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I 1 Hon. Charles R. Miller, Gover nor of Delaware Who Tells Here How Whipping Prevents Crime. By Hon. Charles R. Miller, Governor of Delaware. D ELAWARE has Whipped crimi nals of certain types since 1656 and will continue to whip them until the statutes under which cor- J>oreaI punishment is Inflicted shall be repealed. Congress cannot, and certainly will not, interfere in the exercise of proper authority under the law, and nL f l hlpp ng post ,s a " integral Part of the criminal law of Delaware every law officer must consent to its use regardless of any personal views he may have in the matter. Hysteri cal women, weak men, bullies, cranks and blackguards in all parts of the country have written to me demand ing that I set aside the law and pro hibit whippings for crime in Dela ware. These good souls give no heed to the fact that the whippings are quite as legal in Delaware as im prisonment. Their demands amount to anarchy, so far as law enforce ment goes. They cry, “Down with the law!” without knowing whereof they speak. I want every criminal, every sharper and every moral leper to know that if he comes to Delaware andi violates the law he will not only serve a long term .in our none too comfortable jails, but that he will be whipped in public on his bare back before he enters his cell. I wish this fact could be spread to the uttermost corners of the country. Delaware wants no undesirable citizen This State offers nothing but the whip and the workhouse for the gunmen, white slavers, panders, highwaymen and common thieves which people the underworld of some of our larger cities and who seem to get a certain amount of applause for their more daring performances from the same type of people who demand that 1 shall set aside a fundamental law of my State and defy the decrees of our High Court. Delaware houses one-half of her population in the city of Wilmington. All the rest of the State is strictly rural. Our people are of the soil. They are typical farmers—plain, wholesome, God-fearing people who obey the law and who punish crime with severity. We have neither the means nor the machinery with which •to patrol our rural districts with armed officers. It follows, then, that we must have laws carrying severe penalties and rigidly enforce them. Half the people in Delaware south of Wilmington never lock their doors at night window fasteners are un common, and thought of burglars is totally absent from the minds of our people. Once in a long while some half-drunken loon will enter a house at night. When he is not kicked out as a mere intruder he is locked up, tried, convicted and whipped accord ing to law, and then locked up long enough to think it over himself and to deter all others from a like offense. Those who criticise the whipping post adversely overlook the fact that Delaware is the broad highway be tween four chief American cities. Our unthinking critics include those who do not know that time or the loss of time means nothing at all to a very large proportion of our A Defense of the Lash as a Crime Preventive and a Defiance to the “Sentimentalists” Who Would Abolish It population. A day. or a week, or a month, more or less, costs a low- grade negro nothing at all in oppor tunity or in money. The native ne groes of Delaware know their place and make no trouble. They are far above the average in habits and in intelligence, but we have a floating negro population which is definitely bad, and we must safeguard our peo ple, white and black, against those who come from all parts of the Short- country to the canneries, work a few weeks or months and then pass on, only to give place to another lot just as bad, or even worse. The negro with city habits is a worse proposition than the farm trained hand, who is usually law abiding and useful. Delaware can handle her own negroes with little or no force, but the passing throng of bad men needs attention, and they file by with eyes front on the whip ping posts. Cells mean nothing at all to such men, white or black. Delaware is absolutely free from all forms of white slavery. This par ticular form of crime is punished here without recourse to the Mann Act or aid from the Federal authori ties. Did the whipping post do naught else but keep cadets out. of Delaware it proves its eternal value here. In every other State in the Union in which there is a large city the white slave problem comes up with a degree of regularity. The same people who condemn the whip ping post wring their hands and won der what to do about the cadets and their wretched victims. Delaware answers, “Whip the cadet!” Years ago a gang of desperadoes undertook to rob a Wilmington bank. They tunneled under the building, and would have carried Off $500,000 in negotiable securities but for the suspicions of an alert watchman. They were arrested, and on trial paid one attorney* a very large fee solely to the end that they might be saved from the public whipping. The late great Chief Justice Ix>re sentenced them to long terms in prison and to the utmost limit of the law as to pillory and lashes. There has never been a bank robbery attempted in Delaware from that day to this by professional bur glars. These men were bank rob bers of the first grade; the same men who managed one of the sensational robberies in New York—the Metro politan Bank, I think. That type of criminal never considers Delaware now for a second. v rt A prison term means nothing tft all to him. but he would never dare show hfe face in his usual haunts after the lash fell on his bare back in a Dela ware jail. All prison reformers and all hu manitarians agree that the object of all punishment is to prevent crime— remotely to cure the criminal. We are not discussing the cure of crim inals. We are discussing the whip ping post per se, and I submit that the whipping post has prevented two of the most terrible of all crimes short of murder—white slavery and • burglary. There is a grave doubt in my mind if there has been a single burglary in Delaware within twenty- years committed by a man who was entirely sane and wholly sober, and J do not recall any second offenders. It will not be seriously questioned that society has a right tip protect itself. If the whipping post proves to be a perpetual and potential pro tector against the burglar, the high wayman and the cadet, why cry down its effectiveness? New York had an epidemic of gunmen: Chicago had an epidemic of highwaymen: Boston and Philadelphia made war on cadets Delaware simply painted her whip ping posts and multiplied school houses. Within recent weeks, in Philadel phia, Judge Norris S. Barratt de clared from the bench that nothing except a thoroughly good whipping at a public post would serve to ade- T HE State of Delaware is the only one of the United States that whips ils criminals at public whipping posts and also pillories them. It has done this ever since it became a State. There have been periodical waves of agitation throughout the nation for the abolition of these forms of punishment. The most violent wave of the kind culminated recently in a demand before Congress for Federal action compelling Delaware to discontinue its whipping post. Here Governor Charles R. Miller of Delaware explains why his State believe* in whipping criminals, why it is prepared to resist any proposed Federal or private interference with its whippings and why he believes whipping is more efficacious as a preventive of crime than the penal systems in other States. mows y quately punish a wife beater before him. This learned jurist is intimately familiar with social and political con ditions in Delaware and, before the Sons of Delaware, most ably de fended the whipping post as an aid to crime prevention. Solitary confinement has been proved a failure. It rots out the prisoner, destroys all ambition, and when his hour of freedom comes he is without initiative, without occu pation and without hope. Trades are now taught these men, but day after day they are “lined up” as pro fessionals, and their lives become a misery to them. Now I repeat that the basic idea most earnest advocate of any and every method that prevents crime, and this the whipping post does to a marked degree. The sense of shame that follows a public whipping Is quite a differ ent matter from the innermost feel ings of the same man flogged in privacy. In the underworld, where there exist strata of preferment just as there are social equations in organized society, a man who has done “a bit” of long duration lives in a degree of reflected glory. A yeggman who has served ten or twelve years in Cherry Hill, Sing Sing, Joliet or any one of the other notorious prisons has a certain •JSf orders the whip ping. It is the ef feet upon the mind of the man whip ped and the result of the whipping upon the minds ol other criminals that count. It is purely psychic, but it is none the less effective. None of the men whipped in Dela ware is punished to the point that very great physical torture follows. Such a lashing would create a martyr - of a criminal, and this must be avoided. Criminals of the type (hat hold up trains, raid banks and rob Govern ment buildings are jealous of their reputations in the underworld. Once w'hipped they become objects of de rision and contempt in their own cir cles. Some of these men are inor dinately vain. It is quite likely that this vanity, affectation or love o' | '■> v.SWt A Thief in Pillory—Jeered at by the Crowd Just as He Was 100 Years Ago. of punishment has to do with the protection of society against the criminal. It would be a little beyond me to explain the psychological effect of a public whipping upon the mind of a professional criminal, but of course I had ideas. The fact re mains, however, that the mere pros pect of such a whipping keeps men out of Delaware who would not hesi tate a second to “shoot up” a dance hall in New York or Chicago. It is a fact of common knowledge that ship masters of undoubted courage, of tested and proved valor, are as timid as little children when ashore; that firemen who never give a thought to personal peril at a con flagration bawl and make an awful to-do about having a tooth filled. Frank Gotch, the wrestler, who could tear an ordinary man apart with his hands, bows with absolute submis sion. I am told, to the will of Mrs. Gotch. Doubtless the men of science, the psychologists, have a definite name for this phenomenon of the mind. I do not know this word, but l do know that burglars and highwaymen who would brave the police force of Philadelphia or any other large city will not even consider a “job” in Del aware, and that these men when asked why, invariably reply that they will take no chance of the whipping post, it may be a display of vanity more than fear. I do not quite know. I have no quarrel with those who want to reform prisons, but I am a ' ;■ At the Whipping Post in Dover Jail, “Thirty Lashes on thu Bare Back.” Convicts in One of the Delaware Pillories—-This Form of Punishment Is Now Rarely Used. standing among his fellows in crime. But it is a curious yet certain fact that the man who is whipped in pub lic loses cijste at once and forever. It seems to be that in having been sentenced to be whipped, the scene in the court room, the display in the jailyard and the final flogging—all produce a profound and a lasting mental shock. This is not true when a mere warder calls a man out of his> cell, beats him and then throws him in a dark hole. This performance is followed by mere resentment. The victim of this system, and the prisoner is very often a victim, merely promises himself to kill the warder if he ever has a chance, or some like foolish threat. Not so when a High Court, a Chief Justice, amid scenes of dignity and decorum. even doubtful glory deters them from invading Delaware and daring the post. / Notice how the arrest of a notorious yeggman is always fol lowed by accurate reports of his record. Study these records and yon will seldom see that the prisoner was whipped in Delaware: It is idle to assume that thebe men are afraid to come to Dela ware because we have police, a militia and all the other agencies for the enforcement of law These are common to all communi ties. They are not in any degree ifraid of the physical punishment in volved in a Delaware whipping. Many of them in friendly boxing bouts are more thoroughly be'aten up every few days while exercising. It is the preliminaries, the mental picture of the trial, the solemnity of the sentence, the Ignominy of the performance, and. last of all, the contempt, ridicule anti humiliation at the hands of their consorts, male and female, that produce the result fir3t on the individual whipped, and ulti mutely upon all of his kind. If there was nothing to it but a mere flogging by a prison warder of doubtful authority; Simply one man In brief authority beating up another man but temporarily in his keeping, there would be, could be, no such result, and the whipping of criminals would probably degenerate into re volting performances with attending scandals. The Delaware system pre cludes any such possibility. The women of the nation lead in all humanitarian work as they should. In every large city in the United States, except Wilmington, Deleware, some brute is sent to jail every day or so for wife beating liicago has had to establish a Court of Domestic Relations for the almost exclusive benefit of women who have been whipped by beasts who swore to love and honor them. Delaware -.will never need any such court so long as the whipping post is so near the court house and in such great favor with our judiciary. There is no Judge sitting in Delaware who does not strongly favor the last for wife beaters. Some of our good friends who call themselves penologists, philanthrop ists, humanitarians and prison re formers overlook one all importan- matter in their crusades. This e. sentiai is the prevention of crime. Without discussion T will agree to everything that any of them propose for the health and education and re formation of a criminal, but I still insist that he is best off when he is kept from crime. The people of Delaware are not barbarians. In education, in culture, in true charity and in man's love for man the people of Delaware rank with the best in the land and in patriotism second to none. It is ab surd to attempt the indictment of a people of a sovereign State. Dela ware has a proud place in the his tory of the country and is prepared to meet every proper issue as it arises and Congressmen from the wilds of Montana will do well to study the practical results follow ing legislation in Delaware before asking for Federal interference in a purely State matter. Let every professional criminal in all the world know that Delaware is no field for his operation; that crime here means public whippings on the bare back, the ultimate of public dis grace, absolute enforcement of the law and Delaware will he well served. Other States may toy with the criminal; experiment with crime and multiply the police, but Dela ware will continue to prevent crime and thus save the criminal from himself and protect the public from the criminal. There is no considerable sentiment against the whipping post in Dela- Another Pretty Song and Dance Actress to Join the British Nobility London, December 15. T -frlE Hon. Richard Brinsley Norton, oldest son and heir of , i iruntley, a British peer of high position and ancient family, has become engaged to Miss Maggie Jarvis, a t lit!'e s<ing and dance artist on the British stage. ‘u s likely that before this appears the wedding of the dancer „ l the voung heir of nobility will have been celebrated Vtung , v ? i ,I,.stilled to be one of the hereditary legislators of ingland provided the House of Lords is not abolished before his k n'he engagement has excited some attention because of the corn . , v bumble position of the bride. Until recently the aiatl ' e * .. MIH i lords of England were marrying star* of thf* %nL®tre aid actresses of the first rank. Miss Jarvis is •aietj 1l ' eat e . ()f the chorus, who dances and sings a lit jst a modest m dlgnitv of a star, or even an actress. !e and does not use th * r a first-class musical comedy star roX accept a lord to-day. unless she were madly in love with ‘The occurrence lends great, interest to the newly published The occurr. which reference was made in these hl y by Bernaid Sh,„ rem . irk(lble play Mr. Shaw makes alt dIumils las character take place under the new social pisode o f exactly t is cna 1( „ passt ng. General Mitch ne^lTt’iie1 wr-his name evidently is'a slight disguise for Gen noi in the I * • ,1 i nir *j lf > social questions of the day with n,i to bM.ee. lore., and variety Maee performer, C ” MITCHENER—Mrs. Farrell, how is your daughter? imo f\RRELL—Which daughtre? MITCHENER—The one who has made such a gratifying success in the music halls MRS. FARRELL—There's no music halls nowadays; they’re variety theatres. She’s got an offer of marriage from a young jook. MITCHENER—Is it possible? What did you do? MRS. FARRELL—I told his mother on him. MITCHENER—Oh! What did she say? MRS. FARRELL—She was as pleased as Punch. Thank Heaven, she says, he’s got somebody that’ll be able to keep him when the super-tax is put up to twenty shillings in the pound. M1TUHENER—But your daughter herself? What did she say? MRS. FARRELL—Accepted him, of course. What else would a young fool like her do? He inthrojooced her to the Miss Maggie Jarvis, a London Stage Favorite Who Will Marry Lord Grantley’s Heir. Copyright, 1913, by the Star Company. Great Britain Rights Reserved. Poet Laureate, thinking she’d inspire him. MITCHENER—Did she? MRS. FARRELL—Faitti 1 dunua. All I know is she walked up to him as bold as brass an’ said, “Write me a sketch, dear.” After all the trouble I took with that child’s manners she's no more notion how to behave herself Ilian u pig Some thoughtless persons may imagine that Mr. Shaw is talking fantastical nonsense when he makes a scrubwoman dis cuss matters with the leading general of England, and talk of her daughter marrying a young duke, but we see from the news about Maggie Jarvis that he is a perfectly sensible commentator. The truth is that Bernard Shaw, far from being a dealer in absurdi ties, has often shown himself an accurate prophet of impending social changes. Then the American critic of the play may think that if the English make so little of their dukes and generals they will do away with the whole system of rank, titles and distinctions alto gether. Then, again, the critic would fail to understand the Eug lish nature. The English have never made a clean sweep of tin.' ancient institution, and there is no reason to believe they will over do so. There appears to be no desire to abolish the monarchy, but it is very probable that some socialistic minister will propose to make the king pay for himself. This could be done by allowing every one of the 5,000,000 Americans who visit England annually to have a peep at him sitting on his throne at twenty-five cents a libad. The amount thus obtained would nearly equal that voted annually by Parliament to the King. A few words about the Hon. Richard Brinsley Norton, whose engagement has called forth these remarks. His father. Lord Grnntley. comes from an old Gloucestershire family. The tlth was created In 1782. His lordship owns ”.000 acres and three fine country estates. Ho is a descendant of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the most noted novelist of the eighteenth century V Grounds jnse M Hod(| ‘Catch AH.* k’a 5trt-mortem1 a new trial > charge roj e brief anc id SaturdaJ Hugh M. upon the ense. ids for a im defense D=j “hodgepodge licules the as tried by i tdge and Jur, orneys will mt before th! ■nday at 9 o o be made extension o' arlly is gi\, lg to the ini is likely th2 he asked IjJ Technicality.” ■ referring nil at demons! i ifl crowd wer “ aid lntlmid; Frank’s 1. .1 were lay. I plea on wiocB catching at e® esented ltaelf.j counsel to spectators bd In the trial. sh| ns now being were antic i pal nch little In col r <e and techniq lls covered, som plain, be 4ty afflrmativF ecord show ii that they < J rart for the :fl some actio n.'J i they sho v 1 i oourt some ] never had enyl ctlon he gave j with the reqil Ion. h Complaint. I n other *pos -r® another trial* if Judge K j ltor Dorsey there was not® lance or coin he court to ind that the S tnt's attorney™ it, or suggest.V rt that aomet tl done estops § lng.” rged that Fit. Ifled theee cc their real itn J hat the fac ed the motion j conclusively fr hat he did n< t oe to the den i as laid on the j jrs that the' tstratlons ref r: »y Evldenee. the brief are g i n on the admi^ sy’s tertlmor Ion of Frank fl firm In his committed in >ny In the reel e courts of Amfl much great.' of this sort t 1 ng and extern j •pect, appretiatj r in order to