The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-04-21
WOULD HANG men FOR
=: BREAKING: INTO: HOUSE
Southern Chief of Police Dis
covers Method For Stopping
House Breaking.
Some Thoughts On Criminol-
ogy-the Cause, Treatment
and Prevention of Crime.

Down in Little Rock last week at the
convention Of police chiefs an enthu-
siastic southern peace officer intro
duced a resolution asking congress to
pass a law making capital punish
-n1cnt the penalty for a man break
ing into an occupied house at night
for the purpose Of robbery.
The president OF the convention inn
mediately and very properly .laclared
the resolution out OF order, but not
until the measure had been warmly
inb Nm. Pinkerton, head Of the great
detective agency.
For vEsrs we have obs-rvel tha;
the man least capable OF crime is the
man who is constantly in the pres
ence OF criminals. One would think
that this mans experience. would he
invaluable in the framing Of Grim
inal laws, but the law making body
that would act upon his recommend
alton would be unduly severe.
A prison keeper becomes in time as
hardened as marble. His constant
presence in the company Of criminals
breeds bitterness for that class. This
is the result of misplaced confidence.
ingratitude by those who have been
favored, tr7achery by those who have
been trusted and tho cussel .E7anness
Of the old timer. Frequently keepers
have been found who could not become
calloused and who treated disappoint-
ments as mere matter OF fact events
which are liable to occur with any pco-
pie. Frequently also prisoners have
been known who ever remembered the
kindness shown to them by their
keepers, But in b 18th cases these are
the exceptions.
The original criminal hunter be-
comes so fascinated with his work, that
when once a suspect is placed IN mis-
power he can conceive Of nothing tnat
would prove him Innocent Of the crime
charged. If the court finds him inno-
cent the police still believe him guilty,
and his future movements viii! be we'll
watched.
There are two schools of thought
In criminology. They arussthe home
patio and "allopathic,' as we would
say IN medicine I'll &. sfirst believes in
rala Qsiix l1ss4 SO ]
ditionss which bree,l II. .!nIe ter he
gins with. the crime itself and works
back In this school Will be found the
advocates Of severe punishment for
the lessening, of crime. Here with a
few notable exceptions will be found
the criminal hunters, whose environ
ments and associations mould their
opinions and poison their prejudices.
1t is an awful thing that man
should enter an occupied house with
robbery in his heart, for he is liable
to commit murder If curnered. But
there is no warrant for g government
to take mans life for burglary alone
Indeed capital punishment tor any
cause is a relic of barbarism. It has
not succeeded in decreasing murder.
Its only good seems to be in satisfying
society that a murder has been
avenged. The earthly punishment Of
the murderer ends on the scaffold.
Most of them prefer the scaffold to
life imprisonment.
We do not pretend to be an author
ity on criminology, but we do know
Of many ways to head off crime, which
is as much an economic question as it
is moral one. We believe too, that
society has no more right to take the
life Of a human being than an individ-
ual has. 1t is murder in the sight If
God, and a higher civilization will
some day point out to us the error Of
our way