The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1911-07-05
WOULD STOP THE HANGNAN
FAVORS ABOLISHNENT OF CAPT.
TAI PUNISHMENT IN GEORGIA.
DR.. Thomas Gives His Views on a
Question That Has Recently Been
Sprung in This State.

DA' IIiOili@S GlteS Ills views on
Question That Has Recently Been
Sprung in This State.
/ Editor Dawson News; In the last
issue of your valuable paper l read
with interest the article headed
Would Abolish the Moose" and stat
ing that Judge Morris Of the Blue
Ridge circuit was drawing a bill for
submission to the next legislature to
abolish the "hangman's moose" This,
| believe, is a mighty stride for
ward in the right direction. But why
stop here? Why not go a step fur
capital punishment in our good state
and forever wipe out one of the
Vilest stigmas which we retain as one
of the most horrible relics of bar
barism? You say that custom has
failed in lessening it's horrors, but
association has tended to appease it's
most brutal effects" '"Tis true, but
It's pity tbs true" We have become
so hardened that we regard an exc
cution, legalized murder, as a mat
ter OF course. 1t is wrong. Thou
shalt do no murder" and this in
struction was given unto all mankind
and applies to the state the same as
it does to the citizenry. Just so long
as the state sets the example, thereby
suggesting the crime, just so long
will it's people resort TO the shotgun
and the pistol to settle their quar-
rels. If the state does not consider
human life too sacred 20 take then
the mob will not. Every execution
tends to harden the public heart and
lessen the sacredness of human life.
1t is deplorable fact that in a vast
section of our land the mob law is
in common vogue. One would think
that men would be afraid to commit
any crime in a community where the
mob spirit is in the ascendancy. But
not so. For such is the contradic-
lions and subtleties of human nature
that it is exactly the opposite, and it
is an admitted fact that the men
who constitute the mob are, as a
rule, the lowest and most deprayed
amoung US.
All death penalties are inflicted
under the belief that man can do
right under any and all circum-
stances; that his conduct is abso-
lutely under his control, and that his
will is pilot that can, in spite of
the tides and tempests of his enyi-
ronment, glide safely into any port
desired" Most of US know this is
not so. 1t is denial of the integ-
rity of nature, and just so long as
this mistake remains pthe corner
stone of criminal Jurisdiction" the
hangman will be a busy man among
US.
Let US take into consideration the
nature of mankpind, the facts of his
mind, the seductive power of temp
tatlon, the limitations of the intel
iect, the force of habit, the result of
that powerful Observation-Disclosures
uncomfortable power of passion, the
domination of want, the many dis
eases OF the brain, the tyranny Of
appetite, the cruelty of conditions,
the results of environment, the eff
feet of power and wealth, of poverty
and want.
Until these subtle things are bet
Ter understood, until we know that
man in sipte of all can pursue the
highway of right, society should not
impoverish and degrade, should not
chain and kill those unfortunates
who after all are the helpless vic
Tins of unknown causes that are
deft and blind.
We know something of ourselves,
of the average man, of his thoughts
and passions, of his fears and aspira-
tons, Of his sorrows and joys, some
thing of his weakness, of his liability
to fall; something of what he resists,
the struggles, the victories and the