Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-12-23

tory measure if it should be generally
adopted. each state and country working
in union with the others.
Another matter that will be considered
is that of the proper penalties to be APP
piled to various offenses. There is a
growing feeling that the death penalty
does not have a tendency to deter mur-
derers from carrying out their purpose,
and this is a question that will be thor
oughly discussed. Those who are inter-
ested in this matter are already engaged
IN compiling statistics from which they
expect to prove that life sentence is far
preferable from many standpoints. II
the same way there are many students
or crime who favor a life sentence as the
penalty to be attached to armed bur-
glary. In Ohio such a penalty has al
ready been considered, and a bill pro-
viding for its enforcement has been
drafted by Judge D~ellenbaugh of Cleye-
land. 1t is to be presented to the lex
legislature, and the friends of the meas
ufe are confident hat its adoption will
have a tendency to discourage the com
mission of such crimes. The theory of
this law is that desperate men with a
weapon in their hands would not hesitate
to commit murder to escape capture.
whereas such an extreme penalty would
haNe a tendency to make a man think
twice before committing his primary
offense.
Among criminologists there is a feeling
that there is something vitality wrong
with the statute books; tina the only
way 10 discourage crime is to bring about
a complete revision of the penal code.
mere are some Who believe that the pen
altles are 700 severe when enforced in
discriminatory, and there are others who
hold ina there is at present altogether
too much sympathy With crime. There
are some experts who believe that the
Whlpplng post and ducking stool ought
never TO have gone out of use and who
insist that the lash. the lock sten. the
striped clothing and the torture hambe
should still be encouraged. There are
some persons who even uphold the
theory that the branding and mutilation
of conVicts would be a deterrent to crime.
but they are exceptional. The general
opinion seems, however, to favor lighter.
but more scientific methods of punish
ment, a system of parole that will be in
ternational with the maximum penalty
upon a second offense. The Universal
adoption of the Bertillon system of meas
urements would make the detection of
the professional, or second offense GRIM
lnal possible, and he would then be sub
Jected to the extreme penalty wherever
he might be arrested. If thiss system was
in operation the man who had become a
criminal by mistake or through the ext
gence of circumstances would soon be re-
leased and permitted to prove his desire
to reform. while the habitual crimina
would be put securely out of the way for
a long term of years.
These are but a few of the matters
that are to be discussed by the delegates.
but they are enough to show the general
scope OF the convention. To criminolo- |
slsts every crime tells a story. and it is |
upon this ntimat Knowledge of crime |
and it's commission that they will base
their discussions. If there is no jmme-
diate change in the penal code of the
various countries as the direct result OF
the convention the world will read its
discussions with interest. and the facts |
that are brought out will have a ten
deney to make men wiser in the devising
of future laws for the government of
criminals and the punishment for crime. |