Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-13
The Whipping-Post Rejected.

The District of Columbia feels under OBJ
legations to the House of Representatives
for refusing so decisively to infict upon this
community the humiliation OF an official
whipping post for the punishment of wife
beaters. The vote cast against the Adams
bill yesterday, 153 to GO, was not only an
emphatic rejection of the measure, but IL
included so large a proportion or the fuli
membership of the House that 1t must be
considered as final rejection of this propo-
stion. 1t may be taken for granted that
not for many years, IL ever. viii there De
another attempt to revive the lash as
feature of local punishments, for this or for
any other offense And for this reason 1t
IS a matter for congratulation that the bill
was permitted to come 10 vote. however
diss greesble the proceeding to those who
realized the full significance of the charge
that this District is in need of barbaric
treatment for its exceptionally brutal Of
tenders.
This vote In the House may be construed
as conveying a pointed hint to all those,
especially the District Commissioners, who
are endeavoring to provide a remedy for
the apparent inadequacy of the present
punishments for not only wife beating. but
for other offenses against humanity and So
ciety. There has never been disposition
or the part of the opponents of the whip
ping post to deny the need Of a more Ell
foctve treatment of brutal husbands than
that al present provided by law. The great
strength of the opposition. indeed, lay In
the fact that 1t admitted the grave evil OF
wife beating and, while denouncing the lasn
as an ineffective and unwise and dangerous
remedy, proposed that wife-beaters should
be set al work at remunerative labor. the
proceeds from which should go to the sup
port of the wife and family.
The whole line of Police Court punish
ments is clearly in need of reform. There
Is wide field for Improvement there and
the Commissioners, who were plainly on
the wrong track in their Endorsement of the
Adams bill should now take up this ques-
ton as one demanding breadth Of view and
thoroughness of consideration. The House
of Representatives, acting as the board OF
aldermen for the capital, having by vote
of two and a half to one rejected the. lash
as a method of punishment. will doubtless
be ready to consider alternatives of mod
crn charac ter to cope with the evils OF bru-
tally viciousness. intemperance and all
kindred ofrenses against the community.
The duty of the municipal administrators
does not end with the refusal Of Congress
to pass the bill which they Endorsed. for
that rejection leaves still wide open the
question of what should be done with the
lawbreakers who are so plainly not being
cured of their wickedness by the methods
I'm vogue.
In this inquiry the Commissioners should
proceed upon the assumption that Wash
ington is a normal community. neither
worse nor better than others in this coun-
try, that it has no especially difficult popu-
lation, that it needs the wisest remedies for
the cure of the evils which beset modern
society. They should follow the lead of the
scientific students of penology and not The
impulses of the advocates of the retaliatory
system of punishment. Their object should
be the prevention of crime and not merely
Its punishment.