________________
WHY MEN ARE HANGED
fostered fanatically by the ideologists of the forces of reaction which thrive parasitically on the material misery and moral degradation of the masses.
Economic bankruptcy of the masses, progressive pauperisation of the poorer strata, is a fertile breeding ground for crimes, the responsibility for which, therefore, belongs to the socio-political system which cannot exist without creating those deplorable conditions. Crimes are symptoms of social malady. The only effective and moral manner of combating them is to get into grips with the disease, the nature of which is indicated by them. As long as there will be people driven to despair by indebtedness, inevitable because incurred under pressure of forces beyond their control, crime of the nature described above cannot be checked by any number of exemplary punishments as inflicted in this case.
Finally, there is the case of a man hanged for massacring his whole family. He was regarded as a maniac. Yet, instead of being placed in a mental hospital, the poor fellow was sent to the gallows, in strict accordance with the dictates of merciless justice. God is just and merciful ; but justice, which is supposed to be an attribute of God, is merciless. Queer logic!
The crime committed by the man could be described as atrocious; nor did he deny the charge.
225
15
