| Show CRIME AND CRIMINALS S Address by Rev P S Thachcr Before Unitarian Society Crime and Criminals was the subJect sub-Ject of Interesting sermon by the Rev Philip S Thacher of the First Unitarian society yesterday The sermon ser-mon was suggested by the recent events In connection with the Hay murder case and was an arraignment on the conditions of society which foster crime Capital punishment was dp crIed as being Inadequate as a deter rQiit and reform methods were advocated advo-cated This community has been profoundly chocked by a foul and atrocious murder mur-der said Mr Tlmcher In part TSome nave leaped to the conclusion that the suspected IB the guilty man Circumstances Circum-stances are against him but as evory man Is plesl med to he limocent until proved guilty fair play demands that we suspend judgment Innocent men have not only been executed on clr cumslanllal evidence but there have been cases In which the evidence seemed so Irrefutable that Innocent men have believed themselves guilty and have confessed to crimes committed commit-ted by others It Is hinted that some of our citi zcns In their righteous Indignation have advocated lynching This design It carried out would make each participant par-ticipant a murderer Taking the law Into ones own hands Is eo great an evil and excites such destrucllvc passions pas-sions that it should be frowned upyn by all who love good order Mob law deranges C the community and brings gcod government Into disgrace A desire de-sire to punish criminals has turned saints Into demons and Is fraught with poslbllllics of ruin to society What or who Is responsible for I criminals Parents who allow their children to drift Into aimless living the brutalizing effects of war the insane In-sane desire for money the low estimate theology puts on human nature the dogma of the forgiveness of Bin drunkenness overcrowded rookeries where every feeling pf decency Is extinguished ex-tinguished want of labor the mistakes of honest men strikes and the evil counsels of halfInstructed agitators the wear and tear of a struggle In which employers and employed are trying try-ing the solution of problems not yet solved These and a hundred other causes thrust people tottering on the verge over Into tho abyss of crime What are the remediesV Begin with children Only 4 per cent of those who have been dpfeently educated ever become be-come criminals To expect from thoatj vlio are ieared In Ignorance anything clue but crime Is as absurd as to expect to reap wheat from our slreels whore tho plough has never gone and no seed planted Keep the children diligent and you will keep them honest Prevent criminals from propagating their kind They have no right to rear wild men and women No fourfooted animal Is so dangerous as that animal which unites the uncultivated Intellect of a man to the uncontrollable passions of nbC n-bC si Protect the boys from the men fiends who prowl about the streets setting traps to catch the unwary and who lure them into those little plllccs oti I hell scattered along Commercial street These resorts are more deadly than smallpox Each one Is I a center of contagion con-tagion ever In activity of contiiglon which stas with certainly recovery from 11 being almost hopeless Reform criminals Here we have wild and ferocious animals caged because be-cause too dangerous to ho at large and then when their appeille for crime has j been whetted Instead of keeping them caged until lamed we turn them loose rather worrfe than before I Let prisoners have Fome form of labor la-bor by Which they can support those they have injured To make them goodWill good-Will cost something but not so much as to keep them bad or make them worse Crime Is a most expensive luxury lux-ury Capital punishment Is not a deterrent deter-rent When there were over 200 offenses of-fenses for which people were hung the penalty did not deter others Death I does not reform the criminal You simply kill him which Is like curing a manvs toothache by 1 culling his head off The potent element In a deterrent punishment hi Us certainty Hanging Is the most uncertain of penalties Treat criminals not upon the lowest but upon the highest platform of human hu-man feeling Then you will help them toward grander conquests of themselves them-selves In the worst heart some lovely grace Is found like a flower In the desert |
