Show r CRIME IE AND PUNISHMENT The most frequent comment we hear about the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby is that hanging is too good for the perpetrators of this heartless tal crime We Ve are inclined to agree not only in this instance but butin in general that our present m methods methods meth meth- of punishment for crime clime are too good for forr the crimin crimin- als also We Ve have tried being tenderhearted tenderhearted tenderhearted ten ten- hearted der-hearted with criminals for fora a good many years in most parts of the country country- The net result is an enormous increase in crime overcrowded prisons conducted at heavy cost to the taxpayers and the belief of of every smart crook that tin lif non Pirn hf nf 1 t l' l on n if lio hp nn hT j i i 5 5 o I d i 1 j t I 1 I I a v a. get gets a lawyer sm smart rt enough to find the loopholes in the law Ve have carried to the limit of absurdity the principle that it it is better for a thousand I f guilty men to escape punishment punish- punish I i ment than for one innocent man to b be convicted Certain facts seem to us in jn- controvertible One is that the death is iR no deterrent of murder where it is not promptly and certainly j 1 jed cd Another is that imprisonment imprisonment imprison- imprison ment does not reform criminals nor the fear of it frighten them Other methods of punish ment other means of preventing preventing prevent prevent- ing ring crime must be discovered and applied J Let soc sociologists deal with j i the causes of crime the in- in 1 that make criminals out lout of boys But let us all take I a practical sense common-sense view lof 1 of the punishment for crime J At all cost let us back up tip our law-enforcement law agencies let us clear the statute books j lof of the laws which protect the i i f criminal let Jet us speed up our criminal trials and place menon men menon on the bench who will show no mercy to those who deserve t none and then let us consider l whether the old fashioned J j whipping post the stocks and j l the pillory which held the coill con con- 1 criminal up to public dis dis- f r grace fgrace and shame may not clot be j las las as effective deterrents of crime as the gallows the electric elec elec- chair or the penitentiary The outstanding characteristic character character- of the mo modern ern criminal I gangster is his vanity Destroy that and you have destroyed his chief incentive for crime Two Gun Crowley went to the electric chair a hero in his own eyes and in those of his minded child admirers Gerald Chapman murderer is a figure fig fig- ui ure e of greatness among youthful youth youth- ful fur crooks because he ate smiled when the trap was s sprung V Would crime seem heroic cr criminals crim crim- im- im finals heroes if Crowley had been flogged in public an and Chapman exposed to public contempt in the stocks We Ve think not We Ve think that t punishments pun- pun to be effective should be so that dread of their disgrace will deter even evert the most hardened u |