The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-01-26


intentional injury fires a fatal shot,
but not so with government. local
or national, who after careful DELHI
GRAFTON comes to the conclusion that
it is right to take human life. The
body is the habitation of the soul and
human production. but the soul Is
q divine spirit that no man. nor any
organized body of men have any moral
right to destroy.
Aside from the question OF the right
Of man to destroy spiritual thing
let us see what is to be gained-the
real object in view to punish crime
by death. True, we place that indi-
vidual beyond the pale of danger to
the rest of his kind, but do We punish
him or deter others from like crime
by the use of capital punishment?
If punishment of the criminal be the
object OF hanging then we have utter
ly failed in the method selected. for
Il preponderence of evidence has been
given to show that it is greater pun
ishment to be imprisoned than to be
hanged. AS 10 the effect upon others
once one is hanged we soon forget
the person and his crime. hut so long
as he lives and is beyond the prison
bars he is a constant reminder Of the
crime that he committed and thus de-
tiers others from like action.
Many noble and innocent lives have
been sacrificed on the scaffold when
circumstantial evidence was so strong
as to convict the person of crime and
later confession revealed the real
criminal. In fact, there are cases on
record. where innocent persons. for
some reason, have admitted guilt and
who after losing life by hanging
have been found innocent. Think you
that those who murdered that inno-
cent person by inexorible laws are less
guilty of murder than he who shoots
down an innocent person to avenge
some imaginary wrong?
The taking Of human life, divine
principle. is trespass upon forbidden
grounds and he who does so. be he
individual man or organized govern
ment will incur the wrath Of God
and invite his own destruction. The
wheel of death, the guillotine, the
hangman's rope or the electrocution-
er's chair never made the criminal
better person, nor have these barbar-
ic machines of death, nor the more
modern chair of death" been in
strumental of civilizing those who
have escaped them.
Crime should not go unpublished,
nor should those who are disposed to
do right have their lives constantly
in the hands of dangerous characters.
We have invited murder by permit
ting fire arms and other death deal
ing weapons to be manufactured, by
permitting poisonous drugs to be sold
to irresponsible persons. To look up
on gun suggests means to an end.
To the weak-minded person and
coward the gun offers protection. He
feels that he must own it. Once in
his possession he begins to wonder
when and where he may use it with
out mourning danger to himself. 1t
"goes Off, the poor fool didn't know
it was loaded. An innocent life is
shifted out. Or, perchance, he mains
himself for life. There are more
deaths caused from accidental shoot
ing than from Intentional shooting.
When wild beasts were constantly en-
countered man needed some such pro-
lection, but in this day and age of
civilization, only the officer of the law
who is compelled to go into danger
Gus places need to carry the gun for
protection. There is a law against
carrying concealed weapons and yet
no law is more openly violated than
this.
Only recently We heard a person
say: Il have taken the cartridges
out of my revolver and thrown them
away because was afraid l would
shoot some one" The thought of
murder had fastened itself upon him.
He only needed the opportunity to
commit the crime. The law against
carrying concealed weapons should
be rigidly enforced as one means of
preventing murder.
Zone ounce Of prevention is worth
a pound of cure" Had our law
against carrying concealed weapons
always been rigidly enforced, Harry
Thaw would never have shot Sanford
White to death. Harry Thaw would
not be on trial today for murder.
. . .