Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-10-12
SCORES GOVERNOR LEEDY FOR HIS
VIEWS ON HANGING.
CALLS THEM UNPoPULIsTIc.
SAYS THEY WILL COST MIR. LEEDY
THE GovERNORsHIP.
MIR. Clemens Thinks the Governor
Should Do His Thinking With
His Henrt-Snrcnstic Refer
ence to the DIR. Call
Pardon Case.

Topeka, Kas, Oct. n.-(SpecialD The re-
cent interview of Governor Leedy, in which
he favors capital punishment, has greatly
aroused G. C. Clemens. supreme court re-
porter. He is very indignant. He believes
that if Governor Leedy doesn't rescind his
opinion he is a worse pest than the federal
courts. In an interview to-day. he says:
Governor Leedy's interview on capital
punishment will not only fill many Popu-
lists with regret, because he has made their
future support of him impossible. but will
startle the progressive and humane of all
parties by bringing plainly to view that
nearly half a hundred persons in this state
hold their lives at the mere will or caprice
of the man who at any time chances to be
governor. His interview indicates that,
were it not that he is hampered by the en-
lightened conduct of his predecessors, the
governor would. without hesitation, have
a hanging bee at the penitentiary equaling
in the numbers engaged one of the delight
full hangings of people for incorrigible pow
erty during the reign of Elizabeth. He
seems to think, too, that life sentence to
the penitentiary is an appointment to a
nice. clean, easy job. which any man might
be glad to accept.
The Case of DIR. Call.
II think the governor has allowed himself
to become unduly bloodthirsty over the con-
trivance Of one man to marry himself out of
the penitentiary by holding sort of wood
en- or silver wedding, as 1t were. 1t would
be rather wholesale revenge for one tri-
fling incident of this kind to hang forty
seven people by the neck till they would
promise not to live here any more.
s'yVhv fbiS reypppefp1 feeling at a1l3 What
did the gentleman addicted to the matri-
monial habit do but rid the state of keeping
him in luxurious idleness and resign his
comfortable job, thus creating a vacancy
at the penitentiary and giving some other
poor devil a chance to enjoy happy ex-
istence? The governor is inconsistent. II a
home in the penitentiary is so desirable as
he suggests, surely the lamented Mr.. Call
is entitled to sympathy for his shortsight-
edness in throwing away good thing in
order to marry the same wife over again
His excellency ought not to think of imi-
tating Herod or Nero, for what punishment
could be greater than the consciousness OF
Mr.. Call that he has forever precluded him.
self from returning to the delightfully."- idyl-
lie existence which the governor assures us
the fortunate convicts at the Kansas peni-
tentiary enjoy? Let poor Call go. The poor
wretch will suffer enough from being al
large. Let us weep for his unhappy pre-
dicament not kill a lot of people because
we are angry at his folly.
VIII Cost Leedy Reelection.
''If the governor had told the people OF
Kansas last fall that he entertained such
sentiments as he expressed in his inter-
view, feel quite certain enough Populists
would have voted against him to have
spared him the embarrassment which he
now complains the Christian impulses OF
| his predecessors cause him; and If he con-
| tinues to entertain those sentiments, II
| would be well for him to crafty his hang.
ing propensity during his present term OF
Office If he ever expects to crafty them al
| all. How often must some people be TOLD
| that the Peoples party is not party OF
| reaction. but is a party of progress? How
every Populist must hang his head In
| shame if it should prove that the success
of his party meant turning back the dia
| of progress; meant undoing the work be.
| gun nearly century ago by Sir Samue
| Romilly; meant placing upon Thoma.
| Paine and Victor Hugo the brand, 'Senti
| mental fool;' meant deserting the Mount
| of Olives to return to Sinai, and substitute
| ing for Love your enemies he barbarit
| An eye for an eye and tooth for tooth ?
"After the year of revolutions in Eu
rope, it was Mazzinfs proud boast thai
| wherever the people had been victoriou.
| they had overthrown the seaffold. This ha.
| been the spirit of every modern revolt o.
| the people. 1t certainly is the spirit o.
socialism to-day. I know it is the spiri
| of large part of the membership of tn,
Peoples party: and the official represent
| ative of Kansas Populism has no right t.
| place his party in the light of a barbarou
organization by giving public utterance t.
| sentiments so shocking to thinking ant
| progressive people whose eyes are trained
| upon the coming of that century of pro
| phetic promise in which the great Hug,
declared the scaffold will be dead
A Bit of Sarcasm.
''The governor has good heart, and 4
| he would let it do his thinking for him h,
would go right where he sometimes goe
| wrong under other guidance. He shoult
| at least read what the great and good o
| the world have said against capital pun
ishment before forming fixed opinions upol
| SO momentous subject as the cold blood
ed taking of human life; and hope he will
| read and will change his savage views il
time to enable men who are disposed t
be his political friends to stand by hin
without doing violence to their conviction
and ceasing to venerate the Great Reform
| er of Galilee.
How many of the forty-seven men noy
under sentence of death would have bee
| convicted of murder in the first degree
juries had not understood that such a ver
dict did not mean death? Is 1t to be sup
posed that Kansas would have witnesse
fifty or more hangings in the few year
the present law has been in operation
Every judge and every lawyer knows tha
convictions of murder in the first degre
have been easier to secure simply becaus
1t has been understood that no governo
would issue death warrant. To execut
some of those men would be to infict deaf
when judge and jury intended to doom onl
to imprisonment for life. 1t would be max
ing an ex post facto law, precisely as
the legislature were to enact that men dis
tinctly sentenced to life Imprisonment
should be taken out and hanged. The go,
ernor who would do such a deed woul
find that the men he had killed still live
and peopled the rostrums to denounce hil
to his constituents, and render him Ii
famous to posterity.
Think of it! A man kills another fo
his money. He is too dangerous a man
be allowed to live. you say. Very well; yo
hire another man for money to kill til
murderer in the name of the state.
What, then, will you do with the COLI
blooded' wretch who can be hired for fe
dollars to murder your murderer? Is he
safe person to be permitted to live? Yo
can't hang a man without human agenc,
you must get somebody to do the ver
thing and do it from sordid motives, yo
). are having him hang the other man fl
doing.