Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-07-26
GALLOWSDOOMED
IN NEAR FUTURE
STANDS TODAY AS RELIC OF
BARBAROUS TIMES
Capital Punishment inconsistent with
Modern Ideas of States
Rights and Duties
to Citizens

'Lynching will never be done away
with until its parent, capital punish
ment, has been abolished. The sugges-
ton of social revenge by torture and
taking human life, laid down in holy
writ, is kept constantly in operation
by legal barbarity. Capital punishment
is one of the chief factors that keep
the tiger in humanitys breast from
being effectually lulled to sleep by So
cial progress. That tiger loves blood
today as we'll as ever"
The quotation is not from sentimen-
tai novel, but from "The Diseases OF
Society,"" by DR.. q. Frank Lydston,
probably the leading authority in TINS
country on the therapeutics of crime.
DR. Lydston further speaks of capital
punishment as "grewSome relic ot
barbarous times" and denounces the
electrocution chair as IAN equally bar
barous instrument of social revenge
representing the application OF great
ly increased intelligence to the per-
petuation of a horrible custom which is
unworthy of the age" He also reminds
us that murderous individual revenge
has been legislated out of court long
ago, and opines that ut is time that
collective or social revenge suffered the
same fate"
DR.. Lydston considers the plea that
capital punishment deters absolutely
false, whether tested by the statistics
of the present or the history of the
past, and remarks: 1.-THE non-deterrent
effect of capital punishment is shown
by the fact that when picking pockets
was a capital offense the light-fingered
gentry were wont to ply their trade
among the onlookers at public execu-
tons" He sums up his review of other
arguments advanced by the upholders
of capital punishment with the renee
ton that If 1t be insisted that society
E g. saf ri - m
would be far more logical and altruistic
to destroy the insane than to hang the
sane murderer, since the former Is
much the more dangerous.
We may add that DR.. Lydston was
at one time surgeon in the BlackwelFs
island penitentiary, that 1t is twenty
six years since his first scientific work.
"The Pathogeny of Vice and Crime"
appeared and that his studies have
been largely along the lines of the re-
voting class of crime that habitually
excites wild clamors for lynch law and
of which the murder of Anna Poltera
in Los Angeles last May was type.
The conclusions of this experienced
student are opposed unalterably 10 the
blood instinct of the mob.
Part of General Idea
In the program of the Prison Reform
league the abolition of capital punish
HleHl OCCUPIES lHb lllSL PldNGy DuI IL
would be a mistake to suppose that
this reform is urged solely on its own
merits or as an isolated measure. On
the contrary, the change is advocated
as an integral and inseparable part Of
the philosophy of the modern school of
criminology, which rejects deterrence
and revenge as barbarc failures and
declares that social protection and
reformation are the sole aims to be
kent in view. The modern school en-
phasizes and re emphasizes as sell
entific fact the law OF inheritance, by
virtue of which like begets like; and
asserts that the application by society
of violent and brutal methods can, by
the necessity of things, have but one
result-the creation OF additional vio-
lence and brutality.
Those who stand for capital punish
ment have three arguments at their
disposal, the first being the alleged d.
vinity of the text: IAN eye for an eye
and a tooth for a TOOTH" Many of the
clergy have written pondercus treat
Uses on this passage, declaring capital
punishment an essential feature of the
faith. They have ignored the fact,
however. that Christ distinctly and
specifically set aside the Mosaic dis
pensation, as for instance when he res
cued from death the woman taken in
adultery. However, the laws of Moses
do not govern modern society. If they
did we should be hanging men and
women for many crimes besides MUIR
der.
The second is the economic argument,
that 1t is unjust to call on the COM
munity to support for the rest of their
natural lives those guilty of heinous
crime, many of whom are impervious
TO reforming influences. This obvi-
ously begs the question, since there Is
no intrinsic reason why such prisoners
should not be kept at labor that will
more than defray the scanty cost of
their maintenance. In fact, it may be
laid down as a general principle that
prisoners should be self-supporting,
and that forced idleness imposes an
injustice both on the convict and
society.
The third argument is the unitarian
one that executions strike terror into
the hearts of would-be offenders, and
thus diminish the volume of crime
This is the test by which ultimately
capital punishment must stand or fall,
and the decision must be on facts.
England is most commonly quoted as
a historical example. Only some ninety
years ago there no less than 223 Of
lenses involved the death penalty. To-
day there is IN England but one capital
crime, murder, and it may be remarked
that to such an extent has the revenge
theory been abandoned that life pris-
oners are always given their liberty at
the expiration of twenty years.
Forced to Change
Did England make these sweeping
changes solely under the influence of
humanitarian considerations? That is
hardly conceivable, and an examina-
ton of the literature on the subject
shows that she was forced to action
by the fact that crime, and especial
ly crimes of violence, instead of d.
minishing increased.
What has been, on the other hand
the result of the milder counsels. that
England, taught by experience,
adopted? In its letter of June 20
the Prison Reform league showed
that although Chicago is only
about a quarter the size of Lon
don, her inhabitants commit an
nually six times as many murders, and
in our letter of June 81 we remarked
that our sister Anglo-SaXon country,
England, on the other hand, appears to
be in far happier condition, being an
exception to the rule that crime is on
the Increase throughout the civilized
world" After giving government figures
in support of this statement we added:
"On analysis it is found that the
diminution was in crimes against the
person, in striking contrast to the con-
temporaneous experience of the United
States"
Not only did English legislators dis
cover that capital punishment failed to
deter, but they had ample evidence be-
fore them to prove that 1t had the OPP