The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1902-09-04

A WRITER in the September arena urges the
necessity of hospital santarium for the treat
ment of lawbreakers. "We do not hang man
because he has consumption" says this theorist,
s'even if we believe his companionship to be a
constant source of danger to those with whom he
in contact If it is proper to establish homes
for consumptives where they will be surrounded by
such conditions will either prolong life or restore
health is it not just as important that we should
have homes for criminals where they will have only
such influences thrown around them as shall conduce
to their reform?" Visionary and perchance illogical
this query is, it is nevertheless the direct out
come of the teachings of Lombroso, Nordau and
some of the German school of criminalogists Let
us try to answer it.
In the first place it is necessary to be quite sure
crime is disease. If it u.s. there is but one way to
diagnose it-by the commission of an unlawful act
on the part of the criminal. And here arises the
question: What sort of an unlawful act constitutes
crime? A penal offense? This is important, because
an act that is penal offense in Minnesota, for in
stance, may be styled msdemeanor in Virginia,
and vice versa. Again, many acts constitute penal
offenses in the German Empire that are not even
misdemeanors in America. If this is to be the
criterion, it would that the disease, crime can
in instances be entirely cured by simply step
ping across the boundary line from one state to
another. Consumption, the other hand, is an
affection manifesting the same symptoms all the
world over And it is not necessary for the person
afflicted to have hemorrhage before it can be dag
nosed
But perhaps the writer of the arena article
diagnoses crime, not by the commission of an I'M
lawful act, but as condition of mind If So it is
evidently expected that in course of time all stigma
will be removed from wrong doing and persons
coveting the property of others spelling for q
fight" will voluntarily go to the criminal hospitals
for treatment. This means the complete abolition
of all human responsibility; which is, to say the
least, dangerous doctrine to promulgate
Any who thinks on the subject at all must
realize that society itself is responsible for many of
the oenses committed against it, that in many cases
OF awlessness extenuating circumstances exist; but
SO long one who has committed crime kuozs,s he
has done wrong and shows this knowledge by at
tempting to escape the consequences of his act by
repentance, or by any other means, he is not
subject for hospital, but for correctional and
reformatory institution This is nothing more than
common sense. To say that crime ia a disease
amounts to the thing as saying that no con-
duct is blameworthy. There is too much of this
sentimental literature the subject of crime;
too much shifting of the burden from the shoulders
that ought to bear it. Conscience, that hidden
knowledge Of right and wrong is as real today as it
ever was, and is the same reliable guide as of yore
There is another point which, while not exactly
germane to the subject, is still worthy Of some con-
sideration in connection with it: To promulgate q
code of ethics which does away with human re-
sponsibility is not fair to the who is trying to
do right for rights sake. It's pretty hard for the
average man to come within gunshot of his ideals
as things now but do away with the necessity Of
trying and il will be impossible.