"All right," he said, "I guess suspended sentence...."
The clerk stepped up and gave the judge a card.
"Your honor," he said, "a gentleman would like to speak to you about
this case, before you impose sentence."
The man was called up and introduced himself as the regular attorney of
the complainants. He was a member of one of the great down-town law
firms. He had the assurance of manner of a very successful professional
man. His clients, he said, had asked him to lay some information before
the court. In the last few years they had lost a great many thousand
dollars through such petty theft. The amount of this loss was steadily
increasing. Most of the thefts were undiscovered because the employees
protected one another. They seemed to have lost all the old fashioned
loyalty to the firm. The directors' attention had been unpleasantly
called to this very considerable outlet and they had decided to
respectfully call it to the attention of the courts. If two or three
offenders were severely punished it would have a salutary effect on the
morals of their entire force.
My heart sank. I knew how the judge would take it. He was always
impressed by people of evident wealth. I am sure that he thought of God
as a multi-millionaire. He handed my report to the lawyer. He read it
half through and returned it. It could not, he said, affect the
attitude of the complainants. They were not interested in the family
life of Nora Lund, but in the honesty of employee No. 21,334. Their
view-point was entirely impersonal. "Even if my clients wanted to be
lenient, they could not, in justice to the stockholders. It is purely a
business proposition. The losses have been very heavy."
"Are you asking his honor," I said, "to punish this girl for the thefts
of the others you did not catch?"
He ignored my question and went on telling the judge that unless
something was done this sort of thing would increase until business was
impossible.
"Our whole force," he said, "know of this crime and are watching the
result. If no punishment follows there is sure to be a big increase of
theft. But if she is sent to state prison it will greatly reduce this
item of loss."
"Your honor," I broke in, thoroughly angry, "This is utterly unfair. He
whines because the employees are not loyal. How much loyalty do they
expect to buy at six dollars a week? They figure out just how little
they can pay their people and keep them from the necessity of stealing.
This time they figured too low, and are trying to put all the blame on
the girl. If they paid honest wages they might have some right to come
into court. But when they let their clerks starve they ought not to put
silver in their charge. Its...."
"Hold on, officer," Ryan interrupted, "There's a great deal in their
point of view. Our whole penal system is built on the deterrent idea.
The state does not inflict penalties to repay the wrong done it by an
act of crime, but to deter others from committing like crimes. As long
as the complainants take this view of the case I cannot let her go
without some punishment."
"Punishment?" I broke in again. "I hope we will never be punished so
bitterly. The shame of her arrest and imprisonment is already far in
excess of her wrong doing. The firm did not lose a cent and they want
her sent to state prison."
"I won't send so young a girl to state prison," the judge said, "But I
cannot let her go free. I'll send her to one of the religious
disciplinary institutions."
I asked for a few days adjournment so I could lay the matter before the
members of the firm personally.
"The delay would be useless," the attorney put in. "My clients have no
personal feelings in the matter. It is simply a carefully reasoned
business policy."