The Ellensburg dawn. [volume] (Ellensburg, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1911-01-26

investigation, our purpose shall be
to demonstrate the lack of wisdom
III travelling, as municipality, a
long either branch of the second
way above indicated. The voice
OF experience will be our chief wit
ness.
! SECURITY AGAINST Evil. Doors
Inherent within social existence
IS not only the right to life of so
cial purity, but also the right to
protection against those known to
be destructive thereto. Our first
pathway, right statute, rightly
used to secure this right end, would
secure the same. If this be not
tue, then the right inherent in So
ciety Isl failure, and God at fault.
To secure this end, it becomes
necessary. to punish, in some meas
ure, the destructive party. Along
the second way, many municipali-
ties and states have travelled, using
the constitutional statute providing
for punishment, to gain a selfish
end, rather than to secure society
from the COrrupter The right
statute used i'll the wrong way i'll
order to secure selfish ends. Re-
taliation always possesses some de
gree of selfshness. England re-
taliated, at one time, upon evil
doors until they had listed 225 CAPT
tai offenses. True, evil doors were
punished, but it is not the province
of government to punish in the
sense of retaliation. What was
the result? Even the hour of exc
cution, instead of bringing a sense
of security to society, brought the
direct opposite result. Execution
day became the harvest for the
pickpocket-and the danger hour
for society. Violence, thus admin
istered, never begets peace.
The same just statute providing
for the punishment of criminals in
order to secure safety to society
has been wrongly used to secure
gain. In the Outlook, Jan. 1906,
under the title Georgia and the
Chain Gang we READILY an a
mended act Of Aug. 1908, Georgia
created state prison commission.
which was empowered to hire out
felony convicts for a period of FIVE
years. Under the provisions of
this act we find that fifteen hundred
men were disposed of at a single
auction sale. April LIST, 1906.
Colonel Byrd, appointed to in
quire into conditions prevailing in
convict camps, says: In one
camp found a nineteen year old
negress sent up for larceny. She
was clad in mems clothing. work
ing side by side with male convicts,
cutting a ditch through field.
She told ME she had been beaten
twice by the man who beat McRay
to death. This girl, and another
convict woman were strapped and
beaten numerically in the presence
of the male convicts. because they
stopped by the side of the road to
| bind a rag about their sore feet.
Richard Barry. in the Cosmopol-
itan, March, 1907, says: In new
and sinister guise, slavery has a
gain reared its hideous head, a
monster suddenly emerging from
the Shiny, sordid depths of an in.
ferno peopled with brutes and task
masters in human semblance.
Whites and blacks are today being
held indiscriminately as chattel
slaves, and the manacle, lash,
blood hound, and bullet are teach
ing them submission without parti-
atty to color.
These are a few of the results
following the wrong use OF stat
ute intended to secure soci .ty, but
used to secure money out of con-
vict labor. He VINO studies the
system of convict labor prevalent
in the south, can not, for one mo-
ment, think that the end secured is
for the welfare Of society. Indeed
the peonage system. under the
guard and task master, like the
Iron Jacket" the buzz saw"
and the water cure" as found in
San Ouenton penitentiary in Cali
fornia, are not intended to influence
society, either good or bad. Every
effort possible is put forth to keep
such punishment a profound Sc
cret.
Instead of securing society, Grim
iuals are made worse, overseers are
brutalized in character until they
are worse than social lepers. and