Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1914-04-17
Perverted Sympathy.
New York WORLDLY

Writing to the World in behalf of
the condemned "gunmen," Mrs Inez
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES asserts that
Life, education and environment
have penalized these youths to the
fullest extent as evidenced by their
every word and act"
With due respect to Mrs. Boisse-
vaine, this sheer nonsense. These
young men were penalized by them
selves and by themselves alone.
They came of decent, Woodworking
parents. They were born under eX-
actly the same conditions that tens of
thousands of Industrious, law-abiding
men in New York were born They
had the same chance to make some
thing of themselves. They did not
become criminals by circumstance.
They are not warped and misshapcn
offspring of our present social condi-
tlons," as Mrs. Boissevain calls them
They elected a criminal career as tho
easiest way of making a living. So.
ciety did not lead them to the shadow
oil the death chair. They blazed their
own trail.
Mrs: Boissevain does not believe ir
capital punishment. That is q debat-
able question. But the death sen
argument against capital punishment
thaun is the death sentence over
Schmidt. Nor are their cases the
kind over which Mrs. Boissevain need
waste sympathy and everlasting pity
If any part of society is to blame
for the fate of the "gunmen" how
ever, it is the philanthropic and up
lifting clement with which Mrs. Bots
sevain is identified. For years var
lous writers, lecturers, agitators, and
social workers i'll this community
nave been preachin ga gospel that is
gospel of disaster.
They have been teaching in effect
That society owes everybody Il living;
that work is bondage; that workers
are wage-slaves; that all employers
are oppressors; that civilization is q
tyrant which grinds out the lives OF
the poor to create Injuries for the
rich, and that nobody is responsible
Tor anything hemay dounless he hap.
pens to have been born with Il silver
spoon in his mouth.
What wonder that our Whitley
l;ewlses, our Dago Franks, our Gyp:
the Blood, and our Lefty Louies drink
IN this contempt for honest labor and
Tor fathers and mothers and brothers
ana sisters who are content to carr
their bread in the sweat of theil
laces! Why work when one can be
thug, tin-horn gambler, a pimpp
cheap burglar and criminal par.
asitc upon society in general? That
sort of doctrine is pounded into tho
ears of the youth of New York ever,
day. Fortunately most of them have
too much sense and character to fol.
low 1t. But that is not the fault OF
the social agitators who spare no eff.
fort to teach the degradation of labor
Society owes neither reparation no,
apology to the graduates of thi:
school. Whatever sympathy Tho
World has to give, whatever help il
can offer, will not be wasted upor
"gunmen" convicted of murder
whatever measure of sympathy ant
help The World can extend to strur.
Cling humanity is reserved for the
boys and girls, the men and women
who are seeking to make sometime
OF themselves, who are striving to be-
useful members of society, who are
not afraid to do an honest DAYS worl
for an honest days pay, and who tr,
to do their duty as God gives then
strength and light to see that duty
These are the people whose battle