The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-12-06
.D|LATORY
JUSTICE
"Civis Secundus' Has a
Word With
5. E. B.

| Editor Advertiser: Inc rIiehu VI
| November, 1904, contains an article
| ..Dilatory Justice is Injustice" and IS
signed S. E. B. The communication
ends by calling on our courts "sterniy
and vigorously" to hasten to execute
Justice upon murderers, so that indlg-
nant communities be not provoked I'M
| wisely to take justice into their own
| lawless hands" Mr.. Editor, the scales
of Justice are of nice construction, SO
delicately poised and true. that care,
thought and full information are abb
soIute essentials for those who use
them and would weigh truly, ard pro-
nounce faithfully on matters brought
to them for adjustment, correction or
decision. No sledge hammer blows at
the foundations must be permitted,
for the delicate apparatus may become
disorganized and mems hopes of fair
play, among the best they have, will
be vain and unfruitful.
Portions of S. E. BIS article are un-
reasoning even as the headstrong
thoughtles sness of the lynchers he
writes about. A murderer is one guilty
of murder. If men are to be declared
murderers after being acquitted or be-
fore trial, after the manner of S. E.
B., why give them trial at all? Such
procedure seems to your corresp ondent
monstrous.
Speaking of one lately tried for kill
ing his wife and her mother S. E. B.
says for the first crime he was ac
quilted on the ground of insanity of
which he had never been suspected"
Never been suspected. Well, what of
it? I know not and possibly S. E. 3.
is equally ignorant of the true mental
conditions that brought about the cruel
shooting down of the victims, sane
men, however, are not given to kill
ing their wives in such wise or even
their mothers-in-law, and any one not
an expert on the nice questions of
insanity and criminar responsibility
venturing on such dogmatic assertions
as S. E. B. has thought well to make
takes a grave responsibility, the out
come Of which may be the furtherance
of injustice
Mental conditions where men con-
stantly use alcohol and sometimes to
excess are, we are told on authority,
profoundly involved, and the border
line between sanity and its antithesis
may not only not be strongly marked
but the reverse. Not to be forgotten
moreover in estimating mental idiosyn-
crasies are the habits of foregoers, for
IL is thoroughly understood that a con-
tinued and free use of alcohol shows.
in a marked manner, in various ad.
verse ways in lives of descendants
Atavistic tendencies assert themselves
and a neurotic inheritance is thus
easily passed on or set up.
Writing of unrecognized Toxic In
sanities in Vol. XIV of THE Alienist
and Neurologist,' Dr. T. D. Crothers
says: symptoms of mania, delirium
and melancholy are, frequent; homicide
and suicide may follow each other
Criminal impulses to take advantage
of or injure some one bring these toxic
fnsanities into prominence.
Such insanities are seldom or never
recognized, except when some extraor-
binary change or conduct attracts I'M
usual attention" In a paper recently
published in the Edinburgh Medical
Journal the question of Criminal Re-
sponsibility in its relation to mental
disorder is discussed. Commenting up
on it the Lancet says: Medical men
have also come to recognize that Or
ganic and grave LESSONS of the brain
may exist without mental disorder suf-
ficient to constitute insanity, as in
cases of epilepsy, alcoholism, and lead
poisoning.
THE alcoholic lunatic may be per-
fectly aware of the nature of his act.
oil Co LIN Enof =
full and yet the disease of his brain
may SO diminish the powers of resist
ance that he cannot heIp but yield to
a dominating impulse and commit a
criminal act
DR.. Peterson, president New York
Commission in Lunacy, and DR.. Wal
ter Haines. in Legal Medicine and
Toxicology."
S. E. B., writes of Gods terri
BILE arraignment of Cain" Much.
Mr.. Editor, might be said on that sub
ject but the occasion calls not for it,
except perhaps to say that. Old Tesla
ment stories are not generally of a
kind making it wise or safe to intro
duce them into questions more suited
to the discriminative mind of the
thoughtful and properly informed ply
stefan.
Reviewing these matters a profound
and important ethical question ever
presents itself. In paper read in Bos-
ton by DR.. Albert E. Sterne before a
medical association the learned physi-
clan, a specialist in mental and ner-
yous diseases, said, in reviewing the
effect of alcohol upon the nervous sys-
tenn. the mind and heredity: II fully
realize the Importance of the assertion
when l say that society and its social
laws, civil life and its license, are al
most wholly responsible for the over
crowded condition of the insane hos
pitfalls and prisons. homes of the men
tai and moral degenerates.'
Society! the churches. the learned
professions, civil authorities and lead
ers of men. these should all surely give
much thought to the matter of the
making of criminals and also to the
ethical Question involved in taking the