Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-17
POLICE INQUISITION

~ HAT is the function of the stage?
| w To hold the mirror up to nature2
If up to nature, then up to so
ciety?
/ In 1.-The Third Degree" Los Angeles
has had an example of a play of i'm
portance-we might almost say of vital
| observation-disclosures if the un-Ameri-
can spirit demonstrated in the concrete
example presented in the play is not
| corrected, its pernieious operation upon
the general social organization may
have a most injurious effect on the
destinies of this republic.
There is no influence more sinister
than tyranny. As mercy blesses the
giver and the taker so tyranny curses
the tyrant as well as the victim of
tyranny. No human being can injure
another human being, directly or in
directly, without injuring himself
Friends of the republic and believers in
Americanism may we'll hope and pray
for the coming of a day when it will
be absolutely impossible in the United
States to stage a play like 1.-THE Third
Degree" when the playwright will
search the life of the republic in vain
for material on which to found such a
damning indictment of civilization.
AS some of our readers may know, in /
vague way, and as others who have
seen the Klein play may now realize
more definitely, there is in use as part
of the police system of the United
States a method of mental torture not
less barbaric than the rack and the
thumbscrew.
The victim may not be tormented
physically. The horrors of the Inquisi I
tion are merely historical. Most read
ers do not even know the meaning of .
"Luke's iron crown and Damien's bed .
of steel" But modern victims are tor
mented mentally, and mental torture is
more horrible than physical torture.
Plays like Mr.. Klein's Third Degree
have an educational effect. They bring
home to the people the facts they por
tray. In the newspapers we may talk
of the police ordeal called the third
degree, we may discuss it editorially,
but one scene like that in the second :
act of xlein's play is worth more as
creator of sentiment than is all that
may be said in print. In this scene a
weak-minded youth, after undergoing
most frightful torture. is forced under
semi-hypnotic influence to confess
murder HE DID NOT COMMIT,
The details of this powerful scene
make a picture that will linger vividly
in the minds of thousands who have
witnessed it and have been spellbounG
by the manifest truthfulness of the
presentation, and by the mastery act
ing of Ralph Ramsay and Fernando
EIiscu, which makes 1t an artistic as
well as a moral triumph.
Next time citizens who have seen
THE Third Degree" read a statement
in the newspapers to the effect that
prisoner has been subjected to the or
deal, they will know what it means;
and should they learn that a confession
has been wrung from him, they will
know WRUNG is a good word.
"Extorted from him. tortured out
of him." compelled from him." would
be pat and appropriate phrases; and
the thing is crowned with horror when
we realize the confession thus wrung,
extorted, tortured from the victim is
FALSE.
When Chief Dishman undertook the
duties of his office he promised that
the third degree would be abolished in
Los Angeles. We hope the chief is ex-
ercising a perpetually humane and hu-
manizing influence on the men under
him, who, under weaker superiors, may
have been allowed to use third-degree
methods.
The long and short of it is, the third
degree is a crime. 1t is an aggravated
assault upon a defenseless person, and
any policeman or any official in any
prosecuting attorneys office who uses
the third degree becomes a criminal