The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-14

in reaching out after immigrants, ignoi-
 ant of our institutions. to enrich our country, when we have the material here, foreign and native to the soil whom We are grinding in the dust Of poverty, Tn many instances, by inhuman selhshness Their conditions in life their questona-
 ble environment, necessitated by poor pay, cause them to yield to temptation
 and become steeped in crime. It Is said that many of our great department stores manufacturing and industrial en- terprises, mining corporations, are Tn
 some cases giving starvation wages and poor homes in congested villages, and are thereby the rankest breeders of vice and
 crime. So long as we continue business
 methods that entail penury and want we
 germnate crime and promote its growth. Is 1t not true that the criminal Is like the microbe: He thrives not in the sunlight, but in the damp, dark basement of socie- ty, where social conditions invite. We
 make or we permit the conditions that
 foster this growth. 'Soclety has Just the
 number and kind of criminals that it de-
 serves Many can be saved to society by reasonable wages and proper mental and moral training and by healthful environ
 ment for employees Let us begin to save rather than continue to pauperiZe and proletarianize the wage earning populace of our cities, industrial towns and cotton mill villages.
 All criminals cannot be reformed, but we can take steps in the formation of
 character among our working boys and girls by extending helping hand and by
 placing them in favorable surroundings.
 The incorrigible criminal can be stayed
 from his ravages upon property and per-
 son and his demoralizing influence upon
 social disorder by the indeterminate sen
 tence. When the state and the great n-
 d cttioI f,.,a tx fk
 q duty to strive to save the neglected
 child and the struggling poor from want
 and starvation wages. to teach them some
 useful knowledge in branches of trade or
 the industrial arts, so that they may earn
 a fair compensation, then will many more
 skilled hands and trained minds be em-
 ployed to add to the material and moral
 wealth of the republic and to strengthen
 our national life. Many idle heads and
 idle hands will be turned from questions
 ble ways into useful and helpful voca-
 tions. It is impossible to oyer-estimate
 the good each citizen might accomplish
 by individual effort to upift humanity.
 The most sanguine optmist could not
 well exaggerate the moral force this re-
 public. would gain from such q whole
 some influence. Our great industrial
 tablishments, the rich and the well-to-do
 citizen, in the end, protect their wealth
 and promote their own interest by aiding
 to advance the social welfare of the
 wage workers.
 The Japanese Methods.
 We Americans could learn some profit , ole lessons from the Japanese. But re- gently Ito, Japan's wise statesman, con- ducted political campaign on the plat form that the citizen should make every personal interest subservient to the well 1, fare of the nation, because the pride of the empire was the welfare of the people This sentiment and this feeling instilled in the heart of the citizen made possible the brilliant victories of the Japanese upon land and upon the sea, over enc of the most powerful nations of the eastern world No hardship too severe, no sacrifice too great for the Jap anese citizen, when advancing the inter est of the empire was the spirit of her people.
 America would have a new era in | so al and civic betterment, were we to | adopt Japanese methods in enforeng the | criminal law. There the penalties are | made less harsh and less rigid as you descend the social scale. The poor and | the unfortunate are objects of deepest 1 concern and kindiest consideration: their | welfare Is given the greatest care. It | Is the sworn duty of every official to | lend a helping hand and all possible aid | in uplifting the wayward. The aim of the Mikado Is to promote the happiness