Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1912-12-14
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.

NT is the first law Of Nature that any
violation OF her laws must be pun.
ished, and she Is inexorable IN
executing this law Man, in his weak
way has patterned after this example,
and has provided, or attempted to pro-
vide punishment for the violation Of
Ills laws lie has provided penalties,
not always adequate, for there are
cases IN which It seems impossible to
make the punishment III the crime.
For instance, man has docreed that
for the crime Of murder the penalty Of
death shall be inflicted, here IN Ore
gon by hanging, in some other states
by other methods, but the penalty in
all is death. Now admitting that the
death penalty is justified where a
man commits a murder, how can a
man be punished for committing q sec
ond or a third murder? II will read
fly be admitted that a man who mur-
dcrs n mother and her four children,
for instance, commits more heinous
crime than he who murders, say but
one Of the children Yet, II for this
last named crime he should hang.
how are you going 10 punish him for
the other murders? There was q time
under the laws Of our English for
bears that many crimes were pun
ished with death Stealing sheep was
one, but that was before the days of
tariff on wool-which now protects
the sheep owner II not the sheep
and there were innumerablo others.
There arc some crimes worse even
than murder When some big brute,
horribly diseased, outrages some girl
still n child is It not worse more he
nlous than the snuffng ont of life
itself? Why not then extend the list
Of crimes punishable with death, II
that punishment will prevent or tend
TO prevent crime?
For thousands Of years. 30 far back
as history or legend goes, mankind
has decreed death TO the murderer
but has murder been stopped or dl-
miulshed? The Oregonlan yesterday
speaking OF capital punishment, ed-
torially said; at Is better to have
the law respected and protect society
in the only way Il can be protected,
or can protect itself" Does It make
the law respected, or does It stop the
crime OF murder to hang n man? It
stops that particular person from do
ing further murder, that is true, but
does It serve to prevent others? That
is very doubtful and certainly far
from proven.
The writer is not opposed to capital
punishment in some cases for their
are ficnds In the form of men-t to
whom society owes nothing and the
more quickly they are removed from
the world the better for they are so
cial mad dogs, but there are other
cases murder cases too, where II
would seem that the punishment Of
life Imprisonment with no hope or
chance OF pardon, would be greater
than that OF death.
Punishment Is provided for one OF
two reasons, either as a deterrent to
crime through the fear Of punish
mont. or for the reformation Of the
one punished-and In case Of the
death penalty It surely is not for the
lnttcr-lt must he inflicted then for
its deterrent Quqolitios, and in this
line history and experience shows II
60 be an utter failure, Watch the Ore
gonians news pages, for instance,
and notice how many murders are
committed In Oregon and ON the coast
within the week following the quad
ruple hanging that took place here
yesterday and OF which the whole
country took general notice. See how
much Of a deterrent this has been,
and see how many less than the av-
erage number OF murders have been
committed I'm that time.
Outside Of stopping the man who is
hanged from committing other MUIR