The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-05-31

to another. And yet, in spite of all,
the poor wretches obstinately refused
to become good and useful citizens.
Degradation has been thoroughly
tried, with it's maimings and brand
ings, and the result was that those
who inflicted the punishments be-
came as degraded as their victims.
Only a few years ago there were
more than 200 offenses in Great Brit
ain punishable by death. The gallows
| tree bore fruit through all the year
| and the hangman was the busiest Of
| fetal in the kingdom-but the
crimes increased.
Crimes were committed to punish
crimes, and crimes were committed
to prevent crimes. The world has been
filled with prisons, dungeons, with
chains and whips, with crosses and
gibbets, with thumbscrews and racks,
with hangmen and headsmen--and
yet these frightful means and instru-
mentalities and crimes have accom-
plished little. for the preservation of
life. 1t is safe to say that govern
ments have committed far more
crimes than they have prevented.
Why is it that men will suffer and
;cJr Of cfaa lin q ?
Why will they accept degradation and
punishment and infamy as their por-
ton? Some will answer this question
by an appeal to the dogma of original
sin; others by saying that millions of
men and women are under the control
of fiends-that they are actually pos
sessed of devils; and others will de-
clare that all these people act from
choice-that they are possessed OF
free wills, of intelligence-tha they
know and appreciate consequences,
and that, in spite of all, they DELHI
erately prefer a life of crime.
II.
Have we not advanced far enough
intellectually to deny the existence
of chance? Are we not satisfied now
that back of every act and thought
and dream and fancy is an efficient
cause? Is anything produced that is
not necessarily produced? Can the
fatherless and motherless exist? Is
there not a connection between all
events, and is not every act related
to all other acts? Is it not possible,
is it not probable, is it not true, that
the actions of all men are deter
mined by countless causes over which
they have no positive control?
Certain it is that men DO not prefer
unhappiness to JOY. 1t can hardly be
said that man intends permanently
to injure himself, and that he does
what he does in order that he may
live life of misery.
On the other hand, we must take it
for granted that man endeavors to
better his own condition, and seeks,
although by mistaken ways, his own
well-being. The poorest man would
like to be rich-the sick desire health
and no sane man wishes to win the
contempt and hatred Of his fellow
men. Every human being prefers
liberty to Imprisonment.
Are the brains of criminals exact
ly like the brains Of honest men?
Have criminals the same ambitions,
the same standards of happiness or
of well-being? If a difference in
brain, will that in part account for
the difference in character? Is there
anything in heredity? Are vices as
carefully transmitted by nature as
virtues? Does each man in some de-
gree bear burdens imposed by ances-
tors? We know that diseases Of
flesh and blood are transmitted
that the child is heir to physical de-
fOrmity. Are diseases OF the brain
are deformities of the soul, of the
mind, also transmitted?
We not only admit, but we assert,
that in the physical world there are
causes and effects. We insist that
there is and can be no effect without
an efficient cause. When anything
happens in that world, we are sat
isfiei that it was naturally and ne
cessarily produced. The causes may
be obscure, but we as implicitly be-
lieve in their existence as when we
know positively what they are. In
the physical world we have taken
the ground that there is nothing
miraculous-that everything is nat
ural-and if we can not explain it,
we account for our inability to ex-
Nv, q IF