The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-10-30
SOCIAL STUDY CONVENTION.
Fred II. Wines Address on Modern
Methods of Treating Criminals.

1
The Convention for Social Study, under
the auspices of the Washington District
Baltimore Conference, held its first session
last night at Hamline NJ. E. Church, cor
ner Ninth and P Streets northwest. Rev.
| Dr. Lucien Clark, Presiding Elder OF the
district, occupied the chair and introduced
| the speaker Of the evening. Fred H. Wines,
| Assistant Director OF the Census. Mr..
| Wines topic was Modern Methods OF
| Treating Criminals His address was full
| of Interest and was followed by his hearers
with close attention.
| Mr. Wines said: I'VE have done every
| thing that can be done in the world for
the criminal to reclaim him, to restore
and reform him. We have not succeeded
| and probably will never succeed IN ending
| crime. The poor are always with us and
so is the. criminal. The question Of the
| criminal is very closely associated with
the church of Jesus Christ; but, strange
to say, he is not taken notice OF very much
by the ministers of the gospel. We must
make discrimination between crime and
the criminal. Law exists under various
forms. There is the divine law. the nat
ural law, and the statutory or human law.
The violation of divine law We call sin;
the violation of natural law is called vice.
and the violation of the statutory law is
determined crime. Crime, however, is
the creator Of the law. There can be no
crime where there is no law.
Crime thus defined may or may not have
an ethical quality. There may be a viola
ton of the law of morals, which may not
be violation of the human law. There
are offences against criminal law which
are punished, but which are no violation
against the moral code. They are 10
great extent police regulations. We must
distinguish between the criminal and
crime. Society must distinguish between
crimes which are aimed at the destruction
Of society and those who commit the
crimes. We must not aim to destroy those
who commit the crime, but We must try to
reform, to rehabilitate them"
Mr.. Wines then went on to analyZe the
decalogue from a legal point of view, say
ing that the principles Of equity underlie
the decalogue. He then reviewed how the
early savages. returned evil for evil: how
they made the offender harmless by ex-
pelling him from their community, or still
more so by killing him. All kinds Of cruel
ty were applied to man for his offence.
such as hanging. .stoning. fiaying. boiling,
and even burying alive. at is only within
the last century that the prison question
came into prominence as dealing with
criminals. The substitution OF legal meth
DDS. trial OF the criminal and his orderly
and legal sentence, was a matter OF SLOW
growth. The story of prison reform in the
United States occupies very prominent
place in the annals Of prison history"
DR.. Wines then described how. before
the Revolutionary War, criminals were
brought to this country from England and
sold to the planters here as slaves. With
the outbreak of the Revolutionary War
this practice was broken up, and then
England sent her criminals to Australia,
where they established penal colonies.
But said DR.. Wines, "a penal colony can
never exist where honest men and women
live and raise families. In Australia 1t
was found necessary to establish penal
colony within a penal colony. The worst |
criminals of Australia were sent to this |
colony, and if ever there was hell on |
this earth this was one The men that |
had charge of this settlement were brutal |
and incompetent. although calling them
selves British gentlemen. being mostly Of
ficers of the army or navy"
The speaker then reviewed the various
prison systems in vogue in different lands.
He said the Irish or progressive system
attracted the attention Of men from this
country who transplanted the good fea-
lures of 1t here. The outcome Of 1t was
the intermediate system OF reformatories
for juvenile criminals The Irish system has
become the foundation OF the present whole
prison system Of the United States. The
modern idea is to grant the criminal the
opportunity to reform and to regard it the
duty of society to assist him.
Mr. Wines concluded his discourse by re-
viewing tho Pennsylvania Auburn and the
present Elmira system
At this mornings session, which will be-
gin at O'Clock. papers will be read by
A pny
A. H. Thompson, and Rev. j. F. Heisse.
There will be session this afternoon at
o'clock and the final session will be held
his evening at s o'clock.