The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1899-02-25
Capital.
Punishment
Is 1t in Accord With Scriptural
TeachinES-Shall the Law Pun
ish Or Will 1t. Under More HUI
name and Christian Notions,
Prevent Crime.

We are accustomed to read in sac
red scriptures, that the Lord assumed
! unto Himself to administer reproof
and to punish the derilect vengeance
is mine, and I will repay, saith the
Lord,' also did he say to the accusors
of the woman judged of crime 'let
him who is without sin, cast the first
stone.
The question of capital punishment
then as a method for the prevention
of crime must be considered in the
light of the Teachers admonitions.
He did not say to Judas, go hang thy
self, neither did he rejoice in his I'M
timely death. 1t is a natural instinct
among men, to avenge their wrongs,
Ill one way or another, and it is COM
mon to require perhaps high idea of
true Christian sentiment to overcome
the notion of killing one for the muir
der of another. Is it only senti-
ment? But is it not rather based on
the truest of all teachings, which the
| Master Himself in human FORM inaug-
urated? 1t would seem to follow from
these premises, that the process of
capital punishment so long in vogue
i'll past centuries, is in direct contra
| vention to these teachings. The ques-
| ton arises then, does the killing of
one person for the commission of a
murder, tend to the prevention Of
| other offenses of similar nature.
How is the family benefited morally
or otherwise, how is the man who has
been angered, going to help himself
What is the disgrace and subsequent
sufferings of his dependent and inno-
cent family. Does capital punish
ment prevent crime and would not the
certain imprisonment for fixed term
of years exert greater effect on the
Cordinary criminal than does the pres
ent?
| This proposition will be met by
those in favor Of capital punishment,
that killing ends their career of
crime and prevents their future brut-
alities. This is true enough, but it
strikes the writer as a sort of low
grade type of education; ian eye for
an eye and tooth for a TOOTH was
the revenge in the olden days, but the
Redeemer. revoked this seemingly in
human doctrine and said: CIV hen a
man smite thee on the right cheek,
turn to him the left" 1t is the candid
belief of very many that if the pun
ishment for murder was restricted to
life or long term imprisonment, that
the effects OH society would be more
beneficent than the seemingly inhu-
man method of destruction.
The least that could be said in favor
of term imprisonment would -e the
effect on family life, and the posi-
bility in a very large number of cases
of the reform of the individuals; for
while there is life there is still hope,
but in the grave all memories are
buried, in so far as human efforts are
concerned; memory is sweet, but the
dearest of all recollections is the pres
ence in life. Across the dangerous
currents of Charon's stream, the
weary soul, would hesitate ere he
stepped on that frail bark which leads
to an unknown eternity.
As Christian notions are constantly
fastening their affections on people
and as the winged dove brought olive
| twigs to the anxious dwel1ers in the
ark, may we not hope that in this age
of Christian tutelage overcome, the
system of unchristian revenge, and
abrogate capital punishment, and in
| place thereof establish methods for
the prevention of crime, which may
tend in the course of progressive
Christianity to more largely protect
our common society. To live III har-
mony is mans best and fondest de-
sire, but to be condemned to unknown
years of toll, deprived of ties, would
seem more dreaded punishment
than the hangman's knot.
| Right here it might be of interest
| to recite some statistics on crime,
from the census of the United States
for 1890:
| The number of prisoners in the
country at that period was $500, of
this total, those who were committed
for homicide, which embraced muir
| ueT Ill the llfsL ueSiet, anu I'LL OtneI
degrees, there were 1857; the native
parents of these represented 2,1S2.
Where the parentage represented one
of foreign birth, there were 176 homi-
cides and where both parents were
of foreign birth the number was 494.
The parentage of homicides to the
whole number of prisoners from the
above figures would therefore be 8
per cent. After all a very small num-
Der. The ninth biennial report or the
Minnesota State Prison Board shows
the number of persons received in the
year 1895 to be 235, and in the year
1896 235. The percentage of prison
ers in the Minnesota penitentiary
committed for homicide as compared
with the whole numebr of convicts
was therefore 4 per cent. The whole
number of prisoners in the institu-
ton during the years 1856 commit
ted for murder in the first degree was
4. The prisoners in this institution
represented by St. Louis county was
in 1898 H. and in 1896 20, 1t will be