Grant County Herald

EDITORIAL

Mr. Darrow Excuses Murder on Sentimental Grounds.

Tumbling on the heels of the Franks case Illinois furnishes the world another sensation. In a little village a minister poisons his wife with arsenic and induces another man's wife to poison her husband. They are found out and made to confess. Now they await trial.

Clarence Darrow, he who defended Loeb and Leopold, says Pastor Hight and Mrs. Elsie Sweetin should not hang. He calls it "society's crime." In discussing the case he says:

"There is nothing strange about this pact into which a man and a woman entered in order that they might free themselves of persons who stood in the way of their romance.

"Assuming that both parties to this pact and poisoning were sane -which I am inclined to doubt-it simply resolves itself into a struggle between the primitive instincts of a man and woman who want to possess each other."

The fundamental and underlying causes of the double murder, were, according to Mr. Darrow:

The sex instinct.
The repressions of a small town.
Too strict divorce laws.
The inhibitions of society

"The inhibitions and customs with which society has insisted on binding itself are largely responsible for this crime. It is the animal in man which leads him to carry out primitive instincts such as those displayed by the minister. So-called civilized man has developed, in my opinion, from the animal below him. He has, however, retained all the original instincts necessary for the preservation of human life, which includes the sex instinct.

"The power of the sex instinct is second only to the instinct to get food. In certain circumstances and under great strain, civilized man, through his sex and food instincts, will overcome the inhibitions of society. That is one of the reasons for these homicides.

"In this poisoning case we have simply an illustration of the relative strength of the instincts and inhibitions. Where there is a distinct clash, it resolves itself into a question of the character of the human machine and the power of instinct.

"This man should be judged with no greater severity because of the fact that he happens to be a minister as all men have the same instinct to a greater or less degree, and likewise are surrounded by the same conventions."

Mr. Darrow's observations are interesting but hardly conclusive. Society is undoubtedly organized on the basis of inhibitions so that the race may go forward on a mental and spiritual instead of an animal basis. Admitting that most men and some women feed the call of the primitive, that is no justification for giving in to them to the point of doing murder. Nor would many of the wayward type consider it for a moment. When one does he lacks human attributes and becomes a cold-blooded reptile without heart or soul. He therefore deserves extermination just as a poisonous-snake deserves it Whether or not society wishes to punish him that way is another matter entirely.