1908.J OF THE DEATH PENALTY BY ELECTRICITY. 49 



ment of the case. Our administration of justice has degenerated 

 into a sort of " rose-water penolog}^" Its demoralizing effect upon 

 the community is manifested by the rapid increase of crimes of 

 violence among juveniles, so ready to imitate and emulate their 

 seniors in crime. We have become too much accustomed to failure 

 of justice in murder cases. This blot upon our civilization is largely 

 the outcome of our indifference to the way many criminal courts 

 are conducted. Certain magistrates make a farce out of serious 

 business, lawyers wrangle with each other unchecked, witnesses are 

 brow-beaten and bribery and corruption of political complexion 

 degrade the proceedings to the level of a saloon or gambling-den 

 or a policy-shop rather than a court of law. 



The explanation is sometimes given that " hard times " influence 

 this appalling increase of crime. That this is not so can be readily 

 shown by reference to statistics. I would rather point to the moral 

 deterioration indicated by the manner in which large sums of money 

 are stolen or used for bribery and corruption and the luxury and 

 reckless extravagance with which some wealthy persons (who ought 

 to be in the penitentiary) offend the decent class of our population. 

 Add to this the manner in which the newspapers set forth the 

 details of brutal crimes and breed familiarity with thoughts of crime. 



Society has relaxed too much. The death penalty is a necessity 

 and must not be abolished, else all discipline of society will be relin- 

 quished. Though society " revolts at the old religious dogma of the 

 retribution of hell, the church still retains it as essential in its terrible 

 dissuading appeal to the imagination of men" {New York Sun). 

 Let us, therefore, in our penology, adhere to what the test of time 

 has proven to be an efficient check if only it be carried out as has 

 been done in Germany and Great Britain. 



Jefferson ^Medical College, 

 Philadelphia. 



