member OF
the Venezuelan Commission, presents
some interesting and important facts
concerning the growth of crime In this
country. He gives statistics which
show, as he says, that under no other
civilized Government, whether mon
archy or republic, is the right to life
so trampled upon by a privileged
class of criminals" In other words,
words, ''the United States is, among all
the nations of the Christian world, that
country in which the crime of murder
is most frequently committed and
least frequently punished" There
were 10,50O homicides in 1895, as
against 1867 in 1889; and there were
only 1872 legal executions, or an aver
age of one to about seventy-nine. This
great disparity between crime and its
punishment is certainly national re-
proach.
There must be something radically
wrong with the machinery of justice
when so few of those who take life
are compelled to pay the proper pen
atty. 1t will not do to say that the
difficulty of obtaining conclusive proof
in such cases has enabled all of these
murderers to go free; for in majority
of instances the fact of guilt is fully
established. The explanation must be
looked for in some other direction, and
all good citizens are interested in learn
ing where it is to be found.
Mr.. White mansions several reasons
for this remarkable condition Of
things, such as public sympathy with
criminals, popular prejudice against the
death penalty, and the endless techni-
calities of the law. New trials are OBJ
tanned on frivolous preteXts, and cases
are worn out by processes Of postpone
ment. But in all of these reasons Mr.
White does not seem to reach the
source of the evil Poverty is the
most prolific source of crime, and
whatever causes poverty promotes
crime.
Our system is defective. We are
making too many millionaires on the
one hand, and paupers on the other
Some of our methods for getting
money, although legalized by statute,
have no better moral support than the
methods of Jack Sheppard or Claude
Duval, of medieval ages. The best
way to stop crime is to remove the
cause of it. Another prolific cause Of
crime is that people are losing respect
for the laws, and the machinery
which is intended to enforce them. 1t is
common thing to read of a man going
| to the penitentiary for stealing some
thing to eat for his half-starved fam
| lily; yet only few weeks ago a wealthy
Jail three hours for killing a boy who
was trespassing on her fathers estate.
Had the boy been arrested instead OF
killed, and tried before the same court
for stealing few pears, he would
likely have received heavier sentence
than did the woman for killing him.
1t is this travesty Of justice that makes
the people reckless and commit many
violations of law.
The state cannot hire men to create
wealth-to furnish useful public en-
ployment! Oh, no! That would be
paternal! But it will arrest men, con-
vict them of being hungry. build pris-
on factories and then put these men on
the auction block and sell them to the
highest bidder to work for some thiev-
ing corporation or contractor In
Ohio the contractors owe the state
$4,000 for this labor and busted. That
is, the state housed, clothed, fed and
guarded the men and compelled them
to work for the Columbus Manufacture
ing Company, and got nothing for
their work. This Is the plan of the
ruling thieves. 1t would have ruined
the state to have employed these men
and used the products to sustain them.
But some one would object that this
would have competed" with free
labor. Working for the Columbus
Manufacturing Company was not COM
peting with free labor! Oh, no! say
that prisoners should be paid for their
labor all above what they cost, and the
surplus paid to their families.
j. A. WAYLAND.
Why Brother Wayland, that is the
way it is in all of our states. Any man
can get a job who wants 1t. He can go
into a city, get hungry, ask for some
thing to eat, and get thirty to sixty
days on the rock-pile for "having no
visible means of support" If he wants
a good, steady job he can steal ham
of meat and sack of flour and 60 to