Arizona republican., 1919-06-26

have begun to learn when the boy was yet in his swaddling clothes-how and what to do with him. At this stage of the game he will probably wind up with sending for a bunch of catalogues from private schools, boarding schools, boys" schools, and some so-called military schools, where he can pay to have others take the kid off his hands,"
 And the public? Oh, the public has gotten used to it by this time.
 The public still comes to town in rigs and automobiles. But they have learned that they can never leave the autos unlocked. nor can they leave packages or extra wraps, blankets oi cans of tobacco in their cars while they go about their business in town or to their desk in the office. l. has gotten to be funny, for if anyone IS going out on the street for a minute, an anxious fellow employe gives this parting exhortation: Say. Bill, on you're going down to the corner, look ard see if my car is still there, and If it is, see if that spare tire is still there or my overcoat-or bundle of laundry, etc, etc.
 The remedy? We'll, an eminent jurist friend puts it this way: Tt is not so much a matter of providing for heavy or severe punishment for the rr,ission of a given offense. It is. to my mind, more a matter of seeing to it that whatever punishment is pro- vided for by the statutes is carried out unerringly, swiftly and surely. l believe that if a man who contem- plates the commission of an offensc against the peace of a community knows-and knows well-that he will be surely punished when caught, fle will think twice before he commits the crime. It is not that our criminal | figures that he won't get caught, so much as it is that experience teaches him that even if he does get caught there is pretty good chance of worm ! ing out of it or having the punishment | frightened And this, I believe, ap- plies whether the crime contemplated is murder or petty thievery." | To be sure, whoever took our can of tobacco knew that if he got caught his chances of getting out of it" were very good. It would have made n1 difference to him whether the penalty
 was five and costs or ten years.
 And, we have the tenerity to sug
 gest, it is this that is at the bottom of
 all this hub-bub and to-do over the
 courtmartial system in the army. The
 swiftness, the sureness. and the rigid ity of it all was too much for some oi the civilian attorneys who got into
 the judge advocate generals depart
 ment during the war. But. did you
 ever have occasion to compare the per centage of crime in the army with that in a similar civilian population?
 Our musings were brought to al abrupt end by the mares pulling IT
 at the gate. After unhitching we let
 her out along the ditch bank to thu
 rope and chain where we had he
 sraked out in the morning. If we hat
 any doubt as to the justification o our contention that our courts ant !. the bar seemed to foster criminality : it was banished by the sickening cas- with which we yanked the rop 1 through the grass toward us. Tn customary heavy drag of the chail
 was lacking. In our absence, som nut brown neighbor had come owe
 and cut off the chain for his own use 1 Back to the rig we trailed, the olC mare ambling behind us, to get tli hitching strap that we use in sue 1 emergencies. And while rumagin , around under the seat for the stra } our hand fell upon familiar object Cold sweat stood out on our forehea s and our mouth got dry.
 It was the can of tobacco that W , were sure some vagrant, or a way l Wat | youngster had appropriated"