“The Diseases of Society.”—Letter from the Author [excerpt]

     With regard to Czolgosz and Guiteau, and Prendergast, the murderer of Mayor Harrison, of Chicago, it would, be very difficult to convince me that any of these men would have been executed had they murdered ordinary citizens. It by no means follows from this that I do not admit that the world is better off without them, and that they should have been removed from the society in which they were unequivocally dangerous elements. That, however, they should have been removed in the manner and form in which they were is to my mind open to serious argument. Frankly, while I do not believe in capital punishment, or in any form of social revenge, I should be heartily in accord with a provision for blotting from existence such dangerous social elements. The insane murderer rather than many of the sane is the one whose life I should destroy,—not for revenge, nor for punishment, but on the same principle that a farmer destroys the thistles in his cornfield.