Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-07-26

not the severity but the certainty Oh
punishment that is efficacious.
Thirst for Sensation
Moreover it had become self-evident
that the repeated executions had deVel-
oped into a national and most demor-
alizing entertainment, the public on
occasions when IL found itself uneX-
pectedly baked of it's prey exhibiting
the liveliest Indignation. Has not the
same thing been observed In this coun-
try? We take the following from an
account by an American writer OF
proposed execution in Pennsylvania:
"All eyes in the living mass that sur
rounded the gibbet were fixed on the
Victims countenance, and they waited
with strong desire the expected slgnal
for launching him into eternity. When
II was at last announced that a re-
prieve had left them no hope of wit
Messing his agonies their fury knew
no bounds, and the poor maniac-for
1t was discovered that he Was insane
was with difficulty snatched by the Of
ficers of justice from the fate which
the most violent among them seemed
determined to inflict"
If it be urged that executions are
now private, we reply that what is de-
moralizing to the crowd is equally de-
moralizing to the prison officials ana
that this Is probably even more serious,
for they have the happiness OF thou
sands Of prisoners at their mercy a
well known Pacific coast writer has
told how in 1892 he reported for the
San Francisco Call an execution in
San Quentin: how at first he nearly
tainted, but how, finally pulling him
self together, he marched with the
rest of them, drank in every detail or
the black thing and as the drop fell
GLOATED WITH THE OTHERS
AND WOULD GLADLY HAVE SEEN
IT ALL OVER AGAIN"
The medical world and all who
study crime through scientific spec
tacles lay great stress on the power Of
suggestion. Is 1t conceivable that the
suggestions raised by the cold-blooded
murder to which the state puts its
hand are healthful? Is 1t not more ra-
tional to suppose that they fill the
mind with thoughts of brutality, just
as it is notorious that lynchings in the
south are followed invariably by indi-
Vidual crimes of violence?
In reality 1t Is with crime as it is
with the general social question. SO
long as men are under the delusion
| that they can better their condition by
violence so long will they neglect the
one great weapon that can give them
| freedom and prosperity-their intelli-
gence. Similarly, so long as we sup
pose that by a drastic system of de-
| terrence we can suppress and stamp
out crime, so long shall we shirk the
mental labor of seeking the causes of
| crime, ascertaining its nature and
formulating a genuine cure. Put your
trust in brutality and you will not see
an inch beyond the brutal. Place
your confidence in and apply inteli-
gence and the problem will solve it,
self, for to human intelligence all
problems yield.
Five States Lead
Michigan, Rhode Island, Wisconsin,
Kansas and Maine have got along
without capital punishment, the first
four for more than two generations,
the last since 1887 at which date 1t
did away with the death. penalty, after
having gone back to Ii for a term of
four years. We have in previous let
ters called attention to the fact that
they are all in the sections in which
crimes of violence are conspicuously
few, and they have not been cursed
with lynchngs.
on the other hand we have shown
that in the south, where lynchings are
common, and where the convict camps
are accused of being regardless of hui
man life, the murder rate Is out of all
proportion to that elsewhere, and
especially in the reform sections where
the states that have no capital pun
ishment are situate. 1t is also to be
remarked that, according to the
special report made to congress in
1896, Georgia had then ten crimes pun
ishable with death, while Louisiana
and Maryland each had seven. In AL
ALBANIA the jury can impose the death
penalty for any one of seven different
crimes.
In an appendix to this report Gen.
n. NJ. Curtis, the New York represent
alive, says: "A comparison OF the
criminal laws of foreign countries with
those of the United States shows that
we undoubtedly have the bloodiest
code in the world, and it is confidently
stated that we have also the greatest
number of homicidal crimes in proper
ton to population" The bloodiest
code; the greatest proportion of homi-
cides.
1t is in the north that the tendency
to discard the philosophy of vengeance
is still most marked, and the fact that
the lower branch of the Illinois general
assembly voted in May last by nearly
two to one to abolish the death PEN
atty is significant. In Pennsylvania,
at almost exactly the same time, the
legislature passed a bill empowering
the jury in murder cases to fix the
penalty at imprisonment, instead of
death, but the governor vetoed the
measure. The action of the legisla-
ture, which he seems to have regard
ed as revolutionary, would merely have
placed the state in line with ten others
in which juries enjoy that right
Doubtless spasmodic attempts will be
made by various states to put them
selves in touch with progress by
abolishing the death penalty and intro
ducing other humanitarian reforms.
But the advance will be only spasmodic
until it is comprehended clearly that
the philosophy of revenge and punish
ment belongs to the barbarous past,
and that society's sole aim should be
to protect itself by removing, as far
as possible, the causes of crime while
restraining and improving the condi-
ton of the criminal. This last is the
position of the modern school. 1t does
not rest, as does the revenge. phil
osophy on passion, prejudice or
fanaticism.
With sudden shock the prison clock
Smote on the shivering air,
And from all the jail rose up vail
OF impotent despair,
Like the sound that frightened marshes
hear
From some leper in his lair.
And as one sees most fearful things
In the crystal of a dream,
We saw the greasy hempen rope
Hooked to the blackened beam,
And heard the prayer the hangmans
snare
strangled into a scream.