The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-07
THE LASH IS ADVISED.
MT. shortall of Chicago Wants the
 Whipping Post Restored.

Whipping Post Restored. Tough young Micky, who throws stones and big chunks of Chicago mud at little Harold with the curls and the big white collar would better watch out. John G. Shortall, president of the Illinois Humane society, has scheme for reforming him, and there are many vigorous spankngs scattered along the vista of his future.
 Wandering Willie, who is so emphat- { ic in his opposition to labor that he makes a terror and nuisance of him. self to the community, would also do well to open his weather eye to signs or storm. The whipping post IS Tor hlm, ! too. The wife-beater-that most 1nsut- | ferable survival of primitive brutality he also would do well to reform, for the whippings promised for him are more severe than those for any of the ot~e e,s. l MT. Shortall, who for thirty years has been the foremost enemy of brutality in the state of Illinois, has made up his mind that a little seeming brutality-a sharp infliction of pain--is the one et- fective form of punishment for certain misdemeanors and crimes, and he is go- ing to work as hard as he can to bring about the introduction of this punish ment by law at the coming session Of tn, legislature.
 | Though he has been thinking of re- form of this nature for a long time, MT. Shortall never preached it publicly un- til last Tuesday night. When he brought it up then before gathering of repr santatives of various charities in the Masonic Temple he was met all most with incredulity at the start. His hearers could hardly think him serious. But before he had done talking 1t is said he converted all but one of those present to his way of thinking. Now if sufficient interest develops in the pro- posal a vigorous effort for immediate legislation will be made.
 It is the use of pain as means of discipline which lies at the bottom of MT. ShortalPs suggestion. He believes there are many persons in our cities who are so far removed from ordinary moral views and motives that they can not have their conduct controlled ade- quately for public needa in any other way than by direct personal pain. Es- pecially does he think that there are thousands of children growing up in Chicago whom the law cannot we'll reach, and whose parents are incapable of controlling them, and who are hence on the high road to making the very worst of themselves from the point of view of good citizenship.
 How to reach these children and tn SC l1Li 1+co in, n effective way? How bring into their lives a wholesome respect for law and for the rights of others? These are the questions he has asked himself, and he proposes the whipping post by way of ansWr.
 "The foundation of all the crimnality and folly of youth" says MT. Shortall, "is the fundamental disrespect and ir- reverence for the things of importance in the land. Many of the hoodlums of the street live without appreciating that there is anything worthy of respect and strong enough to make itself re- spected in the world. Starting in ignor- ance and disregard, what ending can there be for such children? The worst of it Is that there is no good way to reach them.
 Now, little sharp pain inflicted on the children as soon as possible after the commission of their offenses will do more for them than anything else that I know of. 1t is only what we have all of us had to undergo from the hands of our parents-at least if there is any good at all in us now I would have the punishment inflicted by a regular off, cer in the utmost privacy in the jail or court building. It should not be brutal or revengeful Just enough to be re- membered and to serve as a good les son and deterrent for the future. The number of lashes that can properly be inflicted and the form of the whip are matters that a physician can best de- eide upon.'
 MT. Shortall does not believe that the present courts are constituted in such a way as to do the best things possible for the juvenile offenders, and he would like to see the state law that introduces l whipping as penalty also establish a separate court or branch of court for the trial of cases against children
 Passing to the case of adult offenders, MT. Shortall characterized wife beating as about the most detestable of all off, lenses He said that it was only when the wife herself complained that pun ishment was given; that if her husband was fined the family perhaps suffered for the necesssaries of life; if the hus- band went to jail the wife was the one who felt the degradation the worst, and that finally, when the husband was re- leased his first act would probably be to give the wife another beating
 Direct punishment of the man by the lash would, he thought, be the way to influence brutas cf that description. As to criminally inclined vagrants he also has strong arguments for the use of the lash. In answer to an objection as to the possible degrading effect of whip ping post MT. Shortall said "A public whipping post would surely be degrad- ing. Private whppings would not They would only be given to men who were amenable to no other discipline. This would not be a step backward to- l ward barbarous punishment, but in re- ality a step forward toward more scien- tific and successful punishment. Re form and not revenge is what it would mean. I do not think the maudlin sen- timentality of the age is so strong real ly as to oppose the reform when it un- derstands it.-Chicago Times-Herald. |
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