JANUARY 1, 1913 



33 



THE KiaHTFULNESS OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 



As I write these words, Sept. 23, preparations 

 are being made in Charlestown, Mass., for the 

 execution, by electricity, of the third man, in the 

 same chair, in the space of just four months. The 

 first was Rev. Mr. Richeson, who ruined » girl 

 in his flock and then induced her to swallow a 

 capsule filled with cyanide of potassium. He was 

 executed May 22, after a full confession, "for 

 Jesus' sake," as he put it. 



A week ago a Mr. Spencer was executed in 

 the same chair for playfully shooting a lady 

 schoolteacher when trying to rob her of her money. 



The case under way is that of Mr. Chester Jor- 

 dan, of Springfield, Mass., who murdered his wife 

 and cut her body to pieces as did Mr. Crippen, the 

 Detroit dentist, in London. 



The case of Mr. Beatty, of Richmond, Va., who 

 shot his wife while she was in his automobile, a 

 year ago, and for which he was executed on the 

 24th of last November, is still fresh in our minds. 



This whole business is sad indeed; but some 

 seem to see no sadness in it except the ending. The 

 sadness is in the thought that the three men first 

 mentioned, and probably all five, singularly gifted, 

 mentally and physically, should have been so des- 

 titute of all moral perception as to choose delib- 

 erately a course of action which they knew would 

 haunt them to the grave, even without detection, 

 but which, after all, they knew they could not 

 escape. These men had it in their power to make 

 their names honored for all time as did the late 

 Wm. Booth, of the Salvation Army ; but instead 

 they shook a dead tree to get the apples of pleas- 

 ure, and pulled down on their own heads the 

 fire of Sodom. In each of the five cases the mat- 

 ter was rendered many times worse by the fact 

 that the victim was a helpless woman ; lor, bad 

 as is the murder of a man by anybody, the sand- 

 bagging and shooting of a woman is the limit so far 

 as depravity is concerned. 



During the late campaign some literature was 

 sent out here, arguing against the execution of 

 such artists in human slaughter as I have men- 

 tioned. I am glad the law will stay as it is. Statis- 

 tics in such cases prove nothing by saying that 

 Michigan has no executions and only a few mur- 

 ders, \\ ..lie Ohio has more. A difference in nation- 

 ality would account for all that. Cleveland has 

 a foreign population of fully 400,000 and Cincin- 

 nati about 250,000, while Toledo, Columbus, Day- 

 ton, Youngstown, and Akron would run the num- 

 ber up to all of Michigan's population, the latter 

 being composed largely of the most progressive 

 people from the eastern part of the country. But 

 even the Michigan law does not prevent murder 

 there. 



Unless we know how many men have checked 

 a murderous thought when • possible rope has 

 dangled before their eyes we can not decide those 

 questions by statistics; but it is easier to believe 

 that a man will refrain from murder if he knows 

 he will probably be hanged tor it, than to sup- 

 pose he will abstain from it with only a peni- 

 tentiary sentence back of him and a probable early 

 pardon. 



The rightfulness of inflicting death by law is 

 questioned. That depends on our standard of right. 

 I assume it to be the Mosaic code. Alfred the 

 Great, a thousand years ago, made the 20th, 21st, 

 and 22d chapters of the book of Exodus the basis 

 of common law in England, and it has been so 

 regarded since that time; and that basis is also 

 the standard of law in the United States. As a 

 clear conclusion from that law, or a comment on 

 it, we read in Numbers, "If he smite him with 

 an instrument of iron, that he die, he is a mur- 

 derer; the murderer shall surely be put to death." 

 That law was nowhere deprecated by Jesus Christ, 

 nor does it antagonize his doctrine. He came to 



preach to men as individuals ; but he left society, 

 organized under law, to bring down its own tre- 

 mendous malediction on those who take human 

 life when in the commission of crime. 



Of course, some murderers should not be exe- 

 cuted. If it could be proved positively that the 

 present incumbent of our jail slew his wife, his 

 apparent mental condition would seem to call 

 more for confinement than rope ; or when men get 

 into a row over a line fence, or several engage 

 in a wholesale carving rumpus, and one gets laid 

 out, it is impossible to say who is wholly to blame. 

 But when we consider such midnight assassina- 

 tions as that of the Coy family here, and the 

 devilish cruelty of Blinky Morgan and his gang 

 as he held Marshal Prazier up here, in December, 

 1886, wliile the villains blew up our county treas- 

 ury, and afterward shot the policeman dead, near 

 Ravenna (for which he was hanged), the subject 

 of mercy ceases to be mercy when dealt out to 

 those who never showed any, and despised it when 

 they saw it. As it is, only about one murderer in 

 eighty is put to death in this country, as our 

 criminal courts are so defective in their operation — 

 vastly inferior to those in England. 



Still, I am greatly opposed to capital punish- 

 ment ; but I am not so much opposed to it as I 

 am to the cause and necessity of it ; and it can 

 be done away with, with neatness and despatch, as 

 soon as we get the consent of the gentlemen sirs 

 the murderers themselves. W. P. Root. 



As if to add emphasis to the communica- 

 tions above, the papers tell us that Shrank, 

 the would-be assassin of Mr. Roosevelt, 

 followed hiiu from New York to Milwau- 

 kee, through about ten States, in order to 

 do the deed in a Stale where capital pun- 

 ishment is not inflicted. This shows con- 

 clusively how such men reason. 



"PEOFITS^-" AND '"''DOLLARS." 

 Dear Friend: — To me Gleanings is one of the 

 best journals I ever read, taking it from cover 

 to cover. To my mind I never read its equal. I am 

 68 years of age ; 52 years of that time I may say 

 I have been a member of the Methodist Church, in 

 good standing, so you see I can take great pleasure 

 in your Home talks. 



In the issue for Oct. 15 there is considerable 

 attention given to temperance. In it and other 

 issues you combat earnestly the evils of intem- 

 perance, but you seem to me to wrestle with the 

 effect, instead of the cause, of that unnamable evil. 

 I am not going to lecture you, for I am not 

 able, because I believe you are doing your part 

 to keep the light of truth and humanity burning 

 on the altar. 



1. What would happen if congress and the legis- 

 latures would pass laws to prevent any profit being 

 made out of the liquor business, tobacco business, 

 or any other evil business ? 



2. How many people would engage in those vile 

 businesses, if there were no dollars to be made 

 out of them f 



Nelson, B. C, Oct. 27. GEOEaB Fleming. 



My good friend, I thank you for youl 

 kind words; and my opinion of the points 

 you make, 1 and 2, is that you are exactly 

 right. But what are we going to do? How 

 can one consistently vote for Chafin after 

 his unkind and unchristianlike fling at the 

 Anti-saloon League because they have hap- 

 pened to ditfer with him in regard to meth- 



