The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-03-29
THE CAUSE OF 1T
G. c. Clemens Says the War is
Responsible
For the Apparent Increase In
Crime at Present.
MURDERS IN TRlOS.
Gilbert, Moore and SandersOn
Tragedies Within Few Days.
Insurance Proposed Against
Robbers as Against Fire.
MURDERS IN TRlOS.

Why is it that an apparent wave of
crime is passing over Kansas at pres
ent? Within two weeks eleven people
have died violent deaths. The fiend
Gilbert murdered his four children at
Clay Center; Moore, another fiend, slew
his five children at Hutchinson, and
Sanderson in trying to murder one per-
son killed another at Mayetta, and paid
the penalty for his crime at the hands
of mob.
Do murderous crimes, like suicides, go
by threeS? Does one crime tend to
bring about a similar one somewhere
else?
G. C. Clemens, who is quite phil
osopher, believes that the war is one
reason why murders seem to have IN
creased so greatly recently. Another
reason he assigns why crime is not
stamped out is that the theory of So
ciety is to punish criminals rather than
to reform them.
There is no doubt" said Mr.. Glenn
ems, that war cheapenS human life. 1t
is an Established fact that there are
more killings during and after a war
than at other times. The effect would
have been greater on US had the war
been closer.
There is not enough attention paid
to the psychology of crime. There are
psychological reasons for this wave OF
crime which seems to be passing over
Kansas when people seem to be almost
irresponsible. Crimes which are not
the result of passion are, as rule, the
result of imperfect moral training or
development. When man who IS not
properly developed morally is sent 10
prison it would seem that society would
be interested in having him developed,
for nearly all of the criminals whom
we send to the penitentiary are coming
back to live among us in the sweet by
and by. But their improvement is not
thought Of. They are treated brutally
The average man thinks the worse you
nT~ir1 1aI a
is punished the better, but in most
cases it only makes him a worse Grim
inal I warned Captain SeatOn when
his binding Irvine bill was pending not
to let the legislators think about its
taking a lot of men out of the coal
mines and putting them at some hu-
name work, or they would be against
Men must be educated morally the
same as a. teacher has to educate a boy
not to put bent pins on the seats of the
other boys. But brutality is not educa-
ton.
There were at one time IA crimes
in England which were punishable with
capital punishment. Blackstone, even
gradually the number was reduced to
two-treason and murder. The idea of
revenge in treating crime has an evil
effect. A woman has recently been eX-
ecuted in Canada and another in New
York. I would like to know what those
two executions taught men-whether
trary, have tendency to teach men to
have a less regard for the sanctity of
women and make them more brutal.
Murders have been plotted right I'M
der the shadow of the guillotine and
scaffold-right when public executions
have been in progress. Instances have
been known while the sheriff has been
taking pickpockets from Topeka to
Lansing that pockets have been picked
in the very seat behind where the
prisoners sat chained.
In a few years people will insure
themselves against robbers the same
as they now insure against fires. AS it
is now every man is taxed to catch
the man who might rob him or who
might some day murder him. Every
once in 20 years a man has to pay all
he is worth in taxes, but it is probable
that he would never be robbed in those
twenty years. 1t would be cheaper to
insure against being robbed and not
have any police system or thief catching
machine. A man has to protect him
self just the same. A police system that