The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-31

Over and over again our hearts have been racked and our sensibilities shocked with the knowledge that the state, In cold blood, will take the life of some man or woman in the name of law and justice.
 Every thinking person in the country was breathlessly waiting the sentence of Leo Frank, and with a sigh of relief real ized the death penalty was not to be his. We shudder with the thought that again in the name of law Becker must be the victim. It is the natural repulsion that we feel as human beings at the thought Of such punishment this absolute disre- gard of humanity in the name of law. We cannot ease our social responsibility with the idea of humane methods, the gallows or the chair alike are too awful to be con- templated or tolerated.
 The death penalty has been abolished In Maine. Rhode Island, Michigan, Wiscon- sin, Minnesota, Kansas, Tennessee, South Dakota, Washington and Oregon, and it can be abolished in all the other states if the abolitionists will concentrate their forces and demand the abolition of the death penalty by the ballot The senti- mert of thoughtful, intelligent people is overwhelmingly against 1t.
 That the terror of death will make less crime, has long been a plea for the death penalty. The death penalty does not deter. 1t only degrades humanity; it Is useless because it fails in its purpose all statistics tell the same story. | Livin J. Chase. in an address in de- fense of the bill to abolish death pen atty in New Hampshire, tells of a l New England warden who resigned his position because, he said, in the 16 years he was warden he had killed nine men. He states he had never been happy since the death of the first and one more kill l ing would have sent him to the mad house. Mr. Chase goes on to say: Today there Is no public executioner, but who does the killing?
 Who does the, actual killing? Who cuts the rope that releases the weight Who presses the button that sends the captive lightning through human body | I will tell you. In 99 out of 100 cases that burden is placed upon the soul of a help | less convict.
 "One of the terrible features of the death penalty is the unspeakable agony 1t infiicts upon the innocent. The princi- pal torment Is not put upon the guilty man, but upon his family. The stigma clings to father mother, brother, sister wife and children as long as they live "The greatest sufferer of all is the mother The way of the transgressor is hard, but the way of the women folk is harder. I have seen these things and l know. When the state kills a mar whose mother Is alive, it kills the mother also Some of her lives, but the best of her. all that makes motherhood com fort and a joy, is killed beyond resurrec tion."
 Often the death penalty is dangerous
 because the offender is found innocent
 In England alone in 100 years 40 mer
 were put to death who were innocent.
 Maine abolished the death penalty 1T 1887. During 20 years preceding that dat
 53 murders were committed; during the years after only 1892 All statistics on thu
 subject show the same story.
 Those opposing the death penalty hav'
 been called sentimentalsts, and yet al most every writer or novelist of not,
 whatever, nearly all great lawyers ant
 judges, all sociologists and philosophers
 and most of the great churchmen hay'
 opposed it. The list is innumerable.
 The May publication of the "Everyman'
 Magazine Is entirely devoted to the aboli
 tion of the death penalty. We quote iron
 an article headed. "Who Are the Senti
 mei.talists?"
 "Mediocrity alone stands for the deatl
 penalty. Men of great intellectual power in and out of the church, have invaria bl,
 opposed the death penalty. Mediocrity ha
 maintained it. Only men of little intel lectual capacity are capable of harborinl hate. The innumerable hord of pett lawyers, judges, preachers, teachers main
 tain the gallows today by sheer force O numbers. All the big preachers of tn
 world who have left their name and worl in history have opposed the death pen alty. So have all the great poets, states , men and philosophers.
 "One does not have to be great in or
 der to hate the hangman and seek hi
 extinction from civilized society, but al the great earth have hated him an, , sought his extinction. One does not nee 7 to be great to be kind. but all the reall , great have been kind-it is one of the at tributes of greatness
 In the south we hear the argument tha :. if we abolish hanging we will bring abou llynching. Brand Whitlock says:
 The most hanging is in the south, an , the most lynching is there also; in fact they have their hangings there in public as they have their lynchings, so it is cer tain in the south hanging does not pre-
 vent lynching Where there are the mos
 hangings there are the most lynchngs have wondered If there can be an connection between lynching and hangn
 or between burning at the stake and burr
 ing in chair There Is a formal differ ! ence in the methods but the result is tn same. One is tempted to believe that tn 'Nnchers have the better of the distinction