Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1910-10-31
What the Prison
League Wants to
Do and See Done

Perhaps the question as to what we
of the Prison Reform league have III
view will be answered best by stains
at the outset what we are not seeking
We are not attempting to boost any
party ISM" creed or private interest
We are not endeavoring to inoculate
the public with any new philosophy
on the contrary, we conceive ourselves
to be severely practical people, VINO
have noted series of appalling facts
and wish to know how they agree with
certain principles by which society pro-
fesses to be guided. We mark the
startling difference between theory and
fact we try to bring that difference To
the notice of those whom we can reach
All thinking men and women ae-
knowledge as it appears to us thal
punishment can be justified only by
the necessity of protecting society ana
diminishing, as far as possible, the ten
dency toward barbarism. Surely that
must be conceded; surely if we meet
one who AYERS that deprivation of lib
erty, the whip, the straitjacket, the
dark cell the scaffold, are good things
in themselves, we lnstinctively put that
person down as a barbarian. over all
this there seems to us no room for
argument.
But most people think the admittedly
cruel methods employed toward those
accused or convicted of crime are JUS
titled by the exigencies of the case
They believe society can be protected
in no other way; that it is protected
in this; that the end justifies the
means. This is the precise point al
which we join issue with the majority
and we conceive that the question
(Which of us is right" must be OF
paramount Importance to all the ninety
millions of whom this great nation is
composed
You talk about missioni What
more important mission can there be
than that of puncturing a fatal de-
fusion and putting in its place vital
truth?
The facts are what we want, for on
them Ultimately the decision must de-
pend.
Admittedly the state acts with great
harshness toward the individual. II
defends its course by declaring thai
without such deterrent measures crime
would overrun us.
We say the theory is wrong; wrong
because the ascertained facts do moi
bear it out. We add that the public
is mistaken when it holds that the
general veal can ever be served by
subiecting the individual to injustice
and, since this appears to us to be the
grand delusion, we pile proof on PROOF
TO show that the screwing down the
safety valve invariably results in ruin
Thus, in our judgment, we have proved
beyond all doubt that capital punish
ment does not check but (by suggestion
and in various other ways detailed II
our book, "Crime and Criminals") ac-
tually fosters the capital crime of homi-
eide. Some of the leading critics OF
the country frankly admit that we
have proved this TO the very hilt, ano
we say emphatically we have.
If this be so, we have established g
fact of such vital Importance that
this country cannot continue much
longer to ignore it without mourning
the most serious misfortune. And sure
ly it is Iaudable to attempt to save
ones country from misfortune. More
over, the matter grows in gravity wher
we consider that capital punishment is
not an isolated error, but one thai
colors and falsifes all society's atti-
tude toward crime. We know thai
the crime problem absorbs an enormous
amount of the states activities; thai