Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-11

| against the law. as mob violence, or by leg
| tslation, exceeds the legitimate scope of
| penalties for crime. Punishment in it's
| proper acceptation means the protection of
| society, as represented by state, against
the inrOads Of the individual upon its well
| fare. II is only when the encroa chment of
| the individual upon the rights of others
amounts to a public wrong that they are
punished criminally, and then IL Is the
wrong to society, and not the sin, which is
cognzabe by the courts
Crime cannot be stamped out by these
methods of treatment physician would
| be thought extremely unskillful who, in his
| efforts to cure patient of a single and rel
attVely unimportant disease, completely
wrecked the patients constitution by his
violent medicines. 1t may safely be stated
that husband, before he beats his wife TO
the brutal extent that is contemplated by
the authorized lashes. has already shown
his evil character sufficiently to warn his
Wife that he is no ut husband.
She is entitled by law to a separa ton If
this separation We're accomplished IN all
cases the occasion for crimes would be
avoided, the wife and society protected
But must the wife suffer because the hus-
band is brute? Must she seek divorce
leave her home and deprive her children of
parental support Should the brute not
rather be logged and made to bear his pun
ishment instead of furnishing his wife and
children by enforced separation? Through
no fault of theirs they are made to perhaps
suffer bitterly
this 1t would be the strongest kiEd of an
argument In favor OF its establishment in
every city and in every municipality to deal
with this class of crime alone But its re-
suits have not been satisfactory. II prac-
tcally deprives the man of his citizenship,
and banishes him; his usefulness as a mem
Der of society is destroyed; all the good
ever in him is driven out. With every lash
his soul is scared, and bitterness and hate
that can never be effaced distilled into his
heart"
Punishment administered at the whipping
post, IL it is to have the desired corrective
and suppressive effect, must OF necessity be
brutal In the language of the famous act
of the reign Of Henry VIII. criminals must
BE- whipped until their bodies are bloody
If the punishment is to do them any good.
The mere fact. as has been illustrated time
and again, of exposing a hardened criminal
or brutal wlfe-beater to the gaze Of the
populace, to place him in a position Of ig-
nominy and lash his bare back gently for
the moral effect involved, is worse than
useless. Only a short time ago a spectator
at a whipping at Newcastle, Del, COM
mented upon the fact that the lash was not
used severely enough.
Il am not an advocate OF the whipping
post" he said but l do think that this ex-
hibition is a farce. With persons of ordI-
nary breeding and susceptibilities 10 be
placed In such position and subjected to
the whip the moral effect might be OF some
avail as a corrective measure, but this af-
fair Is ridiculous and worse than useless
for the purpose intended"
And in order to gain further insight into
the matter he approached negro who had
been whipped for wife-beating and released
after his punishment had been admins
tered. 1t added to HIS establishment and
disgust, and his disbelief in the efficacy of
the whipping post, when the negro offered
te go through the terrible ordeal again
for the modest sum of Is cents.
And In summing up the situation 1t eau
truly be said that the very circumstances
that whipping and similar punishments have
had their day OF trial and were abolished
by the very generation which had wit
messed the working of the system Ia all
its full-blown beauty, is the best possible
argument against 1t. The adoption of the
whipping post and the pillory by any COM
murity In the United States would GER
tainly be considered. If the trend Of public
sentiment is to be taken into account, a
step backward to the obsolete system OF
former days, which was thoroughly tried
and found wanting The history OF all
times and the testimony of the most en-
lightened students of the question speak for
advance. not retrogression.