, 1908-05-12
REPUBLICAN STATE TICKET.
WE ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE.

Frequent murders in the United
States during recent years has caused
much discussion among sociologists
as to the reason why America, the
land of The free, should be so much
behind some of the countries of the
old world in the matter of crime and
its punishment.
About two years ago Justice Brewer
Of he United States supreme court
wrote an excellent article on the sub
ject, making comparison between the
AM in which the law operates in
this country and England. In England
in criminal cases there Is no appeal
from the finding of the first court.
The result is speedy vengeance of the
law, quick retribution for those who
take the lives of others. In America
If n man has Money or influence he
may carry his case along through al
most endless litigation until every
body is worn out and probably the
principal witnesses have died or been
spirited away.
Recent horrible crimes in Indiana,
Colorado and elsewhere have moved
Dean Hart of Denver to make caustic
comment upon the subject. From his
excellent communication in the Den.
yer Republican we make a few ex-
cerpts:
Several times lately | have been
on the point of relieving my mind, but
NJ. NNr,iyhtt. ,,,,la, l1a{I To-, -, d.
Il married him to his invalid wife
some &c years ago, and through all
these years he has never said to her
an unkind word or shown an irritable
moment. 1t would be impossible to
find a husband who treated his frail
wife with more consideration n
love, and he is shot while she was
sitting up for him, with something
warm in the middle oe the might
and evidently foully shot for he had
had no time to draw his gun to defend
the property of the express company.
mo man liveth to himself; we are
all responsible, whether we like 1t or
not, for this and other deeds of VIC
lence which shame IL community. If
the law was rigidly enforced there
would be few crimes. Authoritative
statistics tell us that two years ago
there were twenty-four murders in
London-I have no doubt some silly
with the old country. but who cares?
You can only reach a standard by
comparison. Twenty-Five of those
murderers were hung n the other
two committed suicide. Now London
has a population of about 5000, 900,
Denver about 100000, and we had
twenty-three murders last year and not
n of the murderers met his just fate.
1t is for this reason that violence
u n riot.
lone of our most prominent citi-
zens was lately in a city in Mexico.
He told me two men held up a foot
passenger, and were caught. The
mayor of the town telegraphed the
governor as TO what he should do with
them; the reply m Shoot them
at SUNRISE and the next morning as
the sun was rising, they were placed
against the wall and were shot. There
have been no more 'hold-ups' in that
town.
THE state of Maine has only IA per
cent foreign born people. In one month
in 1905 there were murders in five
towns in Maine. Massachusetts has
five times a larger population and is
made up of all races; there is very
little ~bloodshed in that state. What
is the reason of the difference in the
two contiguous communities? In
Maine they don't hang murderers, in
Massachusetts they do, A life sem
fence usually ends in a pardon. In
Rhode Island from 1888 to 1884 all the
murderers in that state except two
were sentenced to life Imprisonment;
they served an average of eleven years
and at the end of hat half century
there were only two unpardoned.
We have a board of parions, and
what are they for but to pardon Grim
inals? They act when public senti-
ment concerning the crime has long
6 subsidized; the sickening burden
resting upon the family OF the victim
to oppose petitions for the pardon of
their violent enemy grows wearisome,
they abandon their efforts: the board
of ~pardons recommends a ~soft-hearted
governor that the murderer be re-
leased, and every man in the COM
munity who ~contemplates murder is
encouraged to do the dreadful deed
by the hope founded upon substantial
experience that he may spill his
brothers blood with almost impunity,
as far as this life is concerned.
THE function of juries whose sole
business 1t is to state their opinion
with regard to the facts is nowadays
altogether abrogated; the jury has
practically become the judge, and
most juries with an astonishing lack of
responsibility and = strange oblivious-