Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-08-25
ATTACKS ON PUBLIC OFFICIALS:
nlea for legislation that Would

ATTACKS ON PUBLIC OFFICIALS;
A plea for legislation that Woulu
permit the infection OF the death
penalty on persons who make nui-
derous attacks on public onlclals
while In the performance OF their outy
is made by writer in the Cnlcaso
Tribune. Another point he makes Is
that the press in dealing with at
tempted murderers of public on1ciais
should make no mention Whatever ol
the criminal, thus dealing blow TO
the egregious vanity which ne peneves
is the dominant characteristic OF the
perpetrator Of well nigh every attempt
unon the lives of those In authority.
He goes back no futher than the at
tempted murder OF Mayor Gaynor TO
show proof of this, citing that Cay
nor's assailant expresses disappoint-
ment when q day passes without MS
name figuring In the headlines OF the
newspapers, and that his one plant
IN nrison is not Of the fate that is In
sto-a for him or of his imaginary
wrongs Of the past, but only OF the
loss Of his spectacles, which prevents
him from ascertaining, in the t1ne
nrint Of the press, what is being writ
Ten about him. Continuing the Trib-
une writer says:
What the great Prii ! Bismark was
wont to describe as "the lust or rame,
arH what Prot. Lombrose diagnosed
as "the craze for notoriety,' In the
case Of we'll nigh every assassin or
personages of high rank and once
that came under his notice, is IN
ninety-nine cases out Of hundred, the
principal motive Of the crime.
The names Of the assassins OF King
Humbert, Of the empress OF Austria
az sadtCarnot, president of the French
republic, of Presidents Lincoln, Garheld
and mckinley, are certain to endure
as long as those of their victims; and
the knowledge that this is certain to
he the case is as powerful an mcen-
tive to a man in whom vanity mas
reached the stage OF actual disease as
IL the extraordinary prominence given
Nv the newspapers to everything re-
lating to the life, the antecedents, the
annearance. the tastes and the views
of the murderer
Mayor Gaynor's assailant was In
teryiewed after his crime, and his re-
marks were printed in the newspapers,
and the same attention was accorded
nv the press to Luccheni, the slayer
81 the empress Of Austria, and to
Sinido. the vainglorious lad who shot
at Edward VII at Brussels not long
herore his accession to the throne OF
Great Britain.
All this publicity constitutes a
powerful incentive to crimes OF this
nature. Sipido's attempt upon the life
OF Edward VII. and the notoriety
achieved by the young anarchist was
allowed by the murder Of King Hum
bert at Monza, and there is hardly
criminologist Of any Importance IN
either the old world or the western
hemisphere who is not convinced that
the most efficacious preventive of out
RACES Of this nature would be to con-
denim the perpetrators to an oblivion
to which the newspapers should be re-
1uired to contribute for the sake Of the
commonwealth.
No special legislation should be
needed to fetter the press. Until forty
years ago capital punishment was
provided In England for certain Of
lenses other than murder and too
atrocious to permit more than passing
reference Without any legal re-
striction the British newspapers with
one accord forebore any description
of the crime or of the court proceed
ings. Sometimes even the name Of
the man was left unrecorded, the re-
ports as published merely mentioning
that the court had been called upon to
deal with crime punishable under a
certain act Of parliament, and that
capital sentence had been pronounced.
In France there is astatute furnishing
with death, attacks with murderous
intent upon public officials when en-
gagged in the performance of their
duty. It has been more honored in
the breach than in the observance in
the past but is now about to be rein
forced by the government, at the in
stance Of Prime Minister BRAND, ow