The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-05-01
THE GALLONS

"Yea, in His name who bade the
 erring live, 4
 And daily taught His lesson to
 forgivel
 Twisted the cord and edged the
 murderous steel;
 And, with His words of mercy
 on their lips,
 Hung gloatingly OCT the pinc-
 CTS burning grips,
 And the grim horror of the
 straining wheel;
 Fed the slow flame which gnawed
 the victims limb.
 Who saw before his soaring eye
 ball swim
 The image of their Christ in cruel
 Through the black torment
 smoke, held mockingly to him."
 John dreenleaf Whittier.
 George W. P. Hunt, half dozen times governor of Arizona, Q man with as big a heart as state exec- utive ever had, one of that states early pioneers-Arizona's Grand old Man, said of capital punish- ment: Tt is evident that the pur- pose of punishment is two-fold. It devolves upon the state, firstly to attempt to reform the offend- CT, so far as reformation is possi- ble, and secondly, to create by the application of punishment devoid of brutality, but nevertheless plainly correctional, such an ex- ample as will prove prolonged and not merely ephemeral illus- tration of the direful fate which inevitably must overtake the Crim- inal."
 Life Imprisonment the Answer By such e plan," said Governor Hunt, society is enabled to per- form its duty towards its individ- ual members, and at the same time provide itself with the safe- guards necessary to it's permanent well being.
 "As Q means to such an end life Imprisonment, or at least such terms of Imprisonment as will impose definite and certain penalties for the crime of murder can be sustained by several argu- ments for every one that is er- roneously propounded in defense of capital punishment. Under such a system of penology every opportunity is afforded for the rec formation of the offender; while, 50 long as he is confined within prison walls, he is living evidence of the truth that the way of the transgressor is hard. Although his punishment is not consumated in legalized murder, 1t involves such definite servitude as will in- press upon the prisoner himself and upon all other people the se- riousness of going wrong.
 "In the meantime the convict's labor Is being given to the state, whereas a dead man has no value. As 6 practical measure, a long term of Imprisonment is shown by statistics to serve better than capital punishment for the pre- yention of homicide. It sets at rest, furthermore, all qualms of conscience and all well-founded scruples as to the right and wrong of punishing murder with murder in violation of the tenets of ord- mary normality and of the Chris tian faith. It should provide, with adequate legislation as an aux ilary, for absolute certainty of punishment for the crime of mur- der.
 Rich Escape Death Penalty
 "rhis point is more important than most people would readily suspect, since the records of the different states of the union show conclusively that for every fifty- seven homicides there is only one iniiiction of the death penalty, a fact which may be partially at tributed to the horror inspired by legal executions and the reluct- arlce of jurieB to prescribe the capital punishment.
 If the offender be rich and powerful he is likely to escape punishment altogether, or to be turned loose after Q few years of penal servitude. If he is neither rich nor powerful, but still man of some reputation and has friends to intercede in his behalf he may obtain a light sentence or be pardoned by an executive amenable to external influence. It is very seldom that Q man pos- sessed of either wealth or repu-