Increase of Crime

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 1, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 13.

Increase of Crime

Dr. Eaton, a Baptist minister of Louisville, Ky., declared in a recent sermon, according to the Nashville American, that—

The penalty for murder in that city is only $300. With that amount of money a murderer can get off scot free. The low bail fixed for murderers here is ridiculous. Life is held too lightly. I do not think a man could be convicted of murder in Kentucky, and sentenced to death, if he wanted to be. In order to get the death penalty it would be necessary for him to go to a shrewd criminal lawyer, and find the exact way to commit the murder.

The News and Courier, of Charleston, S. C., commenting on Dr. Eaton’s statement, remarks:—

And yet Kentucky is not much, if any, worse than South Carolina. The cheapest thing in this State, as we have said, is human life, and the safest crime is the crime of homicide. How to cure the evil we confess ourselves unable to suggest.

And then the Nashville American asks:—

And what of Tennessee? Is it any better in this regard than Kentucky or South Carolina?

It replies as follows:—

A day or two ago the American contained a special from a Middle Tennessee town, in which it was stated that a man who had attacked a policeman who was sitting down, and beat him to death, because the officer had previously arrested him for immoral conduct, had been sentenced to five years in the penitentiary. Five years for an aggravated murder! In another case, nearer home, a few months ago, a man who had deliberately waylaid and assassinated a citizen on the highway, was acquitted by “a jury of his peers.” Many instances might be cited, showing the gross miscarriage of justice and the too often farcical proceedings in our criminal courts. Boast of a high degree of civilization when human life is so cheap is a vain boast.

These are sad and awful statements, but they are fulfilment of just what the Bible said should be. When men forget God’s law, they soon become transgressors of all law, or look lightly upon transgression.