Bisbee daily review., 1912-04-06
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

There is bill before the Arizona legislature for the abolition of capi. tai punishment. We suppose that in every legislature in recent years some ill-advised member has offered a similar bill.
 There are only two arguments ;n favor of abolition. Reformers have discovered that the execution of a criminal by the state is murder and consequently immoral though that form Of punishment has the sanction Of the Bible. The other argument consists of nothing but a false and disproved statement-that life i'm. prisonment is a more effective deter. rent than capital punishment
 On the subject the Chicago Rec ord Herald says:
 That hanging has a uuieting ef. feet on crime has been evidenced Tn the last six weeks. city and county officials say. Since February 1d, when five men were hanged for mur- der all classes Of c<ime have dc. creased. In the six weeks following that time eight killings have come to the notice Of the police. Of de- hberate murders four are now on the records in the coroner's office The other four probably will ba chased as second degree murder or manslaughter when the cases are brought to trial.
 And compared with other years, this record is greatly below the oI. dinary number ot murders, even for one month. It is less than half the number of murders for the month oi March last year. Then in thirty day s against the forty-four of this year, there were nineteen murders. In 19iO during the month or March there were eight murders. Officials call at tention to the fact that perhaps this rather small number was brought about through the fact that there had been a hanging only few months before.
 Tn the year before that, however, more than twenty months had inter vened since a hanging and the lapse in justice had had its effect. The murders had crept up to fifteen for the month of March. Tn March of 1908, however. 1t had just been four months since the hanging Of Richard Walton and crime had not yet had time to again rise to its higher planes" The murders in the one month of that year were ten.
 Mention is made of the fact tha: while there were 2O2 murders cone mitted in Chicago there were in the same period only l. to the million ot population in Canada. This startling variance of figures may be ascribed to two things, a difference in tho character of the populations and the reasonable certainty iE Canada that punishment will be inflicted, where as in Chicago, until recently it nas been reasonably certain thar the mur- derer would not be punished.
 For the same reason the murder record of either New York CT Chi cago surrasses that of London. In fact, in this country where more murders according to population are committed annually than in any oth- CT civilized country capital punish ment is so infrequently inflicted tha: it maybe sail to have been abolished by neglect. Last year there were q.0OO murders in the United States There were l03 executions.
 Judge Kavanaugh says:
 Many foruls og crime decrease i'm mediately after a hanging. For a while crime lies dormant The in cIination 10 steal and 10 rob and tO kill becomes passive It is subdued. Then gradually, as the weeks and months pass, the criminal begins to fear less. The memory begins tO year off and after five or SIX months the breaker of the law once again is on trial for murder and robbery. Then, should another hanging come, crime. will once mere drop and main tain a low average for some time
 T believe that hanging retorlas more men than prisons. IT the laws Aof this, cQUptry said that every man T5rs oanfrifs a 5nEFder shall hang ifor7fs and if that law should be car. ried opt to the. letter. Tisht then would .the murders, the ;hieveries, and eyery other form of crime be ein to decrease But as it is, If a man gets into prison he feels that fEcre is chance for .hlm. He may he uardoned. He knows that he will eet ous some time. and If he mas iots of influence and plenty of money that time is likely to be much short er than If he .s poor and without