Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1914-01-07

naught else but keep cadets out of
, Delaware it proves its eternal value
here. In every ether State in the
! Union in viii II there is a large city
the white slave problem comes up
with a degree of regularity. The
same people who condemn the whip
ping post wiring their hands and won-
der what to do about the cadets and
their wretched victims. Delaware
answers, "Whip the cadet"
Years ago gang of deperadoes
undertook to rob a Wilmington bank.
They tunneled unJSer the building,
and would have carried off 100000
in negotiable securities but for the
They were arrested, and on trial paid
one attorney very large fee solely
to the end that they might be saved
from the public whipping. The late
them to long terms in prison and to
the utmost limit Of the law as to
pillory and lashes.
There has never been a bank
robbery attempted in Delaware from
that day to this by professional bur-
glars. These men were bank rob-
bers Of the first grade; the same
men who managed one of the sensa-
tional robberies in New York-the
Metropolitan Bank, | think. That
type Of criminal never considers Del
aware now for a second.
A prison term means nothing at
all to him, but he would never dare
show his face in his usual haunts af-
ter the lash fell on his bare back in
a Delaware Jail.
All prison reformers and all hu-
manitarians agree that the object of
all punishment is to prevent crime
remotely to cure the criminal. We
are not discussing the cure of crimi-
nails. We are discussing the whip
ping post per Sc, and | submit that
the whipping post has prevented two
of the most terrible of all crimes
short of murder-white slavery and
burglary. There is a grave doubt
| in my mind if there has been a single
burglary in Delaware within twenty
years committed by a me-. who was
entirely sane and wholly sober, and
| do not recall any second offenders.
1t will not be seriously questioned
that society has a right to protect
| itself. If the whipping post proves
to be a perpetual and potential pro-
tectOr against the burglar, the high
wayman and the cadet, why cry down
it's effectiveness? New York had an
epidemic of gunner; Chicago had
an epidemic of highwaymen; Boston
and Philadelphia made war on ca
| diets. Delaware simply painted her
whipping posts and multiplied school
houses.
Within recent weeks in Philadel-
phia, Judge Norris S. Barratt de-
clared from the bench that nothing
except a thoroughly good whipping
at a public post would serve to ade-
quately punish wife beater before
him. This learned jurist is intimate
ly familiar with social and political
conditions in Delaware and, before
the Sons Of Delaware, most ably de-
Tended the whipping post as an aid
to crime prevention.
Solitary confinement has been
proved a failure. 1t rots out the
prisoner, destroys all ambition, and
when his hour OF freedom comes he
| is without initiative. without occu-
patton and without hope. Trades
are now taught these men, but day
| after day they are ''!Ined up" as pro-
| fessionals, and their lives become
misery to them.
Now | repeat that the basic idea
of punishment has 20 do with the
| protection: f society against the
criminal. i. would he a little beyond
me to explain the psychological
effect Of public whipping post upon
the mind of professional criminal
but of course | had ideas. The fact
remains, however, that the mere
prospect Of such a whipping keeps
men out Of Delaware who would not
hesitate a second to "shoot up" a
dance hall in New York or Chicago.
1t is a fact Of common knowledge
that ship masters of undoubted
courage, Of tested and proved valor,
are as timid as little children when