The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-02-15
CRIME AND lis REMEDY.


whelmed by the portentous dimensions to
which crime and its melting causes have
grown. After recounting some Of those
sources Of iniquity, you PROFOUND, as if to
invite discussion, number of questions, and
wisely and justly conclude as foiows;-
$50 long as society allows these powerful and
sleepessly active influences Of evil to riot uu-
checked, we must look for crime to increase.
We may hang men for murder, but so long rs
we tolerate those huge vices that madden mems
brains with poison and their hearts with lust,
and their whole beings with passion, we must
secure q decrease of crime, we must begin at
the bottom and work against those vicious and
destructive influences of which crime is only
bhe natural and necessary fruit.'
There, Mr.. Editor, you struck the keynote OF
this prolific theme The disease is organic,
and must have organic remedies. The greatest
difficulty in curing the ills of the public life,
consists in the fact that there is no proper
agreement among the people on the subject
and as you very accurately refer TO severa
evils as the source of crime, without suggest
ing any remedies, permit me briefly to discuss
them in their order.
The Generalization of the Wdr.-The war,
doubtless demoralized many, but, to my own
personal knowledge, it saved many ALSO by
opening a new field of emulation and ambition.
Perhaps it's greatest influence for evil was in
the direction of intemperance and familiarity
with blood. 1t is to be hoped, however, that
we have gained as much besides, in personal
bravery and devotion to flag and country, by
the war, as we have lost by the others. OF
the murders so frequently coming to light, it
may be said that majority of them are commit
ted by expatriated foreigners, who were either
driven from their country for crime, or attracted
hther by the large bountes offered during the
Rebellion. OF these, Probst and Haddopp are
examples.
Improper Training Of Youh.-This fruitful
source of crime, as referred to by Judge Lud-
low is notorious to the press and pulpit, which
are the main correctives of public sentiment,
independent of the law. | need hardly remark
that no editor or teacher, religious or other
wise, can be ignorant that juvenile vagrancy
and idleness, added to night training i'll the
streets, will breed crime. Why is there not
then, public sentiment established that will
warrant police officer in aTesting every child
or youth found in the streets after nightfalli
Prudent thoughtful parents do not permit
these liberties to their children and others
should not be allowed such a school of vice.
On this point you justly say, some children
have no homes worth the name. Then let public
benevolence furnish evening assemblies to
such, combining amusement and instruction.
Cannot our Christianity follow its Great Master
in spirit by an institute of this sorti
Destruction Of the apprenticeship System. =
This is a terrible evil, a reform by the rule of
inversion and it has nearly all come to pass
within the past generation of thirty years.
The Press, the Pulpit and the Legislature
should cooperate to bring us back to the
habits of the good old times when boys
master was not ''boss, but stood for his
father. The race of boys is extinct, and as
a consequence, the quality of reverence is only
found when imported. This theme suggests
a solemn responsibility as resting on teachers
of schools and seminaries. In this trait the
untutored Indian is wiser than we, for he
ALWAYS reVerenceS age.
Lac Administration of the LdlU. = When
the administration of the criminal law is put
into the hands of a mans neighbors, and
offenses are tried by summary process, and
the contrivances Of straw-bail and quibbllng
delays are laid aside-Or when lawyers are
all employed as public functionaries, to admi-
mister justice like our judges, at the public
expense-then that blind divinity will walk
straight to her object, as she did in California
under the "Vigilance Committee" and we
shall hear no more complaint that "big rogues
go unwhipped of Justice
THE Grim Eel, PoUerty.-It is not more true
that, when two at once ride a-horsebacl one
of them must ride behind than that, where a
few grasp all the wealth of community, the
many must be poor The governing power,
the Legislature, has no right to be indifferent
to the pecunidry state of the citizen. 1t has no
more right to turn out together upon the
arena of life, ungoverned, the sharp and rapa-
cious with the confiding and simple, than it
has to say to the powerful and muscular,
E"There are the young and feeble, do with them
as you think fit ~ If such a man as A. 7.
Stewart, of New York. commanding the use
of forty millions of money which is but
Government creation for common use, can go into
the market when he pleaseth, and after "bear-
ing the market for fortnight, buy muslins at
two cents per yard less than they can be
fabricated, and in a week after, by command
ing the Market" bull them up five cents
on the yard, and then sell out, having cleared
million, then it is folly to grieve over the
''grim evils of poverty" 1t is the business
of the Government, however, to limit both
great wealth and great poverty, for they are
both evils 1t is the duty of law to see that
the dollar which the poor man earns to-day,
and which he apparently consumes when he
eats his frugal meal shall not rise in the form
of capital tomorrow, to dispute with his
children for the bread that lies on their table,
Poverty is a terrible source of Generalization
and crime, and the best cure for it is enforced
and protected industry on the one hand and
public endowment ON the other. The same
benefcence that has clothed every poor mans
child with the right of education, could endow
him with others, much better assured than
the ''homestead" or the ''three hundred dollar
exemption The present five per cent
collateral inheritance tax upon descending
Overgrown estates suggests a mode of raising
funds to endOw the many, ''lest they be poor
and steal, and take the name of God in yain.'
tProv. xxx, 9.)
The Great EcH of IatempGaace. is
the monster evil, more prolific and hideOus
than Satan's sin and death, that kept ward at
the gates of hell. This is the mother vice of