Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-26
Los ANGELES HERAID SUNDAY MORNING. SEPTEMBER 1903

article entitled "Gallows Doomed In
the Near Future, published some
months ago. But, granting that the
subject is q moot one: granting that
thoughtful men may differ on it; still
the salient fact remains that on this.
the cornerstone of the entire deterrent
system now under attack-death being
regarded as the king of terrors-the
clergy as a whole apparently have not
made up their minds.
Vast though the ramifications of the
| crime problem may be, calling for the
| labors of specialists to trace them in
! their varied manifestations the pitcn
of the dispute now raging is simplicity
| itself. We hang and electrocute Gull
prts in the belief that thus we deter
others from following their example.
We make our prisons. our reforma-
| tories, our county and city jails as
| unpleasant a possible because we con-
slider that the way of the transgressor
| should be hard. To add force to this de-
| terrent principle we equip our wardens
and guards, our constables and police,
with the most autocratic powers, and
we are beginning to discover that tor
| ture-torture Of the most helpless
| creatures in eXistence--is habitual.
| Terrifying stories of the solitary
dungeon the whipping post the bull
rings, the water cure, the straitjacket
/ ana Otlef ABUSES winch lang uetB6 10 III
| competent to describe are coming to
light, confirmed by official reports and
the testimony of writer's of unques-
toned reputation. All this is justified
| by the appeal to the deterrent phil
osophy. Crime must be stamped out
with the iron heel; the lesson must be
driven home remorselessly.
Principle Widely Applied
Outside the prison walls this deter
rent principle is still invoked with the
! faith of fanaticism. Continental critics
gaze with astonishment at a country,
that, protesting to be the champion OF
| liberty, sets no limits on the powers to
arrest and treat the arrested as con-
victed criminals. Victims are photo-
graphed and included for the rest OF
their lives in the 'rogues gallery al
though in the eye of the law every one
| of them is still innocent. II 1T is
thought that information can be wrung
from them they are subjected TO the
| third degree" which some say is only
| a rigid cross examination and others
declare involves mental and physical
cruelty Of the most pronounced de-
scription. All these admitted Illegal
| tiles and barbarities we excuse on the
Jesuitical principle that the end Just1-
| hes the means. We believe In the de-
terrent principle.
Obviously it is monstrous that the
income of officers should be dependent
on the number of convictions they OBJ
tain. Obviously 1t is a direct incentive
! for arrests without a particle of Justi-
| fcation, and converts those who should
| be merely preservers of the peace into
| professional man-nunters. NO man
| dare face the situation and defend 1t;
but we shrug our shoulrers Indifferent
ly, because, slaves to the deterrent
principle, we assume vaguely that
somehow 1t rids the country of tramps.
The tramp, however. is still there,
! hardened and further vitiated by the
treatment meted out to him In the
name of the deterrent fetch.
Main Position Simple
One need not be an encyclopedia of
facts and figures to grasp this situa-
| ton. The indictment against the de-
terrent principle can be comprehended
without the possession Of university
degree. Admittedly we wish our citi-
zens to be the best on earth and the
| charge is that methods now in prac-
tice against criminals restore them to
society infinitely worse than when they
first fell from grace. The charge IS
that instead of minimizing crime the
| deterrent principle increases 1t, ana
this not alone in quantity but in quail
! ity also; that under the systematic
breaking of the will pursued in nearly
every prison with the punishments-
| to give them no more opprobious name
that are its accom- paniments, the
weak are rendered weaker, the brutal
more brutal and the entire standard OF
efficiency and character lowered per-
y sistently. We go, indeed, step farth-
er, and say that no more serious dan
ger threatens the republic than the ef-
| feet that illegal tyranny exercised py
the authorities and defended In the
name of the sacred deterrent policy mas
on the mass of the population, the poor
since their independence of character is
| sapped by living in constant dread OF
heavy and far too often unjust hand or
| the law.
The workingman. who has been
thrown into the county Jail when
| travelling in search of employment
that the country constable and justice
of the peace, operating for revenue
only, may make their fees and expenses,
comes out a more cowed, brutallzed
and inefficient member of society than
| he was before. The penitentiary or
! reformatory, where such horrors are
nerpetrated as have been exposed IN
great numbers Of late, turns out not
! better citizens but enemies of society.
It needs no miscroscope to trace the
! effects on the social body or a poison
that is constantly and most insidious-
/ ly at work, aggravating the very dis
| ease 1t pretends to remedy. This, IN a
nutshell. is the indictment against the
deterrent principle, which at present
| dominates our entire treatment or
! crimes and criminals.
Like Begets Like
In letters published during the last
| ( ur months by the Prison Reform
| league and sent weekly to some 200 of
! the leading religious papers of this
country we have followed step by step
the workings of this deterrent system,
I citing numerous official reports and
drawing on the most reliable authors
( who have made a special study OF this
| subject. We have shown, for example,
| that in the south homicide and deeds
| of violence flourish with ranker
growth than in any other section OF
| our country. precisely because in the
| south the deterrent principle is en-
ployed in it's most ruthless form.
Contrariwise we have demonstrated
that England. where the jails are de-
cent places and used solely for deten-
ton, where the fee system is unheard
of, where the high-handed methods
common with the American police are
not tolerated, is the one country that
shows an improving bill of health as