The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1921-01-13
Capital Punishment and Crime,

Capital Punishment and Crime,
The first bill introduced in the state
senate was one to restore capital pun
ishment for tha crime of murder, by
Senator Sherin.- lawyer of Water
town. The bill is in line with efforts
that are being taken in many other
states to strengthen our criminal laws
so as to check the enormous increase
in crime that is sweeping the country.
! These crimes are more noticeable in
the large cities, bnt the more drastic
methods by the city authorities to
check the crime there will naturally
drive the desperadoes to the smaller
towns, and South Dakota will get her
share of them, If she has not already.
Only recently we were informed by
the Sioux Fall papers that our peni.
tent:a-y was becoming crowded, and
that it might be necessary to remove
some of the convicts to county jails.
! In book compiled by Raymond,
i 5. Fosdick, American Police Sys-
TENS, - it is shnwn that murders and
burglaries are far more numerous in
America in proportion to population
than in any other civilized country in
the world. He says: exact com
parisons are impossible, but enough
has been gathered from careful in
vestigation to warrant the general
conclusion that burglary rates in
American municipalities are from fif-
teen to twenty times higher than in
the principal citiss of England.
Ex President Taft writing in the
Philadelphia. Public Ledger Gays:
For years the administration of the
criminal law in many of our state
courts has been humilialingIy ineffici.
ent and a real disgrace 70 our civiliz.
alton. The theory that ninety nine
guilty men should escape rather than
that one innocent man should be pun.
ished has been carried in practice to
ridiculous extreme. We are suffer.
ing from overenthusiasm in the devils.
ing of criminal laws to make people
good and to reach results that can
not in the nature of things be ssattain-
ed in this way
In like vein the Minneapolis rrib.
une says: eff there should be a tenn
porary reversal Of the principle that
every man should be considered limo.
cent until proven guilty. the reversal
may be excused on the ground of
serving public good The theory
that ninety nine guilty men should be
released rather than that one innocent
man should suffer is a high moral
sentiment but it works disastrou.ly.
For instance, the release of the nine.
ty-nine criminals may very naturally
result in the future murder Of ninety
nine innocent victims. Would it not
have been better that the one innocent
man should have suffered than that
the ninety nine should have suffered
through the neglect of our authorities
to furnish protection?
The fret duty of any government
is to protect the lives of it's citizens,
and trial of many years has shown
that America. with it's boasted effici. ;
ency, has wonderfully failed in this
respect, and must admit that it's sys.
tenn has proven failure. A New
York dispatch in the Sioux City Jour-
nal says: In the past month Judges
on the criminal courts have urged
formation of citizens committees on
a par-with vigiiantes of the frontier
before it was accused of moving back
east to metropolitan centers. When
judges on the bench advise the citi-
zens to arm and protect themselves
by forming vigilance committees, is
it not an acknowledgement of the
failure of our system of treating
crime?
Commenting on the Sherin bill, j.
E. Stevenson. chief engineer at our
state penitentiary, strongly opposes
the Sherin bill. He delivers very
good sermon on humanitarianism, but
his sympathies are all for the crimi-
nal. and he has not word of sympa-
thy for the innocent victim whose life
was taken, nor does he offer single
remedy for the prevention of future
.rimes. Until he can do this. such
talk as he gives il mess of very
thin Cruel to feed to the people. So
ciety is not justified in permitting.
murders on the theory that God will
reward the victim for his suffering,
and punish the offender:
But some may cay that we are
missing the point, az the murdere.