DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 55, 27 May 1927, Page 14

DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT (Copyright, 1927.) JpTENB.Y FORD the other day brought up again the question ot capital punishment. He is opposed to It because nobody is willing himself to kill a man. He also thinks that killing certainly does the ma,n no good. It doesn’t reform him, and he doubts whether it does society any good. When a man reaches the point where he wants to kill another man he doesn’t care whether he himself gets killed. This thing of inflicting the extreme penalty upon a naan is a practical one. It is not based upon consideration for the man, but upon regard for society. It is supposed to deter others from serious crimes. Opponents of capital punishment say that as a matter of deterrent it .does no good. They bring statistics to support this argument and claim that the more sea-ere punishments are the wider is the spread of crime. Those in favour of capital punishment deny this. About the worst thing that could happen to most men is to lose life People who am afraid of nothing else fear death. Iu its effort to protect human life, society uses the old argument of fear and claims that people will be prevented from killing others best of all by being in danger of being killed themselves. It is all a piece with the whole fear argument. Time was when men were supposed to be made better by the fear of hell and youth is supposed to be kept iu check by the fear of their evil deeds in later life. Both of these motives are insufficient. People are ■willing to take a risk for the sake of the fun or profit involved; in fact, people risk their lives more willingly than anything else. A man will risk his life where he will not risk his property. Thousands of people In France rushed gaily to the Army to risk their lives, but it was very hard to get them to come forward to risk their property to save the falling franc. If we want to stop crime the thing to do Is to remedy the conditions that make crime and not merely indulge in the vengeance of killing. Killing is vengeance only. It is not punishment. The argument against imprisonment for life has its chief support in the fact that by and by the prisoner will be pardoned by the Governor. Take this rardoninj power away from the Governor for the present and lodge it in a board and relieve the Governor of the pressure that is brought on him to issue pardons In this way imprisonment for life will be made surer and one will not receive a pardon unless he is properly entitled to it.