The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1904-03-31

offenders come under it's provisions. In the other
states it's scope is limited The Minnesota law deals
with first offenders only. Wherever adopted the law
has proved fairly successful THERE been pro-
test against by both bar and public but the whole
it seems to give satisfaction. Where the board whose
duty it is to administer the law is kept out of politics
and is composed of competent broad minded and ear
nest men, it's practical operation upholds its theory
But when politics enters into it's administration, the
law becomes travesty justice and the time sentence
is far more desirable. Dangerous criminals having
political influence then accomplish their release in
short time, while on the other hand, prisoners who
have earned their release kept in confinement for
years because influence is used against them. The
board must be absolutely divorced from politics if the
law is to be successful.
Closely related to the ndeterminate sentence
law is the habtual criminal law The latter provides
that second or third offenders be sentenced to
than the maximum period of imprisonment. Its
object is to keep habitual criminals locked up AS
the public sees the single oense, not needing the
offenders manner Of life this law has never been
popular. The disagreeable shock to the feelings
which comes to sentimental persons when man
receives twenty years for grand larceny is obviated
by the indeterminate sentence law. The man may
serve twenty years, but such seemingly unjust
sentence is enunciated in open court.
Most judges, the majority of students of penology
and the National Prison Association favor the in
determinae sentence law; the police in America are
opposed to it. The prisoner finds it severe punish
ment. He can make no plans for the future; he can
never tell when he will be released and he learns
that in most cases it is much easier for his enemies
to prejudice the board against him than it is for him
to convince the members of it that he may be safely
released
Iowa will benefit by the law if it is honestly
executed Otherwise it will soon be repealed.
DEATH has taken the most famous and-so far
as the present generation is commemorative least
read of late English poets. Everybody knows who
Sir Edwin Arnold was; comparatively few have read
his works. Even "The Light of ASIA which thirty
years ago attained such popularity as to win knight
hood for it's author, today rests undisturbed on
library and booksellers shelves. Like Milton, it is
an essential part Of complete library but it is not
often read. AS for "The Voyage of Ithobal," 1.-THE
Light of the World, "Poets of Greece" and other
books by Arnold which widely read and criticized
at the time Of their appearance, today not man
in five hundred has even heard of them.
To past generation of English readers, Arnold
represented the mystery, the glamour, the witching
romance of the land of the lotus. He was read
because his subjects were novel, not because his art
was great. Through him poetic Japan was open to
the Occident. Today Japan has hundred expositors
where it had one thirty years ago. It is as
place as Egypt Tourists with cameras swarm there.
Its romance is disappearing And SO the popularity
Of Arnold has diminished and will diminish. He
will always have certain number of readers, but not
even his death will revive any extensive interest in
his works No history of letters of the nineteenth
century can be complete without mention of Sir
Edwin Arnold, but his popularity with the average
reader has vanished for good.
The postal system as an argument in favor Of
Of rona1aoies has lost its