The Washington times., 1938-06-07
Financing the Kidnaper

the Editor which the New York Times published last
Saturday.
That letter carried punch which entities it to editorial
space this and every other newspaper in the United
States.
Here's what he has to say about curling national
ANY medical surgeon will tell you that the only
way to heal is to remove the primary cause of
trouble That makes and far as the trouble can
be remedied or eliminated it works But compromise
fails.
The primary of kidnapping is the encouragement
of criminal greed The kdnaper believes that his victim
will produce his kind of profit He has other motive
We have accepted as people, the theory that the
victims parents peculiarly entitled to follow their own
devices in saving their child We have gone far to
permit parents to set aside all methods of pursuit. cap
E,op,, coconJ,o Dolov ture, conviction and punish
00HS 00'O''" "0 ment, while they seek contact
COOLS the FRAU with the kidnaper and the re-
capture of their child by purchase We have forgotten
that every second of delay in pursuit coo the trail and in
creases the chances of escape for the criminal We have
forgotten that paying financing the criminal
he can get away with the money to kdnap the children
of other parents The precise situation is that all other
homes are menaced by the liberty of the kdnaper from
one home.
There are 100000 of u.s. AS one of group among
those 100 100000 have right to the protection of the
law and all its agencies against whoever might kldnap
my 6yearod grandson The first duty of the agencies
of the law to take the hot trail and catch that hdnaper
so that my grandson and the children of all other Amer
leans may be SAFE Any delay in pursuit, any lack OF
vgor in search any lenency in punishment as warning
to others, is direct peril to my grandson and to the
children of those who read this.
The revival of kidnapping the tragic fate of victim
and at the moment the dreadful fear to the other
phasze the necessity of removing all distractions all
delays at once and only of capturing kdnapers but
of rounding up all who might enter that cowardly pro-
feson of the underworld and placing them under such
surveillance or restrictions may be necessary to keep
them from going ahead
Anything less than that will be surrender to the most
despcabe of the criminal element Even it will be
entering into partnership with crime for the expression
Becomes Accessory on sS"pA'nS l." oil '"o''l00"'
AIIeT Me ACT Obstructng justice is OBJ
structing justice however sympathy may plead
cepion. Financing crime is financing crime and en-
abng kdnaper cool his trail and increase the chances
against successful pursuit and capture is clearly and in
the language of the law becoming accessory after the
act to the crime itself Nobody wants to prosecute the
parent of kidnapped child accessory to the crime
and yet that is precisely what such parent becomes
with the consent and approval of the agencies of justice
and with complete sympathy from the whole people.
If this seems harsh, consider the outcry against vacc
nation by parents who objected. Think back few
years and recall the outraged senbtes of groups from
which member isolated because of smallpox. But
because individuals allowed to set aside meas
of safety for the people whole, smallpox has
been all but eliminated and is no longer a national
menace Vaccination is as compulsory as education,
and quarantine permits individual objection to keep
the red yellow health sign from being tackled the
door Of stricken home for the protection of Others
yield to in sympathy for the parents of kid
mapped children. But maintain that obstructng pur-
suit will remove the menace of KIDNAPPING and
providing cold trail with remote chance of
We Must Be escaping w''h tne ransom
money will encourage So
Our Brothers Keeper cial nervpr+s 70 take q
chance. The method permitted the basis of SYM
pathy for the victim dsregard the greater menace to
society ITSELF To put all children in peril by delaying
capture and punishment of the kdnaper of one child
4. b i+ude We