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THE LIFE PRESERVER
Official Journal of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ABOLITION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

VOL. 1 SEPTEMBER, 1915 No. 1

WELCOME
The President of the National Association for
the Abolition of Capital Punishment extends a most
welcome hand to any energetic, altruistic person,
irrespective of age, color, creed, race, sex or residence,
to organize in his or her home town and
co-operate with the National Headquarters.

Capital Punishment is barbaric; it should therefore
find little support in this supposedly enlightened
age.

Your co-operation and support is required and
solicited, in an endeavor to abolish punishment by
death.

IN UNION THERE IS STRENGTH

GOOD! MR. SECRETARY
Charles J. Johnson Enlists
The Board of Governors of the Association receives
with pleasure the good news that Charles
H. Johnson, ex-deputy warden of Sing Sing Prison,
has joined the National Association for the Abolition
of Capital Punishment.

Good work, Mr. Secretary. Congratulations to
you, Mr. Johnson.

THE CASE OF LEO M. FRANK
At the first meeting in August of the Board of
Governors, resolutions were passed, deprecating the
atrocious execution of Leo M. Frank. Copies were
ordered to be transmitted to the Governor of
Georgia and to the executive officers of the State
Legislature.

Mr. Frederick R. Jones, Secretary to Governor
Harris, acknowledged receipt of our Secretary's
communication, but no word has been received from
the heads of the Houses comprising the law-making
body.

GREETINGS FROM SANDUSKY
William F. Bolly, of Sandusky, Ohio, in joining
the Association writes: "Every humane person in
the world should advocate the abolition of capital
punishment."

Thanks, Mr. Bolly, for your few kind and inspiring
words, as well as for your membership.

FIVE MEN ESCORTED TO DEATH
Through the courtesy of Honorable Thomas Mott
Osborne, Warden of Sing Sing Prison, the writer
was invited to view the killing of five human beings
on Friday morning, September 3rd, 1915, at the
human slaughter house, maintained by the sovereignty
of the State.

It is assumed that murderers are executed for
the purpose of making the punishment a deterrrent
for that crime; but it is beyond the power of any
person to draw a pen-picture of the horrible and
hideous offense performed in the name of the Law
at Sing Sing.

In the space of one hour five normal persons
were strapped to a chair and each at the signal of
an official was thrown forward by the force of
many hundred volts of electricity; they frothed at
the mouth and in less time than can be described,
death's pallor and rigidity set in. It is stated that
death is instantaneous upon the application of the
current. The attending physicians, however, refused
to pronounce the men dead until after the
application of third shock, and in one instance,
the fourth.

Is it making the punishment fit the crime by deliberately
taking a man's life in the presence of
thirty or forty witnesses, who are within arm's
reach yet unable by word or act to interfere with
the brutal punishment.

If at any time two murders were committed in
the same town at the same time by any organized
body of people or an individual, the cry which
would be raised from coast to coast is known beyond
the necessity of description. Yet, the Majesty
of the Law, calmly, systematically and on prompt
schedule, without any reservation, kills five persons
in about fifty-five minutes, with less feeling
than a cattle raiser exhibits in destroying his stock.

The Secretary and President of the Association
arrived at Ossining Thursday evening. Shortly
after 4 o'clock, the following morning, they presented
themselves at the warden's office, where their
credentials were carefully checked and rechecked.
Thereafter, the Association's representatives, together
with others, were escorted from the warden's
office to the gruesome death chamber.

The death chamber, from which the renowned
"little green door" has been removed, may be described
as a large bin or a cellar. The chair appears
to be an ordinary one, to which the necessary
electrical appliances are attached, after the condemned
has been seated therein and strapped. At
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