The Washington herald., 1921-07-19
No anonymous communi-
cations will be printed In
the -Open Court column.
THE EDITOR.

cution of New York gunmen for the
murder of the gambler Rosenthal-
a series of executions nideous and
shocking in it's details. and calcu-
lated. according to the contention
of nti-abolitionists. to put a re-
straining fear into the hearts OF all
other East Side ganEsters-an as
sassination fully as dramatic as the
Rosenthal killing occurred in the
same quarter. As a climax TO the
whole lurid. CHASTITY proceeding,
which helped a prosecuting attorney
to higher political hOnors. Warden
Clancy. OF Sing Sing. and Thomas
Mott Osborne. a former warden OF
Sing Sing. declared their belief to
be that two of the five men executed
were entirely innocent.
DIR. Raymond T. Bye. who pre-
pared at the University of Pennsyl-
vania in 1919 what is generally con-
side red to be the most thorough and
dispassionate thesis extsnt on cap
ital- punishment in the United
States. says: Capital punishment
cannot be defended as an effective
deterrant from the commission of
crime"
Hon. Samuel w Mccall. while
governor of Massachusetts,. sent a
special message to the Massachu-
setts General Assembly in 1916. in
which he urged abolition of the
death penalty, saying. in part:
There are but fourteen States.
IN that
death as the only punishment for
murder in the first degree (the Dis
trict of Columbia is one OF these).
90 other States leaving optional
either death or life imprisonme Mt.
In the majority of the States muir
der is the only crime for which the
death penalty is inflicted. although
some of the States make three other
capital offenses. In the States that
have abolished capital punishment
and have afterward restored it there
is no evidence that the change has
any effect in lessening crime. In
many OF the States that already
have three or four offenses for
which capital punishment is inflict-
ed there are many cases of lynch
ings.
The Federal government has re-
duced the number of crimes punish
able by death to three. these being
treason against the United States,
piracy and murder within the Fed
eral Jurisdiction. while before 1884
the capital offenses were 90 under
the military code. % under the
naval code and Il under the penal
code. 1t is thus shown that the
tendency is toward the entire abo-
lition of the death penalty"
II, then, capital punishment is not
deterrent, and. as Lincoln sug-
gested, does not do the criminal
any good, what is the motive? Is 1t
vengeance in behalf of the relatives
Of the murder victim and Of society?
These questions lead to others: Be
cause an average family of five has
been made miserable by a murder
is another average family of five
after having been disgraced-to be
agonized by an execution? VIII a
policy of spreading misery and sow
ing hatred of society ever stop mis-
cry and bring universal love and
goodwill in the human family.
When the late Surgeon General
Gorgas got rid of mosquitoes in the
Panama Canal Zone he did not go
about with a fly swatter killing in
dividual mosquitoes: he cleaned up
the breeding grounds. Instead of
trying to end the mental disease of
murder by legPlly destroying the
bodies of individual products of our
social conditions. let us clean up
the ground where murderers arc
bred. This can be done only by the
gradual progress of education, and
spiritual education at that. alone
broad and sympathetic lines. By
inculcating a clearer sense OF mans
relation to mantle dominant
creature on this earth. the noblesi
| work of God"-both preventive and
curative work may be done: pre-
ventiye work in society itself be-
ginning in the home and in the