The Delawarean., 1900-05-19
OTHERS FAVOR
DELAWARE LAW.
Opponents of Post and Pillorv
Now See Good In 1t.
STUDENTS OF PEHOL0GY SPEAK.
Philadelphia Newspaper, in Leading
Editorial, Says Total Abandon
ment of Corporal Punish-
ment is Mistake.

Ihere are multiplying and impress
siye indications that students Of pen-
ology in the United States are being
led by observation study and expert
ence to the conclusion that the total
abandonment which in this country
has generally been effected of corporal
punishment as a criminal penalty and
corrective is a mistake. Several of our
own judges have lately expressed the
opinion that for certain class Of
crimes and for certain criminals and
Offenders the whipping post ought 10
be re-estabished. In the British House
OF Lords a few weeks ago no less a per-
son than Lord Salisbury declared that
in many instances MO kind of punish
ment is more salutary and effective
than the cat O. nine tails or the birch
and in England magistrates have an
thority to order the whipping of a
juvenile or brutal offender. His Lord
ship ridiculed the idea that there was
anything degrading in this H1ind of
punishment, and reminded his hearers
thar they had often been fbogged at
school without suffering any loss Of
self-reepect.
IN this country the impression has
prevailed that corporal punishment
was IN some way incompatible with an
advanced system of civilization. and
with the exception of Delaware. we
know OF no State in which 1t is now
legally practiced. 1t has even been
oanlshed from our public schools to the
material detriment of discipline. There
are many boys who cannot he kant
IN order by any means less strenuous
than the rod and the mistaken tender
ness in this respect that has prevailed
mas unquestionably been attended by
injurious consequences. However, as
we began by saying, there are signs
that reaction has set in. and that Ihe-
fore long we shall be making a return
IN TINS respect to the wholesome prac-
tlces OF our forefathers. In this con-
nection it may be noted as a significant
circumstance that at a recent meeting
IN New Haven of the Connections Con-
gregational Association, an organiza-
ton which includes both lay and cler-
lcal members, resolution was adonted
in which the re-institution of the whin-
ping post as a punishment for nettv
crimes and for youthful offenders was
strenuously urged
More recently the Commissioner of
CHARITIES for Brooklyn took similar
ground and declared that the whipping
post was the only proper punishment
for the wife beater We agree with
hif, and we also think that il is the
only proper punishment for bows CON
ylcted of stealing, of malicious mischief
and OF other offenses. To send them to
prison or even to the House of Correc-
tlon is to expose them to the danger of
lifelong decentralization, to say Moth
ing of the consequent expense of the
community, while there is no room for
question as to which punishment is the
most degrading. There is nothing dis
graceful in whipping, in the average
boys estimation, only something in
tensely disagreeable.
1t is getting to be a common thing
for magistrates to arrange with the
parents of some youthful delinquent to
administer THE needed correction in
the exercise of their parental authority.
That same authority should however,
be invested by statute in courts of law.
Philadelphia Inquirer.