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M ARCH,

190 6

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Resist Not Evil

DISCUSSION of this much lauded but little practiced precept at this time is peculiarly fitting. During the past two or three years there has been sweeping over this country a great wave of reform effort by means of arrest and the enforcement of penalties under the statutes, intended to prevent wrong doing by making men afraid to do wrong.

The results are too apparent to escape the notice of any observer of events. Crime and disregard for law have increased at an alarming rate and there is more open and violent defiance of official authority than ever before, while there is a general cry going up from the courts that juries will not convict lawbreakers even in the face of the most convincing evidence. In Kansas the prosecuting attorneys in many cases have become disgusted and dismissed the suits brought against "joint" keepers because they faild to secure convictions before the juries. The men composing the juries have in some instances openly said, "You attempt to curtail our libery by force, and we will not punish those who defy your power."

In Kansas City we have found it necessary to turn loose scores of law-breakers simply because our prisons are already full to overflowing. All this furnishes an object lesson that cannot be ignored.

In cold weather there is a large class of poor creatures called men and women who seek to get into jail

because there they get food, shelter and a bed to sleep in. A man was passing along one of our streets one very cold day when he deliberately picked up a stone and threw it through a large plate glass front in one of the business houses. When brought before the police magistrate he was asked why he did it. "Because," he said, "I was cold and hungry and without money and could not find work. I wanted to get into jail for a term that would tide me over till warm weather." The shame and disgrace of it faded out in the dark shadow of starvation and destitution.

Coercion will not reform any man. Severe penalties will not deter those who are murderers and thieves at heart. It was once thought that making a public spectacle of hangings would have an influence for good, help to lessen crime. But it was soon discovered that the influence was just the opposite from that intended; murderous deeds were multiplied by it. So now hangings are made as private as possible. But the newspapers describe it all in detail and the effect is bad.

Recently the body of a young woman was found in the woods near this city with evidences of carbolic acid as the cause of de th. The newspapers gave all the particulars repeatedly and very graphically. Since then, only about three months ago, not fewer than a score of similar cases of murder or suicide by the use of carbolic acid have been announced, although it is one of the most horrible and painful means of death that could be employed.

Thus are the weak points in the public mentality swayed and controlled by suggestion. So long as the prevalent tone of the literature we bring into our homes, offices and shops is defiled with recitals of foul deeds and cruel penalties, we cannot escape a most lamentable increase of such things. It is a potent sug

gestion in the wrong direction.

The importance of magnifying positive good instead of condemning and attempting to punish negative wrong, becomes more and more apparent as we advance in intelligence and independence of thought. The more men and women think for themselves, the more do they rebel against incursions upon their personal liberties and the use of compulsory measures to induce them to do good.

There is no contention here that men ought to pull contrary to penal statutes intended to regulate conduct; we only suggest that it is a fact that there is such a tendency innate in mankind, and that it is therefore imperative that we adopt some other remedial system.

We need not argue that severity of extraneous penalty does not diminish the prevalence of crime. This must now be admitted by all. The lesson has been forced upon us by the observed course of events. We do not whip children in school any more, and not often in our homes. Yet we know that children are better than they were under the old regime and order and healthy discipline much improved.

While it must be admitted that fear of punishment never made anyone better and that enforced vengence of the law never did reform a depraved life or cleanse a corrupt heart, yet it is believed by many people that we are not yet ready to dispense with even the extreme penalty. The present Governor of the state of Kansas voices the sentiment of a large and rapidly increasing number of intelligent people when he says that the death penalty under our laws is barbarous, wicked and indefensible, that no civilized community should tolerate it for a day. In that great state there are no legal hangings. The law provides that when anyone is found guilty of a capital crime he may be sentenced to incarceration in the penitentiary for a year and a

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