Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-04
AGAINST THE LASH
Arguments Of Opponents Of
the Whipping Post.
GENERALLY REJECTED
DENOUNCED AS INEFFECTIVE
+ AND UNCHRISTIAN.
The Proposal Slur on the District
Not Warranted by Local
Conditions.

Discussion of President Roosevelts recon-
mendation that the whipping post be estab-
l;shed in this District for the punishment of
wife heaters has now progressed to consid-
cradle length in the press and to q slight
extent in the House of Representatives in
connection with the Adams bill proposing
The lash a penalty for this crime. Mr..
Adams has just addressed the House Dis
trict committee in behalf of the measure.
The weight of public opinion is decidedly
against the proposition From all classes of
people have come strong arguments and elo-
quent pleas adverse to the proposal.
The arguments against the whipping post
fall generally under three heads: First, as
regards the effect upon the family of the
punished man; second, as the proposition
affects the community, and third, as it in
fuences aud reflects public sentiment at
large. Under the first head the proposition
is rejected by the majority of those who
have spoken on the subject on the ground
that the lash would be ineffective as a de-
terrentf that the proposal is based upon an
unsound principle long discredited and that
the situation here does not warrant rad
zeal a departure from established methods.
Under the second head it is rejected and
the proposition is deplored as a slur upon
the capital city of the nation, as an undem-
ocratic innovation leading to governmental
meddling with domestic matters, and as an
un-Chrtstian eNpedient., Under the third
head it is rejected as being without modern
precedent. an improved necessity whose
advocates are not agreed as to its scope and
the circumstances of its application, and
finally as a cruel and unusual punishment
contrary to the spirit of the age.
A Brutalizing Influence.
In treating the proposed application of
the lash ineffective some adduce testi-
mony based upon a knowledge of the con-
ditions of life chiefly affected by this plan.
Several of these declare that the tendency
of the lash, or any other form of corporal
punishment, is to brutalize the victim, in
cidentally brutalizing him who applies the
whip.
In the light of experience it is not
difficult to conceive the result of whipping
husbands who, in moments of anger or
while intoxicated, strike their wives. Wife
heaters are to be divided into two classes,
one living ordinarily decent and law-re-
specting lives the other of a naturally tur-
bulent character.
Wife Beating and Drunkenness
In the first class wife beating results
chiefly from intemperance. The drunken
husband quarrels with his WIFE She retorts
in kind or humbly submits. The result is
the same in either case. A blow is struck,
savagely or lightly.
For an assault of either the atrocous or
the mild form the husband is arrested, at
the wife's complaint. He is hailed to court,
and, under the proposed law, is sentenced
to receive whipping. Is he chastened and
brought to realize the error of his ways?
Does his heart soften toward the beaten
woman? AS the eXecutioner's lash falls
upon his bare back is he made contrite
and persuaded of the justice of the pro-
ceeding? Does he resolve henceforth to ig-
more her bitter complaints, to bear in
patience her anger, or her unjust sus-
PIGEONS, or her fault-findng, or her express
sons of eXtravagant ambitions far beyond
his means to crafty? Does he go from the
post with singing back to remind him
that the man must protect the woman and
shield her from all harm, especially from
the consequences of his own anger?
Effect on the Wife.
So it may be asked il those who advo-
cate the whipping post are humanely con-
siderate of the beaten wife. They would
take ruffian, whom they pronounce hope
lessly incorrigible in brutality, and send
him back to live with his wife after every
brutal passion in him has been infiamed
by the infection upon him of pain and
shame at the instance of his wife; and
| they promise him repetition of the torture
| II his wife complains of him again, The
| obvious tendency of this proceeding Ia not
| to make the brute less brutal but to cause
him to render II certain that no complaints
Of abuse come from his wife's mouth; and
| If he suspects an intention to complain to
cause him TO escape from the local jurisdic-
| ton, often leaving his family permanently
| dependent on the charitable public The
| flashing of wife heaters would thus not
| so much check wife beating as complaints
| of wife beating, causing many wives to
suffer worse brutalities in silence. 1t would
| tend to render the abused wife's condition
worse than the first.
| If the lash will cure wife beating it will
| cure drunkenness; for cruelty toward wife
and children is by universal evidence In
nearly every case by-product Of drunken
| ness. The world has for years been long
| Ing for and will hail with delight the dis
covery of an effective remedy for alcohol
| ism.
| man. knowing that liquor causes him
/ to become quarrelsome and dangerous and