The Chapel Hill weekly., 1933-08-18

fesslOn? Then i is thousand times
a. brutal to hang poor wretch, 9TH
eru-ise quite harmless, VINO kills under
the influence II a sudden and irresist-
bic passion.
The truth IS that all the benign de
vices invented in recent years TO miti-
gate me punishment Of the chance
criminal. and 50 encourage him to
resume decent living, have been seiz-
ed lpon by the professional taided
body by The kind u shyster lawyer
he commonly employs. and turned
- his benefit / doubt if there Is a
gu1n4an in practise in the United
States today who hasn't al least one
parole behind him. and at least one
term Of probation. Whittemore was
q graduate, believe, in both depart
m4nts. just a. Duker was a graduate
q more than one reformat0ry: if
an wrong, then he was unusual in
deed Practically every eminent Chi
caYo murderer has been paroled in
h.. time, and some 4 the most active
are under probation al this moment.
am not arguing. II course, against
probation and parole, They are de-
vices of plain merit, and when en-
plsved 70 relieve chance criminals Of
the full rigor Of the law they un-
doYbtedly DO lot Of good But as
they are only TOO often carried out in
this country they are simply schemes
for turning loose professionals and
r.. toring them 70 their trade. AS
the researches Of Dr.. Sheldon Glueck
and his associates prove clearly, a
substantial majority If the prisoners
who are paroled come back, and
Il Tally they come back for worse
crimes than those they committed or
IL aally. Certainly it Is a manifest
absurdity to parole The same criminal
tnlce, Or to put him on probation
TWICE.
The poor cops, facing this witless
tenn, naturally lose heart. At the
n of their lives they track down a
en professional and bring him to
-tice-and little while later they
frd him turned loose upon this pre-
telt or that, and at his business
again, and ready again to Kill them
i they modest him. The hangman
nght rid them Of him in ten minutes,
bat day by day the hangman has less
work to do, and day by day the mum
ber Of professional criminals, openly
practising their trade, becomes great
q and more appalling.
"
This breakdown Of the whole sys,
TEN Of justice is largely due, as every
one knows. to the rise Of the organ
ized sentimentality known a. the
New Penology Advocated principal
" by persons TO whom it offers easy
Jobs, it has gone SO far that the
statute books Of every State are full
of its inventions, and even some Of
the judges have begun 70 swallow
them Its aims are bold, and its pro
ponents state them frankly. The i'm
mediate one is TO convert every court
room into a sort Of clinic, and take
/ he handling of criminals out Of the
hands Of judges and juries, and give
It over to so-called experts. And the
ultimate one is TO abolish the concept
Of crime altogether, and TO substi-
tute for it the concept Of illness,
50 that the gunman Will not
| be hanged or jailed at all, but
sent to a comfortable hospital instead
where more experts, aided by staff
| of handsome nurses, will proceed to
cure him.
! That these experts are bogus goes
without saying. Some Of them, to
/ be sure, are earnest and honest, but
they remain bogus none the less, just
as chiropractor is bogus, though he
NAV believe in his own magic. There
| is, in point Of fact, no evidence what
ever that any known course Of med
/ ical treatment can cure a criminal Of
| his evil ways, or even abate ms
symptoms Nor is there any evidence
that what is the matter with him car
be described medically, in terms com
prehensible to rational pathologlst
The literature Of the subject is simpl,
hollow word-chopping, and the great
discoveries Of its authors have no more
logical validity than Science and
Health"
| The one sure cure for the profes-
sional criminal is the rope. Once II
mas been applied to his neck, his
days Of preying upon his betters are
over, and the cops have accomplished