Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-22

tity and many violent attacks upon person
and property. But alcoholism has social
causes; spirits force themselves upon such
as cannot find a higher form of stimulus OF
the nerve centers; and as civilization de-
velops the need Of finding fresh stimulants
makes itself more and more felt.
+ 1t is equally well known that crimes
against deceney are IN gneral committed by
persons in state of overlooking, while 9TH
er crimes. and in particular violent at
tempts upon life and property, are favored
by hunger, a social product.
As to the effects of education, we must
recall what has been said of Voltaire-
namely, that its Importance Is exaggerated,
while at the same time it is not sufficiently
taken account of. On the one hand, the IL
literate class presents the largest proper
ton of burglars, pickpockets, nocturnal as
saiants. incendiaries and infanticides, and
the smallest proportion of forgers. On the
other hand, the semi-literate predominant
among the abettors of murder, vendettas
and swindlers. and the literate among those
guilty of peculation and the corruption of
officials, of forgery and blackmai Embez-
element. Justification and abstraction of
deeds are, naturally, we may say, special
tc those of the most cultivated class.
The one thing is to be set up against the
other But it cannot be denied that the alb
sence or insuffcency of family upbringng
is a fundamental cause of delinquency.
Influence Of Occupation.
There are also the influences of occupa-
ton. Criminals rarely occur among fisher
men and priests On the other hand, crime
abounds In the trades where people are
most exposed to the action of fire alco-
hol, to contact with arms or with wealth.
So 1t appears to a large extent among no.
taries and in general ali men of law, and
at the other extremity of the social scale in
the bodies which have had servie status
from early days, and to name which in an
cient times was practically to bring a grave
accusation against the person meant: ''co-
quin" comes from "coquus." a cook Many
shoemakers and walters from inns or hotels
appear criminals.
Most of all is 1t the case with soldiers.
Military service comes upon men just at
the age which otherwise furnishes the
greatest amount of criminality; 1t develops
coarseness of feeling, and induces even a
glorification of cruelty.
The distinctions have established
among the forms of crime, and the classifi-
cation we have sketched of the causes of
crime, suggest clearly enough the suitable
remedies 1t is clear we can do nothing
against the influence of heredity, tempera-
ture, age and sex, and that the classes of
the born and the insane criminal are in
herent in all social states. Nevertheless, in
a country where. as in England, asylums
for dangerous lunaticS keep for life most
of the criminal insane and a notable pro-
portion of the born criminals, the fndivid-
uals of those two classes can scarcely do
more harm to society, and to maintain them
cost if they were shut up only temporarily
on each successive arrest and conviction.
AS for the number of criminals of oppor-
tunity, it diminishes when for the first lapse
they receive conditional freedom which
keeps them out of prison, and which in con-
sequence prevents many of them becoming
professional criminals. To restrict still fur-
Their the scope of this category we must put
great weight upon schemes and institutions
founded with a view to abandoned, unfor-
tunate and abnormal children. Further
there is the anti-drink crusade, which at
tacks the very root of the evil by supsu.
tuting for the abuse of wine and the use of
spirits the taste for tea and coffe, and the
brain stimulants of higher order, such as
public spectacles. Finally, we must recog-
nize that private associations, governments
and religious bodies are jealous rivals In
the campaign. To that fact in great meas
ure is due the phenomenon presented by
England, Scotland and the canton of
Geneva, the only countries of Europe where
to a constant growth of population CORE
spends constant enormous diminuuon IN
serious crime, except as regards outrages
upon decency, fighting and wounding in
quarrels, and in England-fraud.
What Has Occurred in Australia.
But the proof is still more striking if we
examine what has occurred In Australia.
Despite immigration, which increased by
third during the decade 1SS9-1S9S, and
the doubling of the population during the
same period the number of cases of arson
fell by third, of robbery with violence
by a fourth, and of assassination by al
most half. The increases related to out
RACES upon decency committed upon chill
dren increase in the proportion of 65 to
1OS), and to convictions for drunkenness
Qrom 30 to 1900. These last figures, far
from indicating the growth of alcoholism,
simply mean that drunkards In Australia
are vigorously imprisoned. On the other
TIL, ,.dn1,r
than 100000 inhabitants, pays for chill
dren abandoned, guiltily or not more than
"a. 100000 francs, twenty times more than
Italy, which has population eight times
arbitra ton, the eight hours day, a legal
minimum wage "a minimum beyond the
maxima of italy,, homes for invaded work
men-by relieving, In short, the burden
which wealth imposes on the poor Austria
liza has considerably reduced It's crimnality,
without Strengthening the penal laws, al
ways too severe and often useless, and
without multiplying gaols. which are use
less and injurious. 1t has gone to the root
of the evil-namely, poverty, alcohol and
lack of education. The campaign against
these scourges has Been conducted, not by
a few philanthropists, but by a whole So
cial body, more concerned In this mis-
sion than in military expenditure an ar
chaic folly with which the old world is so
much troubled in injecting the new ma
tons.
What Australia has done In It's fight
against crime other peoples will do on that
day, not far off, when they will have
learned that a preventive cure is more
economic and humane process of defend
ing society against the wild fury of the
criminal than extreme judicial or penal
rigor, little feared by the guilty, and a con-
slant menace to the innocent-the day
when all the nations called civilized will
resolve TO limit their military charges in
order to dedicate to the war upon crime
great portion of their material and moral
resources CESARE LOMBROSO.
Prof. Lombroso.
Signor Cesare I.ombroso, the founder of
modern criminology. was born at Verona in
1896 Beginning by devoting himself stimuli
taneously to research in natural science
and to linguistic studies, he published works
on Roman history and archaeology Then
he studied medicine in turn at the universe
ties of Padua, Vienna and Pavia. He took
part in the 1889 campaign an army sur
geon. Appointed professor of psychiatry at
the University of Pavia, he was transferred
in 1876 to the University of Turin, where at
present he teaches psychiatry. He has
directed the lunatic asylums at Pavia, Pc