The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-04
BALDWIN IS IN FAVOR
 OF RESTORATION OF
 THE WHIPPING POST
( Continued from Page One)

If we were to accept the sentimental or humanitarian position, that the right to punish rests on the duty to educate the ignorant and refoc1n the vicious, 1 should none the less insist that whipping was for many cases. the best incentive to education and reform. He who nds learned to refrain Is half reformed. A whipping has a very direct tendency to teach man to refrain from whatever is likely to entail another punishment of the same sort.
 May Save the Boy
 'dt may be the salvation of boy, who would otherwise be sent to reform school that does not reform, or to jail that he would find a school of crime. It mey also be the salvation of man. When in use in Connecticut no white man was ever whipped twice. He had learned his lesson
 If it be admitted that a criminal act has been done from q criminal motive, it follows logically that for this violation of it's law the state must exact a penalty. A divine law may have been violated also. If so, there will naturally result to all but the hardened offender a certain pun isLment of the mind, in the shape of re- morse But the state cannot accept re- morse as expiation. It cannot, if it fol- lows the teachings of religion. In the words of St. Paul, the civil magistrate beareth not the sword in vain; for he is a minister of God, an aVenger for wrath to him that doeth evil.
 Nor should the device of the parole be used so soon or pushed so far, as to op crate virtually as a pardon"
 Governor Shafroth declared that severe punishment had proved no deterrent to crime. Certainty of punishment, in his opinion, with an opportunity to shorten the sentence through labor and good be- havior, not only punished the criminal but served alike as a deterrent against fu- ture crimes and an incentive to reforra. He advocated the system in vogue in Col orado under which gangs of 50 men worked without guards, save at nights on the public roads and expressed the hope that the time was near when the state could do more than this and pay the convict nominal wage for his work he performed.
 Wants Severe Penalty Governor Donaghey of Arkansas de- clared for a severe penalty for lynchers, no punishment save death, he said, would deter murders from their crime. "Why, it's gotten to the pass" he de- clared "where a man is certain of pun ishment if he should steal horse, but where, nine times out of 10, he is able to go scot free if he commits a murder" Every court of appeals should be abol- ished, in the opinion of Governor Fiber hart of Minnesota. Nowadays, he de- clared, man could plead guilty to 57 varieties of insanity" and escape the consequences of his crime. Under the present jury system, he added, 1t was all but impossible to select intelligent men for jury service.
 ''I want to take off my hat to Virginia and to New York; said Governor Gil- christ of Florida, flor 1 believe they have done justice in their recent murder cases l don't believe Henry Clay Beat tie could have been convicted in my state"
 A letter from Presdent-elect Wilson, announcing regret at his inability to at tend was read by Governor O'Neal of Alabama In the letter the President elect said that he had thought the con ference was to have been held later. otherwise his vacation would not have kept him away.
 During the forenoon session Governor Norris of Montana urged that the con ference be made permanent and become a vital force in moulding public opinion and shaping public policies Governor McGovern of Wisconsin replied that a committee had drawn up plan for ef- fecting this end which would be placed tomorrow before the conference. Twenty governors are present.