The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-10-04
HEREDsTY AND CRIME.

A few years ago when young Jesse
James, the son of the famous bandit. was
arrested. charged with the crime of high
way robbery, a discussion resulted in the
public press over the question Of hered-
ity and its responsibility for crime. AS
far as superficial judgment went, the con-
tention of like father. like son." won
out by a large majority. Then young1
James was acquitted
Now the discussion, unprovoked by any
particular case, has broken out again.
Scientists and other wise men have been
delving deeper than ever into the mys-
teries of heredity, with the result that the
theory of transmission of criminal ten
oeney from parent to offspring has re-
ceived some hard knocks. It Is needless
upon the supposed existence of some
crime microbe, else the tendency of the
son to follow in the footsteps Of a law
less father could not be accounted for in
MED that there is any such microbe, or
that a highwayman, for instance, has any
particular formation of brain which,
transmitted to his son, would by itself
produce another highwayman. It seems
surd, indeed; and If circdmstantial evil
denc supporting the theory had not been
apparently so strong, the affirmative would
doubtless have been less emphatic. But
1t is this very circumstantial evidence
| that has misled theorists They have
| failed to correctly estimate the origin of
the tendencies which supplied the evil
dence Home training, the influence of
companions and environment have been
ignored in the argument which has sought
to affirm the uselessness of care in bring
Whats the use?" their contention i'm
piled. His father was thief and he
will be one too"
1t is a good thing for the reputation of
our civilization that this ignorant view no
longer appeals to intelligent persons.
There is hope for any boy before he
reaches the habit forming age, no matter
how depraved his parents may have
been, SO long as deprayity has not left
the physical marks of disease. Nine
tenths of our criminals, it is believed, are
the victims of early environment and
training, or lack OF training. If thief
takes his boy in hand and teaches him
TO become a thief, or if the. boy is allow
ed to take his own education by observa.
ton of his fathers career, unrestrained
by good influences, another thief is made.
The easy multiplication of instances like
this furnish the glib theorist with food
for shallow discourse, and nothing but
blind acceptance of the evidence as con
elusive in the direction of proving the
theory of heredity in the premises can ac-
count for the argument Of some men who
are really profound thinkers in other di-
rections. On this subject, these have
commenced to think none too soon, and
the more they think the more eonserva-
tive they become in their discussion Of
the effects of the greatest miracle OF ma
ture
Parents can start their children on a
career of crime, or can lead them into
respectable and worthy channels, but it is
not matter Of birth. The son of the
best parents in the world can be sent to
the gutter if the influences in that di-
rection get hold of him, and the fact that
the offspring of SO many good parents go
wrong ought to be strong evidence in it
self of the fallacy of the theory OF hered-
itary criminal tendency. for If the bad
can be Transmitted to offspring the good
certainly ought to have at least as much
power in the same direction.