18 JANUARY 1935, Page 19

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR, —There are two sides

to most questions. Do Mr. John Paton, Miss Craven or Mr. Wenham ever consider how inherently barbarous and cruel is murder ? Are they insensible to the cruelty and horror of putting a man to death by the terrible torture of strychnine poisoning, or of killing babies by burying them alive ? On such actions they remain silent and apparently unmoved. But when the perpetrators of such-crimes, male or female, are punished by a most rapid and painless death they raise outcry and are filled with horror. That the fear of " swinging for it " is most deterrent to a large class of potential murderers is beyond doubt ; far more so than the fear of a " long stretch." The cold, greedy poisoner who murders . for gain and the callous; hard-hearted .wretch who gets round, women, insures their lives and kills to draw insurance money are probably so sure they will be cunning enough to conceal their crimes that the chance of hanging is probably not more nor less deterrent to them than the chance of life-long imprisonment. I suppose those who object to hanging murderers do not contemplate any less punishment for murder than a very long term of imprisonment. But is it not better to put murderers out of the way than to saddle taxpayers with the heavy cost of keeping these people, for a long life perhaps, in gaols ? There must be murderers alive now in England who have cost the country hundreds of pounds apiece. To what advantage ? I doubt if there is evidence that the mass of people in England would have been or will be better if imprisonment, not hanging, were the punishment of murder. It is certainly arguable that it would be to the good of the community to extend capital punishment to include many of the frequently convicted and apparently irreclaimably non-social element of the population. Black cats have black