The San Francisco call., 1910-02-10
WOMEN OPPOSED 4
! TOWHIPPINO MEN
Disagree With Judge as to
Punishment Deserved by
Wife DeSerterS
BY MARY ASHE MILLER


you TO look with favor upon the idea
OF the whipping post as corrective
for the man who deserts his wife and
negleets to provide for his children!
DO you feel it return to the days OF
| barbarity and degrading TO the soul
/ of any man. no matter how Pickering
may be the white light of that soul?
Or do you think that fear of very
physical pain may have more stimu-
lating effect upon the rightmindedness
of some men than anything else?
Judge Shortall told the grand jury
day or two since that he believed the
whipping post would do more to bring
these husbands to a sense of their
moral obligations than other means.
Sending a man to Jail was, he de-
clared, Simply a means of continuing
the sufferings of the deserted family
Some of the women who are interest
ed in the affairs of the world were in
| terviewed on the subject, and there
seems to be no feminine second to
Judge Shortall's motion. None of them
is able, apparently, to get very far
beyond the thought of the "lashes on
bare back" The visualizing gore of
quivering flesh is painful to feminine
sensibilities. and one and all declared
| it barbarous.
| Judge Shortall had another view
| point. for he thought of the barbarlty
of the little quivering, empty "tum-
mics" of the deserted children. He
wanted to punish in painful fashion
the man who let his own little lads
and lassies go hungry. Deserted wives
| Judge Shortal apparently considers
of little interest save when tshey are
surrounded by families desiring food.
Beyond that all incompatibility is with
| him on a dead level as regards ~sentl-
ment.
In the course OF 10 years as lawyer
and police Judge he has had much eX-
perience with such matters-at the
! present time he has at least seven or
| eight cases of wife desertion coming
! before him each week. Out OF the
/ light gained thus he has come TO pc
! lieve that the whipping post IS the
more possible solution.
Certain men are devoid of all self
respect. as is proved by their brutal
! Indifference to the welfare of their
own. JaiP for them has no terrors.
/ 1t is easier than working Judge
1 Sbortall says that charitable orsaniza-
! tions have asked that wife deserving
husbands be sent to prison. and have
promised to care for the families.
This support through charity, he says
| is a humiliation for many women, and
should be obviated in some way Co
ing more deeply into the matter yes
terday, he said that his ideal was to
! be found in the plan which came be-
! fore the state legislature last year for
! putting delinquent husband d-fathers at
work and collecting their wages for
! their families The defeat of this pro-
posed measure came through the op-
| position of those who declined to be
bothered with workmen of such a type.
/ Failing in this, Judge Shoytall sug-
gests the whipping post as second
/ best remedy
/ One woman physician, whose name
! she assured me was not for publica-
| ton. agree enthusiastically with Judge
! Shortall's ideas, and from Mrs. Gail
/ lard Stoney, chairman of the social
/ service committee of the Episcopal
diocese of California and member of
! the board of directors of the woman's
auxiliary Of the California prison COM
mission, came the admission that whip
ping might be best for some husbands.
| She said:
1T looks like going back to the old
things that have been abolished years
| ago | think it would take the spirit
entirely out of a man. Then, too, the
! case must be considered carefullN
Some women are so eXasperating that
! the men simply can not live with them
Perhaps whipping would be good in in
! dividual instances, but there would
| have to be careful investigation ana
! great wisdom used in inflicting such
punishment. | think some other means
should be devised do not like the
| idea of whipping.
Mrs. Louis Hertz president of the
civic section of the California club,
said:
Why not get him busy in the be-
| ginning?
"In some cities instead of putting
man in Jail he is put to work and
then the wages are paid to his family
! ! do not believe in whipping. Let the
! man work. The labor unions said it
would spoil wages here, but let the
! man be paid only what he is worth.
/ out of his pay his board and lodging
should be paid in the jail-thus remov-
! ing the burden from the tax payer
and the rest given to his family. Work
/ is better than whipping"
Mrs. |. Lowenberg, president of the
woman's auxiliary of the California
/ prison commission said:
Il am opposed to the whipping post.
/ 1t is so degrading that il would take
away the remains of mans self
1 respect. Men should be brought to a
realization of the necessity of love and
respect by some means. but not that.
IT would never bring man to sense
of his duty to whip him. That is
realized generally too, / think. as