Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-10-16

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Popular prices will prevail.
"CRIMINAL RECORDS"
exceptions Taken to Views Advanced
In Recent Publication.
To the Editor of The Evening Star:
Please allow space in your columns for a
reply to an article which appeared in your
issue OF October 1. The article was entitled
criminal Records" The writer of this
artlcie Is man of exceptional ability and
FAIRNESS, and certainly entertains kindly
feelings toward and has high regards for
the worthy of my race, yet 1 beg to differ
from him in some things, and add to his
category Of causes which make the negro's
criminal record exceed that of the white
race.
The writer of Criminal Records labored
most strenuously to prove to the thinking
world that the record of the negro exceeds
that OF his own race, and that the excess
reveals terrible state Of negro deprav-
1ty. According to his method of reason
ing, he proved his case, and whether it was
the prodding of "animus'' or prejudice"
or whether or not 1t was prompted by
spirit or investigation, that causes be dis
covered and efficient remedies applied it
Is evident that the writer congratulates
himself upon finding that his is not, &C
cording to the record. so degenerate race
as Is that of the brother in black. If the
authorities, including the metropolitan po-
lice force, who investigated and deter
mined the criminal records of both races,
were as eager and deeply interested in
making their race record, the minimum
and the maximum, the writer was In
proving the negro's excess in crime, then
1t is marvel that the predominance of
negro crime IS not greater. So great was
his love for his race, he feared even a sus-
picion, and. therefore, without single
provocation or challenge, he plunges into
the records and compares them. To prove
the basis for the negro's predominance in
crime, appeals are made to his emotional
lature his impoverished intellect, his eth
biological tendencies, his gregarious habits
his brutal instincts, his alley and court
tenemepts.
Granting that the above conditions are The
sources from which come the bulk of the
Negroes crime. yet I disclaim for him the
total responsibility of having his criminal
record so far exceed that of the opposite
race. Since his crimes have been reviewed
and determined by his superiors and not
his peers, every fair and thoughtful mind
will go back of the records and inquire as
to how, and by whom. these records were
made; whether the courts were organized or
composed of those who loved the negro, and
really desired to reform him, or by those
who hated and condemned him and desired
to conquer and cover him; or whether the
courts have been used as institutions of
negro CTIffllIdl REFORM, pTOStltuleQ INTO
self-sustainirg business enterprises.
Then, and not till then. will the critical,
thoughtful unbiased mind accept as con-
elusive the criminal statistics, as careful
ly summarized and compiled by the police
departments of all cities and accepted by
the govern ment and criminologists as the
best authority to determine the moral stat
us of the people," If the police force and
courts had been differently organized, ac-
cordiEg to racial instincts of fair play, and
the established principles of justice. many
a should-be criminal of the opposite race
who is now roamingEat large would long
since have passed through the mills that
grind our criminals. and thus augumen ted
the minimum record, while many good
natured but garruious, boisterous negro boy
would never have been added to the maxi
mum.
On the one side many a little fracas has
been passed unreported, while on the other
many little lettering negro boy has been
meddled with, pursued and provoked, until
he showed signs of resentment; then he
was -'nabbed, carried down and fined for
resisting an officer" One class is watched
and tenderIy. but positively warned while
the other is watched with suspicion, peered
out and pulled" No wonder his arrests
for "disorderly conduct exceed 300 per cent
of the white arrests
Discovering that the emotional predomi-
mates in the negro's character" and that
by nature he is boisterous indecorous and
uncouth in his manners, fair play and JUS
tice demanded that some allowance be
made for that garrulous class until the law
of evolution develop out of him what 1t has
made out of others of the different races:
but, instead, the most stringent laws have
been enacted, to catch him in his weak
nesSes the immediate result of plantation
environments. In that way the higher law
of development has been retarded by the
criminal law.
Such unfair, unequal laws, demand OF
the class referred to, emotional and ex-
citable as 1t is, that it act and demean itself
just as decorously the white race, with
decorum and refinement the result of
seven generations of culture, or it must
take it's part with the herd of criminals so
accurately numbered and graphically
described by criminologists. I confess that
polished manners and refinement must be
taught that class of negroes referred to
by the writer, but catchy laws and hasty
convictions are not the ideal methods. I'm
fair convictions can never touch the we'll
springs Of higher aspirations. but crystal
lie and tougher" the tenderest sensb!li-
ties. Let the laws protect him against the
combined force of rental agents, and help
that class to dignity his places of resi-
dence, that the atmosphere of the home
correspond to the refinement and practical
common sense taught by the pulpit" 1t will
avail but little to teach him from the pull
pit practical common sense invoking rea-
sons rather than emotions, long he is
forced back to the courts and alleys refer
red to and caused to reproduce such charac-
tiers as are caught by police regulations. 1t
Will avail but little to teach MIN reason"
when he is conscious OF the eagerness for his
multitudinous arrests, the prejudice, the
bias or Indifference manifested in his trials
before legerdemanic law. He is beginning
to think it heroic to do So to tougher"
himself to pass through the ordeal. AL
ready the "jail BIRDS of my race have
become SO hardened that they now sit and
sing, Put me on the chain-gang; you can't
do me anything"
If this process of determination and indis-
eliminate conviction for petty offenses goes
on much longer, its influence will counter
act and rotary all the good influences radi-
ating from our refined homes, churches and
educational centers, and bring about
more terrible state of negro depravity"
than discovered by the writer of ''crimi-
nal records"
He asserts that there is no fairer ju-
dietary than that found in Washington"
OF course not, considering the fact that
the Washington, like all other southern
cities, is one-sidedly composed Its very
organization is IN direct violation of the
universal principle of Justice. that GRIM
inal be tried by jury of his peers" not
superiors; for the superiors, feeling con-
tempt and scorng for the lowly and un-
fortunate condition OF that Class" might
be wholly disquaiifiea to enter into that
sympathetic relation so necessary to guide
the stern. rigorous hand of justice In many
A h inf