Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1912-01-11
The Encouragement to Kill
CARL SNYDER IN GOLFERS.

two or three years. we shall perhaps
not go very far wrong in assuming
that the average term OF those who
had The misfortune to be convicted
in other words, who were poor and
without powerful friends-was not fa,
from 10 years.
This would mean then that, roughly
speaking, not one murderer in 10 il,
the United States ever sees the inside
of a p~enitentiary.
think this is fairly borne out Inv th..
other figures, obtained for the year 1904
In that year, the Chicago Tribune's fig
ures indicated yer 5000 murders. and
the census bureau reports for that yea,
2,444 persons committed for trial for
murder. In that year there We're 100
death sentences.
In other words, roughly speaking moi
n murderer In four in the United
States is ever brought to trial, and not
one in 20 of those brought to trial re-
ceives a death sentence.
In race track parlance. then. we may
sum up the matter about as follows:
If you commit murder, 1T is bette,
han three to one shot that you vii,
never be brought to trial.
1t is better than 10 to one shot tina.
you will never be sentenced to the pen
itcntiary.
IL is DellSf lIldu oU 10 one SHOT that
You will never be hanged or electro
cuted.
Who would not commit murder. if SO
inclined. under such excellent and ad-
vantageous terms as these?
Appalling Murder Record of 25 Years.
Number of murders. 1885. 1,sos; 1895.
1O.5oO; 1905. s,2l2; 1910. 1915.
Number of murders per 1,000,0 900 CT
population, 1885, SO; 1895, 1852; 1906.
Executions, 1885. los; 1895, 1872; 1905.
1886: 1910, 104.
Number of murders committed to CIV
| cry murderer executed, 1885, II; 1895.
70; 1905, 81; 1910. Sc.
Crime BY Youths.
An astonishing large number of muir
ders are committed by mere boys, and
it may be added by mere girls.
Several examples leap quickly to thu
mind. The Beattie murder, the Geidel
murder, h Wolter murder, all were
cases in point. Wolter and Geidel both
We're under 20, Beattie. rs. The Rev.
Mr.. Richeson. accused of the murder
of the young music student. Avis Lin
nell, in Boston, Is only a little older.
Some of the most atrocious murders
have been done at an almost unbe-
lievable age. One in q western state.
known to The writer, probably bears
the record. A farmer and his wife-a
SeSOIlu Wlle"WeTc LOuIlO lluTOeTeu, cNl-
emily by means of a shotgun. The
head OF the woman was afterward
beaten into jelly. The murder was re-
ported to the neighbors by the farm
er's young son. who had taken the
sleening baby, hitched up the horse and
He said that it been done by
tramps. After long questioning, thu
boy was put into a cell to see if he could
not tell more than he had. Then he
confessed that the murder had been
done by himself alone. He was at that
not overly developed at that.
Geidel, who killed the aged stock
broker In New York., was a mere lad.
yet he went about his crime with a
GOODNESS and thoroughness that was
astonishing. mt he exhibited no re-
morse. The same was true of VOTERS.
convicted of s~trangling and burning
the body Of q 1~5-year-old girl. The
same was true of young Beattie who
went through the whole ordeal of his
arrest and trial and conviction. smiling
as ii the whole proceeding were a mere
Joke. He was convicted Of taking his
young wife, three weeks after the birth
of her baby. out on a motor ride, shoot
ing her with a shotgun on a lonely road
and driving home, miles distant, sit
ting en- her body.
Protection Of Assassins.
SSo ~ AiStdlCeS, HOI SO much OF
moral t%urpitude, as Of moral idocy.
What to do with such cases is a prob
lem. The notion of punishment, here.
Is absurd. 1t a always seemed to the
writer that the best interests of Justice
and society would be served IL such
cases could be quietly chloroformed and
put out OF the road. They are simply
the hopeless wastrels of 8. not very per
feet scheme Of creation. But to do this,
1t seems g~rotesque that we sould need
the huge, clumsy, bungling and fright
FULLY expensive machinery of grand
turies, judges, prosecuting attorneys.
defending attorneys, petit iuries, courts
of appeal, courts Of reappeal, supreme
courts, and courts still more supreme,
which serially seem to take a childish
delight in reversing the decisions Of the
lower courts n exposing the most
trifling and inane Irregularities of ju-
dicial procedure.
1t is no longer g%rotesque; it has
grown to q frightful %perversion Of au-
thority when this same idiotic ma
chtnery OF the law is put to the protec-
ton of cold blooded assassination, and
indeed, aided n abetted by corrupt OF
habby governors and p%ardoning boards
sensitive to the everlasting political
pull"
Simply atrocious INSTANCES of such
nor far between. Governor-elec Goebel
) OF Kentucky, Is shot down by a rifle
aimed from the window Of the office OF
the secretary OF state. It was a politi-
cal assassination, one of the worst thai
this country ever saw. And the COVER
nor OF the state gives to the secretary
OF state, from whose Office the murder
, was done, q secret pardon before the
latter hi been tried or convicted. He
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