as to be paid by the men and women who work--those who plow in
the fields, who wash and iron, who stand by the forge, who run the
cars and work in the mines, and by those who battle with the waves
of the sea. Labor pays every bill.

There is one little thing to which I wish to call the attention of
all who happen to read this interview, and that is this: Undoubtedly
you think of all criminals with horror and when you hear about them
you are, in all probability, filled with virtuous indignation.
But, first of all, I want you to think of what you have in fact
done. Secondly, I want you to think of what you have wanted to
do. Thirdly, I want you to reflect whether you were prevented from
doing what you wanted to do by fear or by lack of opportunity.
Then perhaps you will have more charity.

_Question_. What do you think of the new legislation in the State
changing the death penalty to death by electricity?

_Answer_. If death by electricity is less painful than hanging,
then the law, so far as that goes, is good. There is not the
slightest propriety in inflicting upon the person executed one
single unnecessary pang, because that partakes of the nature of
revenge--that is to say, of hatred--and, as a consequence, the
State shows the same spirit that the criminal was animated by when
he took the life of his neighbor. If the death penalty is to be
inflicted, let it be done in the most humane way. For my part, I
should like to see the criminal removed, if he must be removed,
with the same care and with the same mercy that you would perform
a surgical operation. Why inflict pain? Who wants it inflicted?
What good can it, by any possibility, do? To inflict unnecessary
pain hardens him who inflicts it, hardens each among those who
witness it, and tends to demoralize the community.

_Question_. Is it not the fact that punishments have grown less
and less severe for many years past?

_Answer_. In the old times punishment was the only means of
reformation. If anybody did wrong, punish him. If people still
continued to commit the same offence, increase the punishment; and
that went on until in what they call "civilized countries" they
hanged people, provided they stole the value of one shilling. But
larceny kept right on. There was no diminution. So, for treason,
barbarous punishments were inflicted. Those guilty of that offence
were torn asunder by horses; their entrails were cut out of them
while they wer