Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-04


Jail instead. Nowhere else is the lash
even recognized by the letter of the law,
and yet 1t Is proposed to restore II IN tue
District, upon which all eyes are focused,
and which serves as a model In SO many
respects Is it the purpose of its adyo-
Gates to cause the example to spread,
until what is at first merely a local insti-
tuition shall grow into national whip
ping post? Already the example OF the
President has inspired legislators In sew
eraI of the states The District protests
against being used once more as an apo.H-
ecarys cat for the states, to be dosed ex-
perimentally with dubious legislative COM
pounds.
Is the United States to pose before the
world as retroactive and barbarous in It's
pathological methods, in the face OF the
universal tendency toward a more hu-
name and rational punitive process! Is
this the civilization for which the west
ern republic seeks to stand?
No Discrimination.
The Adams bill is distinctly Objectionable
on one specific ground that it allows no
discrimination in the application OF the
lash to the wife beaten whatever the de-
gree of his brutality or the provocation. 1t
leaves no room for a plea of self-defense
1t grants no consideration of irresponsible
ity from drink, or such melting cause
as the wfe's infidelity. 1t permits no alter
native punishment by fine and imprison-
ment, as in Maryland holding the threat OF
the lash over the wife beater's head with
out the necessity of actually inf1icting it..
The terms of this measure bring sharply
to view the fact that the advocates OF the
whipping post differ widely among them
selves as to the character of that to De es-
tablished in the District. One would pun
ish in private in order to avoid brutaiizing
the community. Another would not PUNISH
in private, because there would be no
check on individual brutality of executions
and because the important element OF
public hunilia ton, SO effective with man.
would be eliminated from the punishment,
leaving nothing but the appeal to the ami
NAL fear of pain. Still another would pun
ish at the post only habitual or frequently
offending wife heaters. This one would not
punish the wife beaten who is irresponsible
from drink. That one favors the lash
as a cure for drunkenness. This one would
punish petty offenders along with wife
heaters. That one would punish husband
beating wives. as well as wife-beating hus-
bands, and also child-beating fathers AND
mothers. II
Punishment in Private. \
Mr.. Adams lash is to be applied in pri
vate. Its brutality is to be hid from the
public gaze, in order that the community
may be spared a disagreeable shock. The
element of shame, so important and effec-
tive factor in Anticipated punishments
like the old-time whipping post, the stocks
and the pillory, is to be eliminated. There
remains of the old penalty nothing but the
personal, physical torture, the nfiiction of
pain. The check upon the brutal infliction
of the punishment which public inspection
would in this twentieth century assure is
removed. The stipulated presence of a IL
censed physician or surgeon may perhaps
be intended to prevent the killing of the
dashed man, though the surgeon is given no
authority to interfere, and must apparently
confine himself to restoring the mutilated
ana tortured prisoner to consciousness and
binding up his bleeding Wounds
Nor can the advocates of the whipping
post agree upon the character of the lash.
Some advocate the cat-o'-nine tails, others
a cowhide whip, while Maj. Sylvester, the
chief of police proposes form of Spank
er," of underlined proportions and Materials
The Effective Whipping Post.
The advocates of polite and refined
whipping post are completely out of har-
mony with the true whipping post spirit,
and their proposition, if carried out, would
entirely destroy the effectiveness of the
penalty and the argument for it's institu
ton. The logical advocate of the lash is
he who urges and defends the EXTREMIST
infection of pain and shame of which the
punishment is capable. AS a preliminary,
wife beating is declared the objectionable
sin; the wife heater is beyond the hone of
reformation. Nothing will appeal to him
but pain inflicted upon his body and the
threat of pain aimed at his cowardly fears.
Of course, the callous, hardened, thick
skinned brute must be more brutally beaten
than the delicate. helpless wife has been
in order to cause him to feel the same
pain that she has suffered. If the whip
ping post is to be the "scarecrow,' the
very threat of which is to frighten an 9TH
erwise incorrigible ruffian from his ruffian-
ism, 1t must be clothed with appalling ter
rors. If, through pain and shame, We are
to work upon fear, let the shame and the
pain be sufficient to accomplish the in
tended purpose. The welts must appear
and the blood must fly to make the menace
effective.
Cruel and Unusual
Finally, the opponents of the whipping
post declare that it is cruel and unusual
within the meaning of the Constitution,
which forbids all such punishments. 1t has
been urged by it's advocates that this argu-
ment will not stand inasmuch as when the
Constitution was adopted the whipping
post was quite a common institution in the
states. But the lash was then being aban-
doned on all sides as the people advanced
In thought. Furthermore, what was re-
garded a hundred and twenty-five years
ago as not cruel and unusual may be so
regarded today, the day of the punishment.
Whatever the legal arguments may be on
this score, the mere statement that it is
open to controversy is sufficient to condemn
the proposition. In all cases civilization
demands that the benefit of the doubt be
given to humanity. In this case civilization
surely requires that the obsolete, cruel and
even barbarous punishment of a dark
period in the worlds history should not be
revived for the punishment of a single
munty in these United States, aud that
community the capital of the nation.
.;,1 fn