The copper era and Morenci leader., 1913-04-18

. shine, play games, be we'll fed, anc nurse the idea that some man in au
 thority would decide that it was toe
 state and tell him to go free; how ? many fathers with red blood in their veins would not take his gun and go
 maintaining. I contend that if one
 half the maudlin blubbering over the
 poor criminal were expended in try
 ing to see that our laws were enforced
 there would be a more wholesome re-
 spect for our courts and officials, and crime would diminish A murderer is usually coward, and while he has no fear of Imprisonment, would quake at the thought of the rope.
 It will be remembered that the
 would-be murderer of Colonel Roose- states to shoot him in a state where he knew there was no capital punish ment. And again, no man will deny that a man has the right to kill ill Self-defenSe, and in the execution of a murderer the public is acting in self defense.
 I am not in possession of the late records of the Arizona penitentiary, but I do know that only a few years ago the actual time of a lifetimers sentence in the territory was then eight years l. think it may be less lately, in the pen" where one of the life timers from Maricopa said recent ly, We are having a devil of a good time.
 Some governors in liberating criminals, claim the promise of Christ, which is Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy It may be quite natural for them to crave the mercy of God but they are very un- mercifu1 to the public when they lib crate criminals, and we are afraid Of put themselves in the box with the unmerciful instead of the merciful ! How many of the lower class of our citizens in Arizona have any fear of the law, as it is administered today2 1 They care not for the hope of reward of good living, and they have no fear of punishment. They might land in the pen, but there they would only be taught that the courts were very | unjust-that they did not deserve what they were getting, and that the conditions cf society made it incum- bent on them to steal or kill As man who has had some observation 1 of th in hi iY,ly d cern cloud gathering on the horizon that will break forth in meting out justice to law-breakers in a way that promises effectiveness and dispatch. !
 The man that says that capital pun ishment does not deter the murderer must look again into the history of the past Several states in the union have tried to do away with it, and have been forced by the increase of murders to go back to it: Italy, Spain and France have all had a trial at it, and all have been forced to adopt it again. In one state crime increased 250 per cent after abolish ing capital punishment. There are plenty of such records available, and many more passages of scripture to show that He that sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed,'' if only the truth is wanted It is well for us to look forward to the time when the world shall rise to the sublime height of the fulfillment of Christ's teaching of loving our neighbor as ourselves, to play and work earnestly for that days dawn ing; but it is also quite as important that we do not forget that we are yet on earth and have to deal with things as they are today; nor let the idea of Arizona's progressiveness force us to progress backward by turning backward the hands on the dial of time. If our public officials should all use their best efforts toward the enforcement of the laws they were elected to execute, instead of the mak- ing of new laws and forcing their own ideas upon the people, overriding the laws they swore to enforce, we would have a right to expect better results. We may call criminals unfortunate, we all know that environment plays an important part in shaping our lives but the truth still holds good that we are the architects of our own lives.
 In my opinion, the first work of the next legislature should be to do away with parole and pardoning power; Ter no man have the power to thwart the power of judge and jury, and through them the people, as did the governor | of Arkansas a few days ago liberate 1 nearly four hundred criminals upon the people in one day. As soon as