South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-04-13
TIME TO DISCIPLINE THE HUS-
BAND KILLERS.

Sunday must have been a bad day
I'm South Bend-and Mishawaka-fo
the mental balance OF women. Here
husband stays away late 10 a dance.
after entreaties from his wife 10 re-
turn home. and is finally shot By her
for his stubborness- Another is found
at home with a paramOur when her
husband returns. and she tries 20 Kill
her husband, but the gun balks. At
Mishswaka a husband comes home
late. finds his wife in what is 10 him
the unwelcome company Of another
woman and two men. and in response
10 his objections. she shoots him.
The excuses for these shOOtings. ac-
cordingly. were not all-one-sided.
Satan appears 20 have oeen rampant
for three female souls. nayhap.
counting upon the electric chair at
Michigan City for such Immediate dis
patch as the laws delays. executive
clemency, or as * turns out. ineffec-
tive aim. might not be able 10 pre-
vent.
AS II appears on the face OF it.
waka woman whatever Same with
the second OF the local women.
They were pretty nearly all wrong.
AS 10 the other South Bend case
we are not so positive about it.
Women have some claim upon
their husbands as well as nus
bands have upon their wives. The
dance hall is not the best place in the
world for a man who has a wife and
1O-month-old baby at home, this re-
gardless of the testimony which goes
TO indicate that had he been at home,
his roUghness might not have been
consistent with the proper conduct Of
a kind and indulgent husband and
father. Neither is a home, with a g.
year old daughter present and the
husband away at work. exactly the
proper place for a wife TO entertain
gentlemen company TO a beer party
accompaniment. one bed-mate is all
the law allows TO any woman-not a
Mormon The chords &c domestic
infehcity appears to have been drawn
pretty tight in all three cases, but not
enough in any. we believe, to quite
justify a resort to gunnery.
In fact. murder is seldom. If ever.
a proper remedy for such ills whether
executed by the wife or husband. or
anybody else. A little of the Willard
Johnson science is sometimes ex-
cusable. but when it comes TO taking
human life that is a very different
matter We seek to render it par
donable sometimes on the theory Of
exaggerated impulsiveness or tempo
rary nsanity-"dementia Americana"
or brain storm" as they called ii in
the Thaw case,-but too much consid-
Grafton of that nature would be TO
convert murder into a free lance"
The problem always has been just
how far society should go in disciplin-
ing those who surrender discretion
and proper control of their minds
One thing is certain. thas 1t should al
ways go far enough, il possible. TO
make reckless people a trihe more
thoughtful.
Whether the recent acquittal Of the
River Park woman, accused Of hus-
band killing. was any encoura cement
10 these women, we are not prepared
20 state. The acquittal was the YER
dict of the jury and therefore legally
justified One should not expect TO
acquire freedom from an offense ac-
tually committed because someone ac-
cused. had upon trial been pronounced
innocent. = guilty person might not
and indeed the presumption is that
they probably would not, win such a
verdict There is a self-consciousness
back OF all this that person indulg-
ing in murderous performances can
not we'll escape
our state prisons should be mind
hospitals instead of penitentiaries but
this does not say that people who have
demonstrated that they are suffering
from "A mine diseased are deserving OF
any such sympathy as would exempt
them from treatment. The prosecu-
tors offices should take these cases
vigorously in hand The evident in
tent 10 kill. or at least the impulse.
should at least have disciplinary cen
sideration. and that for a sufficient
term that others may chance 10 think
the same trail Gov Ralston in a
public statement year ago served
warning on the men OF Indiana that
no wife-murderer need expect execu-
tive elemency at his hands; this per-
haps not without justice. but women
ought not be encouraged by il. into
thinking that they may have clemency
unlimited. 10 is Observation-Disclosures
rather than wife-murder. which OF
late years. has led in the proportion
OF increase. Rolnng-pins, fat-irons.
and dishes. the feminine weapons OF
old. are giving away all too frequent
~ 10 poison and bullets, and the diff
culties that beset convictions are be-
coming quite too numerous for mascu-
line safety. The time seems fast APP