The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923, February 28, 1913, Page 6, Image 6
w Vf7? ! 6 I God. DoeH society tako u young prisoner, hand cuffed tind gtlurdod from a modern penitentiary of comont, Htono and armor plato tako him ou I upon tho gallows and hang him until ho is dead for self-dofonso? To kill a man over-powered and harmless is not an act of self-defense for oithor a citlzon or a atato, but is an act of un restrained power directed by revenge rather than reason. What man would be permitted to kill his noighbor bocauHo bin neighbor was excitable, high tempered and In tho habit of getting drunk, on tho theory that his noighbor might kill some body and possibly tho accused? Such conduct la not aef defense, but a mero problematical BUbtorfugo. Jb it logical to voto to death a prisoner on such a theory of national self de fense wlion tho guilty one can In kept secure? Tho pretended excuse that a man might gain his freedom and kill somo ono, a mero specula tion, 1b not a solf-dofonso Justification. It would r, not bo oxtending this peculiar logic to eugago phrenologists to go out in soarch of children with doBtructivo tendencies and put them to doath on tho aamo theory of self defonso or to hang all drunkards. Tho state is not obliged, in fact, to kill for solf dofonse (lie stato is too groat and powerful to bo compelled to resort to killing for such an excuso in a time of peace and quiot such as wo are now enjoying. I can conceive of a case, possibly several whoro capital punishment by the state for self defonso is necessary and may bo inflicted. A bold political criminal; ono who murders to win; who has tho following of a' Napoleon; who has tho criminal heart of a Borgia; who, -when convicted of a murder would be liberated by his criminal adherents; and who, when liberated would go on poisoning and killing others. De ploring capital punishment as wo must, yet as a principle of solf defense wo may be obliged to tolerate and use it in such a case if it over arises. On tho same principle as Individuals we be llovo in killing If it Is necessary io prevent be ing killed. What individual would hesitate to shoot if a burglar was crawling in his bed room window with a pistol In oach hand and a knife in his tooth? This illustration is mentioned as an oxcoptlon under tho rulo of self preserva tion. A few years ago I copied from the paper a raoro hoadlino for comment in this connection: "Ono Hundred Sovonty-six Peoplo Attempt Suicido In Omaha During Past Year. Of these thirty-throo succeeded whilo 142 wore saved and very glad of it." One hundred forty-two saved and "glad of it!" If wo should have hung these 142 roscuod or ignominously cursed and tarred and foatherod and burned them in oil, for cx amplo, -would that havo kept others from at tempting suicide? No, when they attempt it thoy expect to succeed and would adopt surer methods. Such punishment of suicides involv ing painful death would suggest and ropeat sug gestions of destruction and increase suicido from now rocruits rendered morbid by disappointment op griof. If moh kill themselves under press ing distress which sprouts a germ thought of Buicido for escapo, why would not a greater number bo drivon to kill others from similar development of murder and execution talk? This weaknoss of mind this homicidal mania would bo stimulated by tho thoughts of mur der in others. If attomptod suicides were punished with painful and prolonged death out of 17 G attempts, it would havo been chronicled nearer a hundred instead of 33 that succeeded Lynchings aro fair illustrations of where public executions causo more murdorB by ex ample. In countries whore men aro hanged by tho state, hanging is the usual mothod of tho lyimliors; thoy follow example. Where behead ing is tho penalty the stillotto and knlfo is the weapon of tho mob. Whore shooting is the penalty tho mob usually is content with tho bullet. No ono will deny that executions causo lynchings and more murdors by mero suKtres tions. This principle is recognized in a mild way in every household whoro parents Instinc tively (rogardloss of tho Ladies Homo JourmVn know bettor than even talk of evil to their cull dren because the suggestion on a subject of evil causes deeper thoughts on tho conversation ami thoughts so fertilized develop actions in them What is true in most children is bound to effect some grown people tho samo as children. Men aro lynched by mobs because states have here tofore boen teaching that in certain cases in ought to bo killed Tho mob tlUnks it Sas n its midst ono of the most aggravated cases for" audi a penalty. They aro not taught to hi shocked at taking human life but rather to dn mand ono occasonally for the good of the coin" The Commoner try. Tho pooplo havo not fully outgrown tho witch hanging days of a few years ago. Lord Eldon expressed himself In the nineteenth cen tury with fear of disaster If England repealed tho death penalty for stealing five shillings. Executions unquestionably have a tendency to brutalize tho minds of men and cause them to put a price upon human life and feel a license to tako it away. If tho state hires men to .slaughter human prisoners furnished by juries loft to Inherited prejudices, what may wo expect of citizens of such a government? When men aro burning and bursting with passion or rage; when nothing but a life, in a country of cheap estimation of life, stands in tho way of success, men think of killing because killing is mado so natural to think of. Picture after pic ture of vivid executions aro impressed upon tho mind to suggest themselves at every supposed emergency, by this great composite hypnotic operator public opinion. It is thoreforo natural for these germ thoughts planted by tho stato's suggestion to burst out and overshadow other thoughts until a citizen takes a life for a capital or towering, monumental offense against himself, a private citizen as ho has seen his government do with its offenders. An execu tion is not only of no value to prevent others from killing, but on tho other hand experience shows it has the opposite effect. If an execu tion is ordered to deter others, the public should know of it not by reading but by seeing it as they did in olden times. But the awful effect upon the peoplo has boen so marked that nearly every stato in the union has compelled execu tions to bo in private ultra private enclosures. In this state, as well as many others, executions aro removed from the county of the crime to the penitentiary in an enclosure and in the presence of only half a dozen legal witnesses. We may perhaps seriously consider the fact of numerous penitentiary murders being in fluenced to some extent by the shocking- sug gestion of concentrated executions of the state in this institution. This removal of executions to the penitentiary to avoid the evil influence upon the general public is a terrible blow to old Henry VIII and his death carts; this is the death knell to tho sentiment of such scenes commemorated in tho masterpieces of art as beautiful women riding through tho jeering crowds to the headman's block. This conduct of the various states proves to every reasonable man that the state of Ne braska and many of her sister states have con cluded that tho example of public executions, that is the killing of people to deter others from killing, does not have the effect it was once thought to have had. It proves that tho example of public execution is bad for society instead of good. If it is bad to see, it is not good to read of. It therefore follows that the real benefit to society Is not to either see or read of an execution, and consequently, if pos sible, not havo one. This condition would pre vent its publication over the civilized world with all its damaging details. In the state of Michi gan, where tho death penalty is absolutely re pealed, I havo read that murders committed in numbers aro far below the murders of the states which havo the arbitrary penalty of death. It may be that tho state having ceased to play such a P?rt, aJ,J suggestion of death has made this marked difference yet tho details of executions recognizing no restraint in the boundary line of that state and creeping in from other states exerts much damaging influence. On tho question of suggestion as applicable to kings and rulers the old sultan of Turkey was somewhat sagacious. He censors the press so hStiS?nrepI? iS GV,er PublisHed in Turkey of the killing of a ruler. President McKinley's death was published there as resulting from in- thffe ?f v18 benefiC,al t0 suPP-e!s news of the killing of kings on account of suggestion it is in the same measure vastly more blneSclaf to prevent the killing of citizens by their govern ments for tho same reasons. govern- Tho other day I clipped from the papers the following dispatch which Is also in point- "Paris. July 13.-The prefect ofP police in Franco has forbidden the moving picture exhiw tlon of the exploits of the bandit Bonnet and" nfuband'.?n ffround that " would stimulate imitators." Comments of this kind aro con tinually being published. n For thousands of years executions have been tried and have failed in restraining crime Criminals have been hung upon the gibbet and in iron cages until their bodies havf shriveled or fallen to pieces or were devoured by caw ion birds, and the public was welcomed yea in vited and compelled to witness such executions VOLUME 13, NUMBER g and public spectacles to inspire them with awe and fear, and frighten them into becoming "law abiding citizens." But the purpose failed, utter ly failed, because these examples excited the peoplo and impressed deeds of destruction In the minds of the Individual, when jealousy, passion, disease and drunkenness always awaken theso thoughts of tho nation's .example of public punishment which they adopt upon impulse as private punishment. Henry VIII put to death 72,000 people dur ing his reign of twenty years, but each year crime increased. People "were hung for being witches, beggars, and vagabonds; for stealing sheep, game or fish and for stealing as low as 35 cents in money; for quitting the king's ser vice; for discussing how long tho queen would live; for trying to convert men to tho Roman Catholic religion and for about a hundred other offenses. Some of the mild forms of punishment gradu ated up to a resulting death were as follows: Plucking out eyes, cutting off the nose or lips, boiling and burning for heresy. China's most terrible slow death was -ten years' imprisonment without salt. There was the rack, skinning alive, quartering and disemboweling also the hitching of horses to the four extremeties and tearing men apart. If we had such punish ments now murderers would follow tho example of tho state and mutilate their victims as did the bandits of old. However, at the present time the plain, simple killing of the state satisfies the modern murderous citizen. Have not these droadful punishments had their influenco in private crime and was it not time for the legislature to open the question of the death penalty to juries and their reviewing bodies? Is it not a terrible truth that human life has been one of -the lightest baubles with which governments and subjects have ever played? And yet these horrible penalties havo failed in the purposo for which they wero in tended. Possibly while they serve to horrify some who never contemplate murder the sug gestion of death remind and set in motion pri vate motives of revenge in others which causes more murders than were ever prevented. In the light of the past will it help the state or nation to hang this fellow? Will it be another example of the little consequence of a human life? Will it continue to teach the false doctrine that death is a punishment and lead men in frenzies of anger to think of killing to get even? The hanging of one man will never stop an other who. kills in the heat of passion because he does not take time to think of the gallows. He is a victim of years of suggestion plus the inherited memory or tendency from the same Influences. What is responsible for so many murders in the heat of passion? These wild passions resulting in spasmodic murder are the harvests of wars, desires for abortions and capi tal punishment. Some impulses are planted by state sanctioned deaths from the earliest under standing of children and are watered and warmed m public schpols, on the public streets, in business places, and in the sanctity of homes. Heredity and suggestion on the part of the state has its influences in every murder and the more the state hangs and the nation wars the more the people will think of human destruc tion and the more murders we will have. Every year the dead letter office receives nearly tho same number of misdirected letters. L eiS percePy- Why do we have III iLe n,umber of absent-minded moments in tne lives of men and women who write letters? Irn,r!0t,kn.!!; neither d0 w know why tnero are also the same recurring number of S?nmvnf and S,UicIdal imPes in a given iSin ?ur?Cie.ty- " way appear that this of tlem G iS resPnslble 'w many HoSnnnIeS Ti of tbis generation some fhl ???- B0Uld, hf mado for the influence of mlnZ ??& CU8ed ?0Uld be made fr heredity, ?hi SSI influenceT-tue desire of the mother for as fami vU?il? f her Unborn son- As surely to tnln ,ftupes are transmitted from father landed dni ? tuoughts ias and practices 51 L ? t0 sons by ancestors who have Hke stocTfn TiarS AhaJ have bchered men studv tWWoSfaUghJ:ering pens Wo should nto5f cfara.Gtep o a murderer as we do the SSStSS midiIBeaBS; as we d0 fevers in our said thPr n? iiUSanlt7 in our asylums. It is S thSfl ?nr X T r ?rime as wel1 funded ness birth LSrilH11 ad tides' light an -Let uh Smiv ? ath en suicide and accident. nSnlBhmpnWS? man,T,llile be ls Siven civilized punishment and not follow a false doctrine and (Continued on Page 10.)