East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1911-08-30
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.

Now and again, after some weary
and sensational trial, there are found
certain persons of societies rising in
vehement protest against the laws
decree of death upon the particular
assassin in the tolls. These good
but unwise folk present long petiti-
ons clamoring for the abolishment
of what they call capital punish
ment.' Both of these words, in this
application, are misnomers. Capital
punishment does not necessarily mean
punishment by death. 1t means the
heaviest sentence under the code.
Punishment" too, is a misused woord
for the Omposing of the penalty is
not supposed to be punitive, but de-
terrent and corrective. The criminal
who has forfeited his right to life or
liberty serves his last useful purpose
I" society in being held up as a proof
that the law still holds.
The most grievous wrong that could
be inflicted upon civilized society is
the protection of the criminal-in
particular, the murderer-against the
jrst decree of the law They who
maintain that the state has no right
to take human life. or, as they mis-
call it, revenge" forget that the felon
himself has usually forfeited that
claim by Eis crime. They forget that
there is nc law bidding him kill but
a mighty one warning him against
it. They do not see that his immun-
ity is a direct encouragement to his
kind, and a dreadful menace to the
lives of many innocent persons am
ong whom he is permitted to range
a large.
Always, where governments have
been moved to a short-sighted policy
of indiscriminate mercy and have
abolished the death penalty. the result
has been an enormous increase Of
crimes of violence throughout the
land. The unprotected, the law-abid-
/ ing, and the relpless have been sac
rificed to the criminal classes and
to these experiments of misguided
humanitarians. After the recent alb
olishment of the death penalty in
( France, murders increased at a
shocking rate. and now the wise-t
statesmen and most public spirited
I journals have once more brought
]
/ lotine. whose knife glitters steadily
before the eye. Of potential sons of
Cain. In England, where the laws
against murder are swiftly and rig.
/ orousiy cnfor ed. the crime is com.
par1tively rare. In our own land, the
cowa-dice of juries ana judges. the
power of money to delay or furs
trate the law, and false ana veal
sentimentalitv bind up the sword o
Justice. For this we pay a daily trib
ute of blood misery. and money tha
ought to maze Us Shudder
A brillian writer upon this subjec
has seid that a mans first murder i
his own. his second is ours. It i
obvious that all murders are not ne
cessarily the result of crimna
bleod-lust; it is true that many unfor
tunate men, the slaves of sudden pas
sion or the victims Of great provo
cation, may he worthy Of redemption
For them the law has provided b
making the crime one that may b
classified into various degrees. Fo
them, likewise. the benefit of tn
doubt the easy Interpretation Of tn
Flaw the leniency OF judges and tn
! soft-heartedness and often soft-heat
edness Of juries, makes sufficient a
/ lOwance.
The feet that the abolition Of II
death penalty usually operates direc
~ contrary to Jhe claims Of the aC
e vocates Of abolition throws a sad IN
revealing light upon the baser il
stincts of man and upon the danger
Gus ignorance OF most reformer
70 Let US nope that humanity in Il