Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1909-1915, 1911-09-29
LIQUOR AND CRIME,


~ F. o. Hellstrom, warden of the state
penitentiary addressed the w. C. r.
III. last Saturday at jamestown. Mr..
Hellstrom is an independent and high
minded citizen, and therefore, tells
some wholesome, and possibly, hurt
ing truths In regard to presentation
laws:
Il would strengthen the temperance
laws in every possible way. 1 would
start in by teaching the children in the
schools the folly and evil of the use of
Intoxicating liquor, drugs and marco
tics; instill in the minds of the youth
that nothing but shame, poverty, de-
graduation and crime can possibly re-
suit from their use and the traffic in
them. l would make the laws with the
aim and object to completely abate
the traffic. There is not one word
that can truthfully be said in favor of
the traffic. If l had the power to
draw the veil so as to expose a view
OF the evil of the traffic l would show
you view of the Shiny coils of hell.
intensified million fold worse than
the mind OF man can imagine. You
can see and imagine the crime and
Wanton abandonment, but a true pic
ture OF the evils would cause your i'm
aglnation to pale into insignificance.
10 sum up, will say that it. is be-
yond the power of man to invent q lie
that will in the least libel the traffic
In intoxicants, opium or other stimu-
lants unless, perchance, something
good should be said"
And in regard to the man who on.
joys his habitual so-called temperate
glass, he says:
You often meet a man who boasts
That he is moderate user, that he
can take it or let it alone Let all
such go hide their heads in shame.
They are greater sinners than the
helpless sot; their example is the vt
TALL for the weak and helpless. The
tfathc could not exist without the SUD-
port of the self-styled respectable citi-
zen. Can you afford to be an aid and
supporter to crime and shame?"
MI. Hellstrom advocates public de-
fender as we'll as a public prosecutor,
and advocates camps for state roads
and drains where offenders would be
given employment and an opportunity
to repent without taking away all their
pride by imprisonment and its attend
ant evil influences. In regard to pun
1shment, Mr.. Hellstrom SAYS:
!: Punishment should be the last re-
sort. When it is necessary to impose
a prison sentence, it should always
carry with it provision for parole,
after certain period of good behav-
ion in prison. No community can af-
%ford to send out man from prison
without first proving him worthy on
parole. No man convicted of a serious
crime should ever be restored to iber-
ty without first proving his worth.
Our present methods are very crude.
A man commits highway robbery; he
is apprehended and convicted; and the
Judge, by. way of cure, gives him
i've years in penal servitude. At the
expiration of the term he is discharg.
led, regardless of his mental condition !:
I regardless of the fact that he may go
forth more dangerous and cunning
than before; nothing done to prove his
worth; no chance is given him; no
one cares. On the other hand he may,
at the expiration of one year, be in
the right mood to go out and make an
honest effort. Let the laws be made
so flexible that his worth may be put
Ito the test. 1t is not near so danger
Gus to temper justice with mercy as
5it is to exact the 'Shylock's pound Of
flesh. +