The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-12-18
Ihis paper Is Democratic in principles
and is Independent m its Utel0s on all
local questions.
Rum and Crime.

Rum and Crime.
In a recent issue of the Bangor
NeaOS, one of the most intelligent and
enterprising papers in the Eastern
States, by the way, we find a ing and
interesting article by Judge Henry A.
Gildersleeve of the New York Court
Of General Sessions on the subject of
crime. Judge Gildersleeve's court is
entirely a criminal one, and he has
now presided over it for fourteen
/, years, and he has earned
he reputation of being a fear
and conscientious, as
Eli as an able and thoughtful magis-
etrate. Hardly any n could speak
with more authority upon a matter of
public ethics, and there is hardly any
one in the country whose u~tterances
will command more attention.
One passage in Judge Gildersleeve's
article is SO important that we repro
duce it here. He says
Contrary to the doctrines so fiercely preached
by the prohibition orators, the relationship be-
tween crime and drunkenness is very vague and
indefinite. There is no necessary connection be-
tween the two. Drunkards have neither the
energy nor brain power to violate the law to any
serious extent, and, on the other hand, criminals
of any ability are as temperate as men In the
honest walks of life. 1t may be questioned If the
percentage of drunkenness, delirium tremens
and alcoholism Is any greater among profess
sional lawbreakers than in society at large. In
epector Byrnes, than whom no greater authority
exists, has wisely said that the moment a crimi-
nal becomes a slave to alcohol his doom Is
sealed, and the opinion will be borne out by
every one who has given the subject proper
attention. Professional evildoers require
the full use of brain and body. The confidence
operator, the bank thief, the forger, and the
counterfeiter, could never make a successful
stroke if their minds were clouded with intoxi-
cation. When men Of this class appear in court,
such, for example, as Hungry joe" "Kid"
Miller, Cigarette Harry, Brockway, Draper,
and Noble, they are pictures of sobriety and
temperance. In many instances they appear,
indeed, to better advantage than the unfortunate
honest folk whom they have victimized.
That intemperance is productive of
terrible crime and misery cannot be
disputed; but if it be compared with
other vices we hardly think it
will prove to be the most
destructive. Every day the pa
pers team with crimes having
their origin in the vice of lewdness-
murder, robbery, forgery and other
offences, and as between drunkenness
and lewdness we should rather think
the latter was responsible for more
broken hearts and wasted lives.
All the arguments used in behalf of
the total abstinence theory apply
equally to every human instinct
which is capable of being carried to
extremes or perverted into improper
channels. There is no more reason
why the State should interfere
in one case than in the other,
and there is no more hope that State
interference would prove repressive in
one case than in the other. We have
severe laws in this State against gam
bling and adultery and it would be
ridiculous to assert that they
were effeetual or anything like
effectual in suppressing these vices
1t is true that both are kept within
narrow bounds, but the depressing in
fuenees are the moral sense OF in
dividuals and the general repro
baton of the community. Very
few people, indeed, who disreg ard
these high considerations will be de-
TERED from doing wrong by the fear
of the law, which is peculiarly liable
to miss offences of these sorts, how
ever severe it may be in theory
In the first place, we agree with
Judge Gildersleeve that the effect OF
liquor is absurdly overestimated in
respect to crime, and in the second
place we believe what he does not say
but probably thinks, that whatever