The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-06-10
CRIME AND ITS PUNISHMENT.


Crime, from legal standpoint, is an
act committed or omitted in defiance
and in violation of public law. 1t is
usually divided into two classes, crimes
and misdemeanors. Crime, in the
usual acceptation of the term, denotes
public offense of an atrocious and
shocking nature, such as murder, trea-
son, robbery, theft, arson, etc. The
lesser offenses against individuals or
private rights are called trespasses, and
those against public rights are called
misdemeanors, but all violations of law
are crimes.
The civilization, well being and hap
piness of community depend, to a
great extent, on the willingness of it's
people to respect and obey the law.
Because of it we go to sleep, feeling
that our persons, family and property
are protected, and that by law the
vicious are restrained, and yet in our
feeling of safety we awake to find that
some crime has been committed in our
midst that shocks and alarms US. We
immediately set about hunting down
the criminal and furnishing him for the
offense; the machinery of the law is
brought to bear, the criminal appre-
hended, tried, convicted and punished.
Society and the law have been vindi-
Gated, but what of the criminal, and
others who will follow in his foot
steps?
Until late years very little attention
has been given to the reformation of
the criminal, and still less to the source
of the crime and the causes that led to
the making of the criminal. The old
theory of Furnishing crime had great
deal OF vengeance in it-"an eye for an
eye, and tooth for tooth''-but this
idea of punishment is giving way to
the better and more humane theory,
that all punishment should be inflicted,
not in the spirit of revenge, but with a
view to the reformation of the
criminal.
Society, to a great extent, is respon-
sible for the criminal. What can we
expect of the child that is born of
criminal parents with inherited ten
dencies towards crime, and reared
among the environments that help to
strengthen these tendencies? And yet
society and government stand aloof,
and let this poor unfortunate drift in
his course, until arrested by the strong
arm of the law, and charged with some
crime, the prosecution and punishment
of which costs the state more than it
would cost to feed, cothe and rear the
child in the first place to strong and in
telligent manhood. We should strike
at the root of the evil and not spend
our time and money looping off the
branches.
1t is estimated that there are now
over 100000 persons in prisons in the
United States, and the number is still
increasing. We are nation of TO-
100000 of people, and little over one
hundred years old, justly proud of our
schools and churches, hospitals and
charitable institutions; but not far
from these institutions are to be found
neglected children, reared in our streets
and alleys, the associates of criminals
and paupers, schooled in crime, boys
and girls in their teens who are hard
ened and vicious criminals. The state
and municipal governments should do
more to check crime at its inception,
and less would be required of them in
its punishment.
REFORMATION OF THE CRIMINAL.
In this direction our own State of
Minnesota has made rapid strides in
the past ten years in legislative, prison
and reformatory progress. While the
penalties for crime have not been re-
duced, yet great deal of legislation
has been enacted that encourages the
criminal or convict along the lines of
good conduct, which, if adhered to,
will shorten the sentence very mate
rally.
Most of these juvenile criminals have
no homes; and those who have homes,