The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1914-01-25


spring. Love in the common sense Is
common or instructive. and involves no
moral quality 1t is love of ones own,
and contains better form of self
love.
But mercy is Of higher birth Ami
mails know nothing OF ii; savages and
the lower types of man ignore IT. we
ascribe q divine source to 1T when we
pray God to have mercy on US; we DO
not ask Him to love us. All higher re-
lipions enioin it. Mercy is love puri-
fled from self or wholly altrulstic. lt
is man loving another not because
of blood relationship or because OF ex-
pected benefits or even because or
benefits bestowed, but on the simple
pround thar he is his human brother,
child of the same Divine Father. 1t
is purer than the racial feeling, and
it includes the animal creation outside
humanity in its scope-as the Blble
puts it. 1.-the merciful man is merclfui
TO his beast
1t is the Golden Rule in manifesto
ton: we see in the one to whom we are
merciful ourself in another form,- under
different conditions, and we do to him
as we would have him do to us. II
seems TO require certain maturity OF
mind. acquired or inherited; children
below puberty seldom have 1T. IL is
easily forfeited, and indifference to the
suffering of others is readily estan-
lished. 1t is to be guarded and de-
ve,oped as sacred possession OF man
at his highest. and constantly nourished
bv thought and deed. And no man is
SO high and strong but he may and does
need the mercy of some being loitler
and more powerful than himself, which
he cannot claim ii ne have not hlmseu
done mcrcifully to those below him,
| have remarked heretofore that OF
ficials of prisons should be men or the
highest character In the state-at least
as high as what we would Wish TO as,
cribe to our judges OF the criminal ma
bench Judges send men to PRISON, out
prison guards and wardens have charge
of them during their Imprisonment, with
powers practically unlimited. Unlimited
mower is trust too arduous for any
mortal, for it should presuppose perfect
knowledge, all-penetrating. intelligence,
boundless experience, and the mercy
which is born to these-for there is a
bastard brother of mercy which is or
the parentace of ignorance and cow
ardice, which shrinks from the sight OF
suffering from mere pusillanimlty OF
tho nerves, and does not recognize that
suffering may be merclfully inflicted
or permitted and bcneficently en-
dured.
But the community does not. select its
prison officials on the basis above
Indicated; It is satisfied if they be com
cious familiarity with human depravity.
will tolerate no nonsense, can lndlte
plausible reports for the department,
and show good balance at the end of
the fisc al year, or, as guards and under.
strappers, keep the men submissive aud
orderly and allow no outbreaks, As for
Knowledge, a public school education Is
ample, with such intelligence as may be
supposed TO go with 1t; and the experii,,
ence of a ward heeleT or thug viii
ordinarily suffice to pass candidate.
AS matter OF fact, the community
never knows anything about its prison
officials upIIl some special scandal tran
spires under their admin stratIon. or un-
less some heaven sent phenix of war
den unaccountably manifests humane
and enlightened tendencies. Their ap-
pointmcnt is left to the political ma
ciple Of what is or was he worth to
us7 AS for justice and mercy-my good
sir. you seem TO forget we are talking
of convicted criminals!
] affirm, however, that Justice
which is intelligent mercy-is required
nowhere so urgently as with convicts;
that any punishment which aims at
more than restraining conyIcts from
practices calculated TO injure their own
70 thDf
cruelty to persons imprisoned and help
less, be the plea in extenuation of it
what il may, is damnable and uupar-
donable wickedness. Meanwhile, there
is not and has never been in the
United States a jail in which revenge
full, malicious and uniustifiable punish
ments have not been inflicted, anG in
which cruelty does not stain the record
of each year and day.
There have appeared lately in the
newspapers stories of euornities perpe.
trated i'll Russian prisons. Terrible bar.
bsrians, those Russians! Yet, barring
one feature OF them only, they can be
paralleled by what is currently done in
prisons here. This one feature is, the
absence In the Russian infernos of all
hypocritical protestations 10 the public
of humane treatment and Of aversion
from seventies. The Russian cannot do
prisoners; but We do the same, II is
done at Blackwell s Island, at Sing
Sing, al Auburn, at jefferson City. al
Leavenworth (until the other day. a,
least,) in San Quentin. and countless
others, including M own Atlanta: only
there, the policy of suppression of news
and PRONUNCIATION of falschood is per
haps carried 10 a more nearly perfect
extreme than in most other prisons.
A few years ago, but under the pres
ent regime at Atlanta, the workers il
the stone shed there were pursuing
their occupation in the torrid heat OF 2
summer day, when one of them, q
Young man named Ed Richmond, asked
the guard on duty for leave to retire
for few moments. Such request:
must OF course often be made. But
Richmond was man who had not beer
lucky enough to win the favor of TIL,
higher officials in the prison, and thii
was known TO the guards, who fel
that they might with impunity trea
him harshly. Richmond had been
good deal abused, and his mind had be
come somewhat unbalanced; he woulC
sometimes talk incoherenrly and ac
oddly. It had been noticed that. tb,
stone shed guard chad it in for Ed, ,
as the prisoners say; but nothing yer,