Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-12-09
DOES PUBLICITY PREVENT
CRIME?

DOSS puullCllg pl lSNSnI VI lOSlSl
crime? That is a question which is
attracting more and more attention
every year. The theory has been for
generations that the making public
the fact of crime is one of the best
restraining influences. This, like
many another theory, is giving way
to something newer and better. The
claim that reputable newspapers fea-
ture crime for the money that there
is in it is unjust. To say truer would
be to say that the people demand it,
either from perverted taste or from
a belief that the publication is re-
straint of crime. One of the strong
est seasons to believe that publicity
begets crime is that a particularly
weird and atrocious crime in one sec
tion of the country is followed by
similar ones elsewhere.
This is becoming so plain that it
has become saying among sociolo-
gists that crimes go in series.
The fate of Lounsberry, the S. P.
robber, instead of lettering others,
has evidently excited their desire to
go and do likewise.
An evidence of the "recoil" of an
anti-vice crusade in a northwest Iowa
town came directly under the observ-
alton of the writer a few years ago
A lecturere for a temperance organ
ization delivered an impassioned and
realistic expose" of the vice of Chi
cago, especially inviting the young
people, and the hall was crowded
every night. A friend of the writer
was heavy shipper of cattle to the
Chicago market and cattle passes"
(free transportation to care for stock
en- route) were often given out. He
told the writer that during the next
few weeks after these lectures he was
almost daily accosted by young men
and youths who wanted passes to
Chicago. The sudden access of de-
sire to go to the city aroused his
suspicion and in many instances they
admitted that they wanted to 90
and see if what she said was true"
That was one of the first reasons
that made the writer begin to doubt
the efficacy of the publication of the
details of crime, as a crime prevent
ative.
The Johnson-Cameron affair has
been heralded from coast to coast
and will doubtless be followed by the
marriage of several other white girls
with colored men. There seems to
be some sort of fascination in crime
which inspires the young or weak
minded and causes them to try and
initiate the criminal
These and other observations have
caused the writer to come to the be-
lief that if the publication of the
details of crime were forbidden that
it would be for the benefit of human
ity. What good can it do to try
every criminal case of note before
a jury of 60,OO0,OOO people? 1t does
not tend toward justice. The jury is
not and should not be influenced by
the sympathy or lack of sympathy
for the criminal or for his victim.
They are there to do justice.
The Daltons, the Youngers and
James are heroes to nearly every
boy at some stage of his life, and the
very knowledge of them is degrad-
ing. Why should it be Haunted be-
fore the innocent?
The sculptor cannot make a beau
tiful statue with an ugly model.
Neither can mind be trained beau
tifully with an ugly model set up be-
fore it,
There was never a truer stanza
written than that familiar one:
Vice is monster of such hideous
mein
That to be hated needs but to be
seen;
But seen too oft, familiar with its
face,
We first endure, then pity, then en-
brace"