New-York tribune., 1908-03-09
INCITES MORE CRIME.
Murders Increase ucith abolition of
GmHOtine IN France.
Paris, February 2.

Paris February 23.
II Is now nearly eighty years since Victor
Hugo in his lie Dernier Jour de un Condamne
and his history of Claude Gueux" began the
campaign in favor of abolishing capital punish
ment, which measure. always a feature or the
Radical programme has at last, within the last
few months. received legislative sanction NOT
that a law actually abolishng capital punish
ment has yet been inscribed upon the statute
book, but the Chamber passed a little time ago
a resolution in favor of this reform so that the
headsnans salary has been erased from the
budget and the President of the republic par
dons without exception all criminals who have
been condemned to death The guillotine will
never be seen in action again in France. unless
1t be re-esta blished in the fury OF some redhot
revolutionary movement for the quick suppress
sion of political rivals.
The guilotine, however. still counts goodiy
number of devoted friends. Like many another
institution, its great advantages begin to be
best appreciated after it's demise. Juries all
over France have freely been signing petitions
for the re-esta blishment of the death penalty
Since its abolition there has been a plethora OF
hideous crimes Of violence. A wide impression
prevails that the rufian and brigand classes.
which all too numerous IN France. are now
restrained by no serious fear of the ultimate
consequence OF lNelr mlSOeSuS Telldi ScTNituuo
for life in of the French convict settlements
does not terrorize the French criminal in any
real degree. His life there is of Oriental
lazness chances Of escape are frequent. and 1T
is generally declared that the only genuine III
from which he suffers is that of homesickness.
Yet this Is the punishment which has been sub
stituted for decapitation- The most atrocious
murderers are sure henceforth of escaping with
their lives.
AS might have been expected, there has. in
consequence. been a sensible augmentation in
the number of murders and n1urderous assaults
which have been perpetrated in France and par
tcularly in Paris since the guillotine rele-
gated to the limbo of old state properties
it were. and another point which requires
rious consideration is that the modern criminal
is Of quite a different type from that which
Victor Hugo described. In the days of Louis
Philippe the apache" as the Partisan thug IS
called. had not been evolved At least he was
a solitary and not gregarious animal. He did
not parade the boulevards and the best parts of
Paris In bands, knocking down. robbing and
numbering beated passersby with impunity.
With smaller population to deal with. and
with perhaps less restricted budget. the police
during the time of Louis Philippe and later un-
der the Empire. better organized for the
protection Of the ordinary citizen than to-day
The modern Partisan apache would probably
treat supreme joke the sentimental wall
ings of a Victor Hugo marriage to the
widow the slang term for an execution by the
gulotine. and yet he would admit that the fear
of death has been the one positive force which
has hitherto checked his comrades and rivals In
their bloodthrsty lawlessness.
This opinion is shared by Professor Lacas-
sagne who occupies the chair of legal medicine
at the University of Lyons. He has just pub
lished statistics to prove that crimes of violence
hays increased Of recent years to much larger
extent than the official figures would seem to
indicate. To form a clear idea of the situation
he points out that it is necessary to deal with
the undiscovered crimes. well with those
which have entailed conviction and punishment
on the perpetrators In 1905 there were 355
murders in France, of which only 16s were
tried and 761 attempted murders of which
274 only tried, while on the other hand the
proportion of commuted capital sentences to
the last hundred years.
In the time of Charles Y and Louis Philippe
from 1926 to 1880. it So per cent. rising to
IS per cent under Napoleon III and 81 per
cent under the recent presidency of NJ. Loubet
One of NJ Lacassagne's arguments that GRIM
inas are afraid of the death penalty is based
upon the fact it is the only punishment which
they nfict upon another. Among the
bands of thugs that infest Paris any infraction
of their particular code. any betrayal of one
comrade by another. is punished with death
The professor argues that the apache" looks
upon the communication of the death penalty as
a contemplate act of weakness on the part of
society. with which he is at war. and that the
only means of inspiring him with due respect
for the law is to apply it in all its rigor-
During the restoration of the Bourbon dy-
nasty at the commencement of the last century,
the gui1lotine active and there a pro-
portionate diminution of murderous crimes. NJ
Lacassagne goes to the bold length of suggest
ing that corporal punishment should also be
rentroduced into France for dealing with crimes
against the person and for the maintenance of
discipline in prisons and penal settlements. He
euIogizes the severities of the English system of
hard labor and finally proposes that for the
guotine. which is a barbarOus method OF pun
ishment, with possibility of survival of
consciousness. however brief. after decapitation.
the English practice of hanging in the courtyard
of the prison should be substituted.
He disapproves of electrocutiOn. which he
considers to be uncertain in it's effect and
"odiOusIy theatrical" BIoodshed should be
avoided as much possible. and among civil
ized people there should be no objection TO
chloroforming the criminal before hanging him.
should he express such a desire. Indeed. Pro
fessor Lacassagne draws SO glowing a picture
of the advantages of hanging over any other
kind of death-its suddenness. the instantaneous
loss of consciousness preceding the actual
asphyxfation that it is difficult TO believe that
even the most hardened convict would wish 10
shirk artifcially any of the phases of so civil
lzed and expeditions method of satisfying
justice. C. l. B.