Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 November 1887 — PENALTIES FOR CRIME. [ARTICLE]

PENALTIES FOR CRIME.

The Peapie Getting Awfully Tired of the Present State of Things. Indianapolis Sentinel. We are looking around for reasons why mobs bang people. One reason is our courts and juries. They look leniently upon the taking of human life; but touch property and the whole country ..ionfbused:' 7Tb’ itthstrate, last week a prisoner was taken from Logansport to Michigan City. He was sentenced for two years On the same day a prisoner arrived from this' county. He was sent for seven "years. The two year prisoner killed a man! The seven year prisoner stole a horse! People tire of these things; and occasionally they rise up in rebelion, and do rash things, Two years for taking a human life—seven years for taking a horse! Stop and think of it honorable judges! Ponder over it members of juries! Express opinions on it members of the press!—Lafayete Sundav Leader. The facts stated by the Leader disclose nothing peculiar in Indiana; they apply to equal force to all the States. They indicate a condition of things well calculated to arouse the people. It is of the hightest importance that people should think well of courts—of judges. It is a calamity of no ordinary character, when people doubt the integenty of courts —their efficiency. The slightest deviation of judges from the people’s conception of right, justice, equity, imperils social order, furnishes texts for Anarchists, and is fruitful of tumult; such things degrade law , disgrace courts, and bring the machinery of the law into contempt. Under such circumstances men are required to investigate very little to find the reason why—for mobs, for lynch law, for acts which are said to disgrace countries, States and intire sections of the country. A man is indicted for murder. There is no question about the facts. Following the crime we read blood curdling accounts of its perpetration. Then there is, probably—escape. Rewards are offered, detectives are put on the track of the murderer; arrests sometimes result, and then comes the trial. Note the defense, count the loopholes ih the law, look at the array of lawyers, observe the technicalities that are brought forward, listen to th r orations—the charge of the judge. • This done the jury is usually so befogged that it can scarcely discover between right anc wrong, and all too often the verdict it “not guilty;” or the penalty is so light that the culprit goes to the penitentiary impressed with the idea that he was rightin killing hisman. Not so with the horse thief—prove that he stole the horse and up he goes for a term of years well calculated to impress upon bis mind that stealing horses is a perilous and unpopular business. There are few loopholes in the law for him—few available technicalities, oratory is of little avail. The charge of the judge is clear and concise, and the verdict at once settles the question. „ The people are getting awfully tired of this sort of a thing, and a speedy remedy is requited. Bouquets and. slush when a man is guilty of mtirder have had their day. Weak sentimentality is out of order. Society, ought to take notice of these things. Killing men ,is a worse crime than stealing horses. The penalty should be more severesuch is the verdict of the people. ... Many western farmers report that than when sold at present prices. Some claim that they have made, a dollar’s worth alpprk from a-bushel of wheat