A Magnificent Plea

For over ui hour recently, Gen. Xewton M .Curtis, the lïero of Fort Fisluer and represemtative In oongress from tóe Adirondack district of New York, talked to bath. houses in Ileprwu-ntaitive hall, DaMing, against the enaebmeet of a capital punishment law. It is a subject to which Gen. Curtis had given ïnainy yearg o{ study antí investigation and there were few of his listeners who would have recog nized in his temperante wo-rdfl and in hris plea lor the creatioia of a liigher respect for the eacredness of human life, tluose of the soldier who led what bas beei. called the bloodiest assault of the war - the capture of Fort Fisher. ' Gen Cartas answered wit-h tfficial data all of the sbock arguments of aid-oca,tes of capital puaiMiment. The records of soutliern states, where lynehings are not infrequent, prove, lie sadd, tbat tlio death penalty is mat a deterront to murder. Notwithstan-diug the lynchings the murder iiate is higlicr in these states than whiere lynchings are unknown. The murder rate lua-s almost invariably decreased in sfcates and countries whiere tlie death penalty has either been abolished entirely or where it Is inflicted but rarely. It is au incontrovertible f act that a convictioo for murder can be more certainly bccured in jMDii-oapftal statee than where a capital punishmen't law exists. Gen. Curtis epoke oí the late Col. John E. Fellows, oí New York, who after ba-ving been a conspicuous criminal lawyer ïor 25 years was elected district attorney of New York county, and after a few years as a prosecutor deeïared that the capital punLshmènt law was a failure. He said tlnat mev. oan no more be made good by tbreatening tliem with capital pundsliimeat than eo.Miers can be made to flghit bravely by threats. He cemeidered the effecta of the death penalty durimg the war, whiern a soldier was shot for a crime agatnst the military laws, ït brought upom. his comrades a spirit of moroseness and suileniness that was derogatory to good discipline. He has s ince found tlüs etfect to have been the same ia times of peace. DOESNT EEDÜCE MURDERS. There are no statlstics that the inCictiion of the deabh pomalty ever red'uoed the murder rate, while statisúes collected by the secretary of state's deii'artment at Washington slïow that ia every country In Europe aiwl Americfl the rate has deereased im proportion as the death penalty fe relaxed. As to the clamor for the death penalty because of numerous murders ín large cities it Is n'ot based on reason, for all official reports show tbat In proportion to the populati'OTL there are 10 times as many murders ín the country distríets as ín the great cities.