The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-27
ruAr WHIPPING rosr sUaansrros.

THAT WHIPPING POST sUGGEsTT0N.
 President Roosevelt is still receiving more or less unfavorabie criticism for his advocacy of the whipping-post for wife -beaters, Of course he did not propose that there should be any gen. eral ieeislation on the subject, as Con- gress has no right to legislate as thus proposed. except In the District of Co., iumbia, over which the Government ex- ercises jurisdiction. The Albany Law Journal. for example. has this com ment:
 It is bad enough for a man to beat to beat him for k The sheriff wrip- ped a man brutafly and publicly the other day in Maryland. This sort of punishment degrades the sufferer be- he will always ache to kill that sheriff; ; and we do not wonder. 1t tends to make brute of the oficer infiicting 1t. A se1f-respecting man ought to de- cline tG dirty .s ns asnS: S..S wts tt n e,s the juries in England, from the popu- lar notion that they were bloodthirsty; mistaken notion, probably. But we do believe that the custom of re
 
 low beings until they bleed and faint. and sometimes till they come near dy- ing, Is very reprchensible. If we must whip criminals. let us have a machine for doing 1t. like . carpet-beater.
 It will be admitted that there is some force in the suggestion that the admin istration of the lash would tend to de- grade the oflcer who performs what all must consider cruel act. though for that matter a public hangman or other executioner, If he continued long in the business. might become brutal ized to . certain extent. In the case of a sherift there would be less danger of this, because these of1cials are changed so frequently that they would not be 90 liable to lose feeling as a man would if 1t were made life job
 But there is legal anp constitutional side to the matter which is not with out interest. Judge Cooley is certainly an authority on Constitutional law. and he has discussed this question with his usual clearness and force. As is well known, our Federal Constitution, as we'll as many of the State Constitu- tions. forbids in direct terms the im- position of ''cruel and unusual punish uent," and Judge Cooley. in discussing that point, says: We may well doubt the right to establish the whipping post and the piilory in States where they were never recognized as instru- ments of punishment. or in estates whose Constitutions revised since pub iic sentiment had banished them. have forbidden cruel or unusual punish ments. In such States the public sem timent must be regarded as having condemned them as cruel. and any pun lshment which. if employed at all, has become altogether obsolete, must cer- tainly be looked upon as unusual"
 This view of an eminent lawyer might we'll cause Congress to hesitate. if that body should really incline to such legislation, which we very much doubt. No one has any sympathy to waste over 6 brute who beats his wife. and there are two arguments advanced for the whipping post instead of fine and imprisonment In his case. One is that he really deserves the lash. and the other that If he has to pay fine, or If he is sent to prison, the loss of
 the time and money will fall heaviest | on the wife and children who are all
 ready suffering from his brutality. These arguments are certainly not
 without force, whatever may be said on the other side. There Is also a grimly humorous view taken by The London Law Journal while commenting on the proposition of Prof. Piazzi Smith, that criminals should be pun ished by enforced starvation. The Journal says:
 The only weak point in the system appears to be the absence of anything corresponding to hard labor in aggra- vated crimes. and this might be sup piled by judicial direction to the gaoler during ing certain spscified h hours. , S a savory % dish, the odor of which will pervade the cell. The nature of the dish should be varied in proportion to the serious ness of the crime and the tastes of the should starve amid the fumes. of roast goose, and Scottish criminals should suffer in the midst of an atmosphere of haggis. Carrying out this idea, an odor oSf apple pie should tantalize the Yankee, the Southerner should be made to smell of hog and hominy, while the natives of the Western plains should snuff the scent of buffalo or grizzly steak. Would not this be an effective remedy for tramps? We should not like to live in a country controlled by Carlyle, Ruskin and Professor Piazzi Smith.