The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-11-19

from being what little use to society she yet might be.
 There is no moral or ethical or sci entific law in the world that will up- hold this murder. If you take your moral teaching from the Bible, 1t says: Thou Shalt Not KilL'' It does not say .tIt is wrong for one individual to kill another individual, and right for a million and half individuals to kill one individual It simply says, 'HThou Shalt Not Kill" It is quite positive in the statement. If you take your teachings from modern science it is even more positive.
 But unfortunately Bessie Wake fields execution is neither a matter of morals nor of science. It is a mat ter of the law. And that law was made in the Middle Ages. a time of burnings, torture rack, superstition, ignorance and hatred. And it has survived all those years, because the people have not had the energy to change it.
 There is no moral law, we repeat, that. gives any man or body of men a right to punish others. At gives the right to correct only.
 The only excuse for executions is that of expediency. If it is absolute 1y necessary for society to murder murderers in order to protect itself, then, and then only, is such murder
  der by the State only has the effect of Inducing and promoting private murder. It offers the example. It sets the seal of public approval upon killing as a, means of fighting wrong. What if the State engaged in gamb- ling, theft, arson and other crime? What would be the moral effect upon the individual?
 It is a proven fact that where exc cutions have been most common, the crime of murder has become more common among individuals Three hundred years ago in England there were scores of crimes punishable by death, but the knowledge of the pen atty did not stop people from com hitting those crimes. Since the death penalty was removed there has been less instead of more crime.
 In states and countries where there is no capital punishrn ent there are no more murders than in those wI1er it exists. In fact, there are only half as many. For there one murder means but one murder. Here it means two-the murder of the vic tim and the murder of the murderer.
 No, the death penalty is no deter rant for murder. In practically ev- cry case the person who commits a murder either expects to escape pun ishment altogether or is in such a state of mind that he does not con sider consequences. We defy any one to point to a murder, where tha crirn- ina1 stopped to consider whether the penalty was death or only imprison- ment for life. In fact, most free per- sons-those not immediately faced by death would say they preferred death to life Imprisonment. Think of it yourself!
 It is clear that capital punishment lacks even the excuse of exped1ency.R
 People are coming to understand that crime is of two sorts. One is that bred by environment on perfect ly normal persons and in such cases is not the proper thing to improve the environment that produced the crim- inal, and to try to cure him. We do the same thing when bad environ ment has caused typhoid fever. We improve the environment and apply such remedies as we can to the in fected person.
 The other sort of crime is that of abnormal persons, those born with d criminal tendency which is as much of a hereditary taint as inherited dis Our action toward such criminals should be to put them where they can do harm, to study their cases and see what we can learn in the way of prevention.
 We do not mean in this argum ent to leave out the question of personal will the power on the part of an fndf- vfduaI up to a certain point to resist EEssxy person 42ss1gEl lae=esH4>I