The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-10-01

sistent plan for the defense
Il of society against crime Is
the purpose of Colonel Boies'
new book, "Thc Science of PenolosN,'
a well printed volume of 45o octave
pages issued from the knickerbocker
press of G.. p. Putnam's Sons. Years
of study of methods now in vogue to
handle the criminal elements have so
thoroughly impressed the colonel with
their inadepuacy that he has UNDER
taken to synthesize into science the
suggestions and conclusions of those
who like himself have been led to be-
lieve that society's present hap-hazard
and largely vindictivc attitude toward
the authors of crime is out of conson-
ance with modern civilization. 1t is
easy to say of courts and prisons:
"Theyre all wrong" and difficult to
say wherein they are wrong and how
they may be righted, but Colonel Boies
in this book engages in constructive
criticism. What he tears out of eX-
listing methods he offers to replace.
The fact that = per cent. of the popu-
la ation comprehend the disturbing
criminal class, now a constant guam
tity, whose annual cost to the other
rs per cent. is in the United States
$500, 100000 year or $45 for every head
of a respectable American family, has
led some penologists to affirm the pro-
priety of eXterminating by anaesthesia
this troublesome insignificant minority.
as one would pull out and cast away
an aching tooth or shoot Il mad dog.
But that being impractcable Colonel
Boies proposes as the best practicable
method the systematic detection and
Identification of criminals: the holding
in confinement until pronounced cured
or incurable of every person convicted
of a crime; the isolation of incorrig-
ibles under conditions making it i'm
possible for them to bring tainted chill
dren into the world; and the applica-
ton of scientific principles to the whole
problem of getting down into the
causes of criminality and of remedying
them at their remotest sources. In q
word he would substitute for the pres
ent ineffective punishments a system
that would treat the criminal as a dis
eased person, apply to his diseased con-
dition influences calculated to work a
cure. restore to usefulness those found
durable and put those beyond cure into
form of permanent quarantine.
Unlike some who have discussed this
subject, Colonel Boies does not pro-
pose to do away with punishments.
On the contrary, he would increase
their deterrent influence by modifying
their character. Legal penalties are
deterrent in proportion to the popular
estimate of the disgrace which pertains
to them. Therefore the law must make
crime odious and despicable; it must
brand the criminal as an anti-social,
depraved and dangerously diseased ele-
ment in society; and society must make
every individual shun the disgrace of
identification with the criminal class.
But while thus sternly discouraging
crime he would also emphasize the
need of reclaiming the victims of it,
to help them overcome criminal i'm
pulses; to build up their resisting forces
until the will power to do right is su-
perior to the temptation to do wrong.
And in his book in great detail he
shows, step by step, how this reforma-
tory machinery may be constructed
and operated
In later articles we shall examine
more closely into the details of his
plan.
OF the 2,17S vessels that entered
Shanghai in 1897, only fifty carried the |
American flag. In the same year not
a single American steamer was seen at |
Chefoo, although 664 British steamers
were reported and $50 German. Hong |
Kong reported only forty weight Ameri- |
can vessels, yet there We're 3S,713 ar
rivals of all nationalities, including |