The evening times., 1900-02-08

Lord Roberts. has brains in il. The Beers
are now being pressed in every direction,
and if their numbers are no greater than
we have ground fer supposing. it is diff
cult to see why they should not sustain
reYerses somewhere.
The Death Penalty for IncorriEibIes.
a book has recently been written by Mr..
Duncan McKim. advocating somewhat
radical and startling method of dealing
with criminals Mr.. McKim has arrived at
his conclusions after kong study Of the
causes Of crime. particularly as they are
involved i'm problems of heredity; and ne
is strongly opposed to what may be called
sentimental philanthropy-th sort of emo
tionalism which so shrnks from inficting
pain that it allows abuses to go on and
cause infinitely more pain for want Of
decisive and stern legislation. He advo-
Gates the establishment of death chambers,
in which incorIigible criminals shall be
executed by painless and gentle process
probably by the use of carbonic acid gas.
lie would also extend this treatment to the
hopelessly insane and imbecile who may
argument is that such treatment should
be called mercifH rather than cruel, mas
much as il removes from the world per-
sons whose lives are a burden To them
selves and a mischief to others. and pre-
vents the continuance of diseased and en-
feebied families.
II such a measure should ever be actually
proposed In Ameriga-and there is not
much doubt that something of the kind
Will come up for discussion i'm course Of
time-thcre would probably be a lyeIier
argument over il Than about anything
which has attracted popular attention for.
many years, In such discussion two dis
tnct schools OF thought would be repre-
sented the humanitarian and the scien-
tifc: ana there would be in both schools
variations in every direction from the main
theory II IS impossible TO sag what the
result would be. for this would depend
on the time. manner. ard cause OF the in
PRODUCTION OF such a measure. Al present
it would certainly be defeated by popular
sentiment which could easily be excited
against IT. and there would be a certain
justice in such verdict. However wise
such plan might be theoretically. in prac-
tica it would be liable to some abuses. and
al the present time these abuses might be
so numerous a. to oyerbalance the bene-
fits
IL is easy to sne what arguments would
be presented against this plan. II would
undoubtedly be said that We have no right
to take life except. in punishment Of capital
crimes: that This plan is q practical re-
version to the old criminal code of Eng
land, which was notoriously Intellectual in
preventing crime; that with such a law
in force il would be almost impossible TO
get an intelligent Jury TO convict a man.
since so many people are prejudiced against
capital punishment even now. and that the
result would thus be the acquittai of the
most dangerous criminals. just as murder
ers are now set. free on the ground of in
sanity. II would also be argued that the
children Of the poor. when imbecile epilep-
tic. or predisposed to insanity would ba
put to death. being a charge on the State.
while the equally vicious and objectionable
offspring of rich sinners would continue
to exist and the argument that The Crimi-
nal should be allowed TO live out his
allotted term OF years IN order to save
mis- soul would have considerable weight
with many people There is also at the
present time, a strong feeling that crimi-
nails ought not 10 be treated haTshly. since
their habits are largely due to conditions
for which they may not be responsible
and that prisons should be reformatory
rather than punitive. In short the whole
tendency Of intelligent thought in this
country al present ds toward the abolition
Of crime by humane rather than harsh
methods. and TO most people the death
penalty seems the extreme Of harshuessr.
IL the death chamber" were made the
destination Of imbeciles and incurable
lunatics there would also be chance that
unscrupulous persons would seize this OPP
portunity to get rid of heirs to property
or children and old people who might be
membranes.
The argument that the death penalty. if
humanely inflicted. is wrong in itself. or
unmerciful to the criminal, viii probably
lose its effect as time goes on. In the
days when people in general believed that
nine persons out of ten were destined to
eternal tortures. death was naturally the
acme of all terrors. and. of course under
those circumstances. the criminal was
supposed 10 be condemned to these tor
ments unless he was given a chance to re-
form. The fact that very few criminals
do reform is probably due to two things.
One is the lack of moral stamina which
comes from vicious parentage and bad sur
roundings in early life: the other is the
merciless espionage of society, which fer
rets out the record of the criminal who
honestly tries to behave himself. and
weights him with the condemnation
and suspicion of his feIlow-men, so that
he is deprived of all incentive and oppor-
tunity to support himself honestly. For
criminals belonging to the first class-the
inherently vicious-the death chamber
might be a good thing. They should. for
the protection of society, be prevented
from fathering other criminals, and it is
probable that they would in the majority
of cases prefer death to perpetual i'm
prisonment. II would certainly be safer
for society If large numbers of these men
were put to death rather than condemned
to life Imprisonment, for all records show
that without hope of release as an in
centive TO good behavior they become
reckless, desperate. and in many cases in
sane. 1t may be argued that if the Grim
inal knows that after certain number of