The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1916-12-28
Foolish sentimentalisn

| The Miami Herald has joineC
the group of sentimentalists who
are asking that capital punish
ment be abolished. That paper
ought to know better; so ought
every body else,
There is so much to say in favor
of the retention of capital punish.
ment that a large book might be
written about it. 1t ought, how
ever, to be enough to say that
THE great God was tho first to pre-
scribe it as a suitable punishment
| for certain crimes as well as de-
|terrent, and the Miami Herald
land those who agree with it are
setting themselves up as wiser and
more benevolent than Jehovah.
We, therefore, have little patience
with them.
What would you have in place
of capital punishment Imprison-
ment for life? Nonsense. There
lis no such thing. Statistics show
that Imprisonment for life means
imprisonment for only seven
years. Escapes, pardons and
deaths make seven years the ay-
erage.
For two thousand years or more
all the countries of Europe have
done their best to suppress muir
der and they have found capital
punishment to be the most effect
i've preventive. In England, Ger
many and France, where capital
punishment has prevailed for hun
dreds Of years, there is about one
murder in each to twenty in the
United States. In other words,
for twenty murders in this coun-
try, there is only one in England.
The reason is that capital punish
ment has been virtually abolished
in the United States. In this coun-
try, not one murderer in hum
dred is ever convicted and punish
ed, not one in seventy-five ever
suffers capital punishment.
If the sentimentalists who are
clamoring for the abolition of the
death penalty would only consid-
er seriously one thing, it might
change their wives. The human
brute who will deliberately COM
NIT murder, arson or rape, has no
more conscience than the tiger or
or the rattlesnake whom we slay |
without conjunction. This is
true of all confirmed criminals.
They do not regard it as crime
to steal or commit murder or to
try to hide their offences by down.
right perjury, and the only thing
IN connection with their deviltry
that gives them any mental dis
tress is the being caught. This is
absolutely true.
And knowing this to be true
t makes us sick to hear otherwise
sensible people arguing for the alb
'lition of the death penalty or
appeals that scoundrels
of all sorts of crimes
'e housed, fed, clothed and treat
d like gentlemen or erring child
EN-. Out upon such foolishness
en-. Out upon such foolishnessII
Would you argue that the de-
non who had cut the throat Of II
our innocent mother while she Is
ny asleep in bed, should be treat Il
d with any consideration? The Is
end who would skulk in theft
arkness to murder man, would I
OF hesitate to slaughter in cold {
lood an innocent woman AMI her {
abes, Was not this very thing !
one at Minden, La, on Christ
las eve? And yet, Great Godl h
on would tell us that devils who n
Q such things should be treated 5
Ike hayward childrenl t
TO sheol with such teaehingsl .
here are thousands Of hq1an be- Tss
lgs now living who havgommit- Il
d no crime whatever, wlb should v
ave died at the m&neR Of their II
nth. Remember Nat Chicago y
9ctor who, within past year, AZ
a newly- n infant to 6