Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1923-05-31
BY AUSTIN HAINEs

To state the problem more concrete
ly-supposing there had been a juve
nile court in Knoxville, Iowa, before
Orrie Cross started wrong, which had
interested itself his behalf, had seen
to it that he went to school and had
placed him under the influence of
some good though unrelated "big
| brother? Or supposing you and |, in
the New Yorks and Knowles all over
America were to show some sympath.
etc interest in the boys and girls grow
ing up under similar conditions
around us every day would Orrie
Crosses be going to the gallows week
ly and police records show the aver
age age of desperate criminals to be
in the teens?
There are but four theoretical justi-
fications for the infliction of punish
ment by the state. The first is reform
atory, which obviously does not ap-
ply to capital punishment The second
is the idea of vengeance--that the
majesty of the law has been outraged
and it requires IAN eye for an eye and
a tooth for tooth" to restore the
equilibrium of the scales of Justice.
This theory has been largely abandon
ed by penalogists. The third is that
the criminal is so dangerous that he
should be removed from the POSSIBLE
ity of further harm to society. To this
the opponent of capital punishment re-
plies that the same thing can be accom-
plished by life Imprisonment, without
pardon or parole, the negligible chance
of escape being more than offset by
the possibility of discovering later the
! innocence of the condemned person.
Finally there is the argument on
which it seems to me capital punish
ment must ultimately rest its case
that of acting as deterrent to the
commission of similar crimes by
others.
| That is fair question upon which
authorities disagree. Opponents of the
death penalty deny that it ever deter
red anyone from any crime and one of
their classical examples is the fact
that the greatest amount of pocket
picking in the days of Elizabethan
England was at the publicl executions
of pickpockets. Advocates Of the death
penalty, on the other hand assert that
where it has been abolished murder
has increased and where it has been
restored it has decreased. My father
was the author of law which abolish
| ed punishment in Iowa for time and
author Of the present law which later
restored it,
Personally | doubt if the fear of
capital punishment ever consciously
deferred anyone from committing MUIR
der Those who kill in passion do not
stop to reason, while the deliberate
murderer figures that he will be
among the large majority Of homi-
cides who escape the death penalty.
But it is the ultimate question involv-
ed in ones view of capital punishment
There is one argument against CAPT
tai punishment which | refuse to take
seriously, although it seems to be the
predominating one with that particular
class of opponents, from Maine to Cali
fornia, who write letters to news
papers. That is the one used by slaves
to literal Biblical authority for all
their judgments of right or wrong.
This was emphasized in the case of
Weeks and Cross by the fact that the
sheriff whose duty it was to spring the
trap that sent them HURTING to Eter-
nifty is an ordained minister of the
Church of Christ. He and the news
papers of Des Moines were literally
flooded with protests against minis
ter of the gospel taking human life
and practically all cited the command
ment: "Thou shalt not KILL" From
total strangers the country over came
,pleadings that If the deed must be
done be delegated to one of the de-
putty sheriffs as the law permits, thus
saving "the cloth" from the shame
Perhaps the most bitter criticism
came from the pen of Eugene v. Debs
in 1.-THE Appeal to Reason" But the
fighting chaplain of the 1913 tn Regi-
ment of the Rainbow Division scorned
such subterfuge, saying that it would
not only not relieve him of any moral
responsibility but that it would be
cowardly for him to ask someone else
4 to carry out the law which he had
Sworn to enforce.
To those numerous good souls who
! justify or condemn every action by
Scriptural quotation, / would suggest
that to the injunction, Thou shalt
not KILL" handed down to Moses amid
the thunders and lightnings of Mt.
Sinai, they add Genesis 9:6, as one
among many Old Testament quota
lions, where they will learn that
whose sheddeth mans blood, by man
shall his blood be she'd
And-which is more Important
would also add that the youthful .'bad
men" of the United States would not