Page:Oregon, her history, her great men, her literature.djvu/314

Rh the current. The south wall of the canal was completed in November, 1914, the entire cost of the locks being nearly four million dollars. This was five times the estimated cost given by the engineers at the beginning of the undertaking.

Capital Punishment Abolished. Movement Headed by the Governor. From the earliest years of Oregon's history until 1914, the punishment for convicted first degree murderers was "hanging by the neck until dead." This has been one of the common penalties for such crimes in most countries from time immemorial. Yet efforts to abolish it have been made during the past century by those who condemned such punishment as barbarous. At various times movements had been inaugurated to abolish capital punishment in Oregon, but no concerted action in that direction was undertaken until the year 1914, when, headed by Governor West, a state-wide campaign was carried on having for its object the elimination of that provision from our statutes. The vote in the state stood for its abolition, 100,552, and against 100,395.

The effect of this change in the criminal law of the state is not regarded with unqualified public approval, and the adoption of the prohibition law at the same time renders it the more difficult to form an accurate opinion as to its merits. It is not likely, however, that any attempt will ever be made to re-establish capital punishment in Oregon.