The New York herald., 1922-08-06


IN fact? This seaside resort idea of
the punitive institutions certainly
does not apply to the police stations
and county jails, which are worse in
some places, but in general bad
throughout the counry. Everybody
who cares to, knows that the police
and the prosecuting officials in most
cities habitually use the third de-
gree.
The Constitution sternly forbids
"cruel and unusual punishments"
for crime committed; that was meant
to prevent mental or physical tor
ture. The third degree is an extra
legal proceeding for which no spe-
cific legal authority can probably be
found in any State in the Union. In
it's mildest form it is mental tor
ture applied for any period up to ten
or twelve hours, on men and women
to induce them to confess. 1t is made
up of questions repeated and reite-
ialOoy siISoihPeailiNa
frequently false, that other people
have confessed.
Even tough criminals can be made
to talk by the application of actual
physical torture which Is applied in
many police stations or jails with
or without the permission of the
warden or prosecutor. Men are kept
awake for days and nights at a time
"a well known Chinese torture
they are blackjacked, clubbed,
pounded, beaten, strung up, starved,
deprived of water, to make them
confess. That cannot be precisely
alluring to the habitual criminal.
AS for the State prisons, let him
who thinks they are easy places try
them. He will then agree with the
grandson was sent to the peniten-
tiary. for seven years. What did
they do thar for?" she exclaimed.
why, he won't be contented there
three weeks." The best prisons are
a very severe punishment to men or
women with mind. The worst States
people think that if the penalties Of
Imprisonment We're increased it
would scare the criminals The
trouble is that a fifty year sentence
does not stop crime any more than
hanging. drawing and quartering or
burning alive stopped it in earlier
times.
The general experience is that
wherever a judge has discretion, he
is unwilling to give long sentence.
The much misunderstood parole sys-
tenn simply means that a criminal
who gives no trouble in the prison
gets about third or two-fifths of
his term remitted, subject to the
duty of reporting to the authorities
at stated intervals until the end of
his original sentence. This is a great
incentive to orderly behavior. The
bad man, the murderer, the thug, the
assassin is more likely to break
loose and spoil his chance for reduc-
ing time.
Several causes for the carnival of
crime are gaseous. The first is the
use of gas created by the explosion
of a cartridge in a firearm. Our
forefathers had an obstinate belief in
the militia system as means of de-
fense by the community Hence the
provision in the Federal and other
constitutions on the right to keep
and bear arms" That meant the
flint lock musket and the horse pis-
tol, neither of them easy to conceal.
That provision now protects the most
atrocious criminals in the use Of
small, surefire and deadly revolvers.
Presidents Lincoln, Garfield and Nc
Kinley were all killed by firearms at
close range.
A new danger has arisen: the i'm
provement of rifles and hand wea-
pons makes marksman pretty sure
of killing his target at ranges up to
half a mile. The remedy for this
frightful state of things is within
the reach of every State in the Union.
Laws against carrying concealed
weapons exist. Enforce them every
where by severe penalties. No con-
stitutional reason can be given why