Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1913-03-20
ELEVEN YEARS

the rest OF the sentence. The court,
in reviewing thu case, admitted that
the sentence WAS TOO long, but that
they had no power to change it, the
trial Judge only being responsible for
lit.
II must have been a queer specimen
aof humanity who entered a complaint
for the ~offense, and as to the prose
cutor and the judge, the less said, the
better. The only reason that may ex-
ulain the severity of the whole pro
.ceedings is that. perhaps, il involved
some family feud, so common in the
south, and some one wanted to get
even" with the boys family.
For years, the father OF the boy has
been trying to have the sentence short
ened but all his hopes came to
naught when the supreme court Of his
own state rendered the decision re-
ferred tc, and thus took away his last
Aopes. so far as his own personal re-
sources are COilCet htd.
How many men have done much
worse than that boy, and escaped with
4 much lighter sentence, or with none
at all! lust think Of 1t: to condemn a
ten year old boy to eleven years OF
Imprisonment in Il reformatory for
stealing Il bottle of soda water worth
five cents.
The only proper way Of dealing with
this offense would have been to see
the father and suggest a little sound
advice seconded by the business end
,of a shingle. This would have been
sufficient punishment. 1t is very like
Iy the 'swiping" was done more in
mischief than owing to the real wick
,edness of the culprit.
So unfair is the punishment melted
out to the boy that the Richmond Vir-
sginian thus comments on 1t:
And society must pay the bill! One
shoulders to think what the effect of
the long Imprisonment will be on the
child. Can you blame him If at the
expiration of his sentence, when he
is twenty-one, a young man who has
been robbed of all that makes child
mood sweet and beautiful, deprived of
mis- freedom by society's instrument.
the law, Of the home influences that
is every child's right, grown up with
~infiexible limitations put upon mis-
freedom and his exuberance, which
Sssre natural boyish traits-can any
one blaa1a this boy If he looks uppn
society as his enemy and becomes so.
ciety's foe, fighting it with such wea-
pons as he may find in the under
world?
There IS no Justice in such punish
ment, there is 10 safeguarding of So
ciety If the courts are to impose sem
licences upon children that will make
sof them criminals. All of the sense
of righteous Indignation cries ou In
protest against such misapplication of
the laws DEGREES, We are taught from
the days of our first consciousness
that II is morally wrong to steal a
pin, That is the salient idea impress,
ed upon plastic minds by all morally
inclined people, It was probably
anorally wrong under that view for
little Ollie Taylor to steal a f%ve,cent
bottle OF soda. But there is some
fhing else that should be considered
too. 1t is morally wrong to deprive
another Of his right to a clean lame
and a free development,
A good old fashioned spanking prob
ably would have been eflcaeious in
taking the moral twist out OF Ollie
Taylor's character. and 1t might at
the salne time have saved him to SO.
ciety as a useful asset. Eleven years
i'm q reformatory for an offense that
nine hundred and n~intey+nine times
Us laughed at as a prank. won't be
likely to incline him to a clean n
upright life. Nor is 1t setting a good
example 70 other growing boys who
!. must form, q poor opinion OF the social
fabric that permits such miscarriages
aof Justice.
II society would make this boy feel
that il Is his friend and not his foe y
must set its machinery to work 20
right the wrong done him and to Pre-.
vent the future miappiication OF the
law.
q is too bad that there 4 be ne
nationwide movement started TO car
tx the case logthe supreme our q
Ihe United States. From point @
view, IT may. be argued that he oase
does not involve ans constitutions
auestion, and, therefore, II cannot 81
beyond the jurisdiction Oh the stasi
suprems court. But, on the othe
hand, Il wonld seem that the nsua
rights and privileges 20 which tha
boy IS entitled under the constitution
~ the United States have been +