The Washington times., 1901-09-20

wrongful; from which it follows that
he could not help knowing that 1t was
wrong for him to take the life of an
other Men jointly engaged in robbery
sometimes fight and kill each other IN
disputes over a division of the plunder
Each regards himself as entitled to his
share of the stolen property. and he is
ready to fight for it.
1t is therefore idle to argue that muir
derers generally are insane" They
understand perfectly that their acts are
wrongful. They simply do not care, or
at least, they are so far Indifferent
that the moral consideration fails 10
hold them in check. This indicates that
the moral side of their mentality Eas
either been imperfectly developed, or
that something has occurred to blind IT,
Some yery great criminals have been
persons of rare intellect and high edu-
cational attainments, from which we
fairly may conclude that in many cases
a wide distinction must be made be-
tween intellectually and that quality
of the mind which leads men to differ
entiate closely between what is right
and what is wrong, and to shrink from
the commission of the acts which come
| under the latter head.
Ever since the earliest dawn of civili-
zation the efforts of organized society
have been directed to the prevention of
crime. At first the means employed
were wholely primitive, and of exceed
| ing severity. There was no thought of
reforming the criminal. The idea was
to get rid of him, except in the most
trivial of cases. In these he was pun
| ished in q manner which it was believed
would deter him from other acts of
! crinlinality. As civilization advanced,
! the penalties became less ere, until
! at this time in many States capital pun
| ishment is entirely abolished, save for
treason.
The increasing mildness of the crimi
nal codes results from the humanitarian
| idea of reforming the criminal classes
| both for their own good and that of
society at large. The greatest question
| is how TO work out the reform. Primar-
! lily, all admit that criminals must be
| restrained and punished. The fear of
| punishment viii not deter all persons
from crime, but it will many, while the
punishment actually inflicted will either
| for time or permanently prevent the
same individual from repeating the
! same or another offence. The remedy
| generally urged is education This un-
doubtedly will be powerful agent if it
| is directed along proper lines. Educa-
! ton is quite general even now. The as
sassin of our late President is said to
be a person of some education. He re-
ceived a school education which in it
self probably did him some good; but
not enough to keep him from perpetrat-
ing one Of the most shocking and cause
less murders in the worlds criminal
history. Had his education stopped
when he left school he probably would
have gone through life a fairly re-
| spectacle citizen. 1t was what he
| learned afterward that converted him
into fiend.
Here we have the suggestion that if
education is TO be anything approach
| ing a complete preventive of crime, it
must partake more Of an ethical char
acter than it usually does. knowledge
of mathematics is not enough to make
| IEeI SOOu. De Taught
in their earliest youth to respect the
rights of others, and scrupulously to
obey the injunction Of the Golden Rule
Education which fails to strengthen
the moral instincts will be a very small
factor in the prevention of crime. But
there is one thing which the law can
do: 1t can prevent the public teaching
of doctrines which naturally lead to
crime. Had there been no anarchist
ranting and raving in the United
States, our late President would in all
human probability be alive and well to-
day. The crime which deprived him of
life was a most unnatural one, in the
entire absence of any provocation or
anything to be gained by the act. The
assassin had been taught that there
should be no government; that it was
| not wrong to kill the executive head of
nation. and he carried the doctrine
to its logical conclusion. 1t was the
result solely of a vicious propaganda
which should be absolutely suppressed.