The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-02
MORAL DEPRAVITY.


From time to time examples of moral
depravity come to us from among the
classes of population which in their So
ciaf and moral surroundings there is
much reason for regarding as fairly typ
zeal of the bulk of the people. 1t would
be wholly unreasonable ordinarily to look
for indications of moral degeneracy, for
instance on the part Of young people
like the prosecuting witnesses and the
defendants in the murder trial now in
progress in Anoka County. 1t would re-
quire a stretch of the imagination to be-
. lieve that young men of good social and
intellectual qualifications, such as those
who are now held for the murder of a
foolish young girl in Paterson, N. j.,
would be capable CT the crime which
lies at their door.
In the annals of criminal history here
or elsewhere it would be difficult to find
two more revolving crimes than those we
mention. How, for instance, could two
young girls and two young boys brought
up on the farm, and subject to the harm,
less influences which surround the lives
u our agricultural population be re
ga led as capable of conspiring to muir
der an entire family, without apparent
cause or provocation, and then Of treat
ing the crime of which they stand
charged or confessedly guilty if we are
to accept any of the prevailing theories
of moral responsibility? In what state
of society could We hope to meet such an
instance of utter bestial impulse as that
from which sprung the violation and
death of that young girl in Paterson?
When the governor of New Hampshire
couple of years ago set forth in an Of
fetal proclamation certain facts relat-
ing to the social and moral lives Of the
common people in the agricultural dis
tricts of his state, as his observation had
depleted them to him, there was a gen
eral expression Of public anazement. All
the efforts to disprove or verify the con-
illusions of the New Hampshire governor
regarding the lives of those who in most
cases were the direct descendants of
Puritan ancestors have since resulted in
the practical acceptance of the truth OF
his assertions.
The absence of the influence of religion
from the lives of a large proportion of
our people must unfortunately be regard
ed as chiefly lying beneath such indica-
lions as we are presented with from time
to time of abnormai moral insensibinty
| among those who neither by Inheritance
nor environment can reasonably be re-
garded as the victims of abnormal pro-
pensities.
Those who are charged witt: RESPONSE
bility for the moral welfare Of The masses
may we'll stop and ask thenis elves what
the true significance Of such instances
of individual depravity really is. II is
altogether far-fetched to attempt to dis-
pose of them by vague talk about moral
degeneracy. There is nothing whatever
save the crimes alleged to sustain in any
such conclusion. Not in New Hampshire
alone but in perhaps every community,
city and country, in the United States,
are there to be found today young men
and women growing up who have had
| the advantages of common school edu-
| cation who are utterly lost to moral re-
straint save such as springs from fear
of consequences. These people never see
! the inside of a church. They live the
! purely animal life. Their reading, when
! ~,
bring to the surface whatever tendency
to crime may lie latent in their natures.
Their modes of thought rarely lead them
! to the consideration of subjects which
| touch upon any phase of life save those
which relate to material existence Sum-
| day is no more to them than a day OF
abstinence from. physical toll; and only
the enjoyments of the senses appeal to
| them at all.
Let us not delude ourselves with any
! thought that these conditions are not
generally prevalent. They are The lives
| of large masses of our intelligent popu-
lation are alien to the higher influences
which appeal to the intellectual or the
! spiritual in human nature AS long as
such instances of crime as these which
are here mentioned are possible Of repro
duction. American society must regard
itself as being confronted by problem
beside which all those which relate 10
the political and material welfare of the
people are really but of miner i'm
pcrtance.