The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1901-12-05

that would do the most injury to their
own inter ests 1 doubt if they could
have evolved a worse one than now
exists.
Every youth entering a business
career is taught to regard every other
business man as his commercial rival
as his most deadly enemy in the COM
mercial sphere. He is taught that it is
"smart" to buy thing for small price
and sell it for an exorbitantly large
one. He is taught that it is Smart"
that it shows "business sagacity," and
financial shrewdness," to combine his
capital with others of his own ilk and
crush out his smaller rivals; in other
words to ruin them for his own benefit.
A man in New York possesses a
fortune of over one hundred million
dollars, every cent of which was made
in Wall street by gambling, or specuIa-
ton, if you prefer This man, glutted
with the gold flched from widows and
orphans, is held up to view as ''shre wd,
successful man!' Can anyone whose
sense of justice is normal, or whose
views are not prejudiced, tell us this is
right? Let legislation, or popular
opinion, or something, regulate these
financial evils and you will again see
an enormous decrease in crime.
The sphere of Penal II eform.
AS 1 intimated in the beginning, penal
reform is practically useless unless an
attempt is also made to reform the
present society evils. Nevertheless
there are some things in the present
method of handling criminals that
might be done away with, and be a
profit to both the criminal and the
taxpayer
If there is one thing above all others
that history has taught us it is that
brutality cannot prevent crime. During
the decline of the Roman empire
certain crimes became so universal
that the lawmakers deemed it high
time to use extreme methods. But,
altho the most terrible tOrtures were
inflicted, those same crimes continued
to increase down to the very end of
Rome. During the middle ages and
the period of the reformation, bias
phemy, heresy, and other kindred
crimes or offenses against the church
and against God were punished with a
brutality and fiendish severity almost
incomprehensibIe to free born Amer
leans. Did this stop the offenses
BY no means, they fourished all the
more. Violence begets violence. Cruelty
begets cruelty. Show me a nation
whose penal methods are particularly
atrocious, and l will show you one
where homicides and crimes of brutal
nature are very frequent. TO my way
of thinking, justice should be deal t
out in proportion to the offense And
also, if justice is to be effective it
should be swift and certain as stroke
of lightning. No legal quibbling, no
delays and shifting from court to
court, unless the exigencies of the case
demand it.
1t is a notorious fact in this country,
that a man with large fortune or a
high social position is seldom convicted
or, if so, he gets comparatively light
sentence. If he is willing to use money
freely he can generally go scot free
unless popular opinion is too strong
against him. In short if a man hs S
enough money he can buy most any
thing, from seat in the U. S. senate
to immunity from punishment.
Of course it is impossible to deal
fully with the different phases OF social
corruption in brief article like this,
even if were competent to handle
this subject thoroughly Anyone who
attempts to write on the criminal
problem must necessarily pay due
respect to the opinions of Cesare Lom-
broso, Enrico Fe.ri, Ellis, Garafalo and
the other great masters of scientific
criminology. Nevertheless, / still
retain my opinion that the causes must
be obliterated before the effects will
cease. LEO.