Los Angeles herald., 1908-07-07

lkaeaaA&lI lie met a BOY private III Town
and saw that he had been
drinking. Had he made a prisoner OF
the boy he would have been punished
for drunkenness, and would have got
| drunk again. But the young officer
| sent for the boy next day and said:
IF 1 were you, Thomas. wouldn't
| drink It's a poor game and your
people wouldn't like It," That boy was
cured.
The terrors of capital punishment, of
| the cat" even the terrors of hell fire,
fail to awe the criminal. Because he
is stupid or ignorant and lacks image
| nation. He hears of death or hell, but
! he cannot imagine either. He seldom
thinks or looks beyond the end OF his
nose.
1T is time Solomon's rod followed
| the witch's broom, that the cat, and
| the chain, and the cell, and the felons
9arb, the oakum, the skilly and the
| gallows, followed the rack and the
thumbscrew, the faggot and the wheel.
| To come to recognize that the cause of
| most of our social and moral troubles
| is ignorance-not illiteracy only or nee
| essarily, but just ignorance of human
nature and the essentials of whole
some human life-is the next neces-
sary step; and this kind of ignorance
is detailed and elaborated in a way to
cover most of our fads and foibles. our
shams and shibboleths for which 1t
stands. To quote a fragment only;
1.-THE kind of ignorance which divides
the people into two classes; rich and
poor, masters and slaves which causes
men to sacrifice health, happiness and
virtue for the sake of vanity and idle
ness, and wealth; which keeps twelve
millions in a rich and fertile country
always on the verge of restitution, and
saddles mankind with the cost of
armies and fleets and prisons and po-
lice; which breeds millions of Grim
inals and educates them in crime . F..
the kind of ignorance which makes pos
sible the millionaire, the aristocrat, the
sweater, the tramp, the thief, the de-
generate and the slave; which drives
men to drink and women to shame"
Not blame and punishment, but the
spread of knowledge alone can rid us
of these deadly forms of ignorance.
ITO bewail the wickedness of men,
while we foster the evil surroundings
from which the wfckednesS springs, is
as foolish as to bewail the presence of
malarial fever and punish victims for
spreading the disease, while we refuse
to drain the marsh from which the ma
laria comes, because some person or
power and privilege wishes to shoot
wild fowl there. While we have an
idle rich and a hungry and ignorant
poor we cannot get rid of vice and |
crime"
Mr.. Blatchford claims and asserts
(what we most of us know in some dim |
and partial way but will not recognize
or admit that crime, vice, disease,
poverty, idleness-all are preventable
evils. 1t is mammon and vanity on
which our hearts are set; 1t Is proper
indeed, as this author says, an tgno-
rant and ataVistic peODle
Notwithstanding that nearly all MT.
BlatchfoFd advances has Its roots IN
the lessons of universal experience, ana
has flowed through the centuries IN |
aphorisms and axioms which we quote |
with assumed approval from the pages
of our wisest and best, yet so ingrained |
Is the habit of denying or ignoring IN |
practice the truths we pretend to ac-
cept in theory, that Mr.. Blatchford,
after arguing his case, page by page |
and paragraph by paragraph has
found it necessary toward the END 20
incorporate a chapter dealing with OBJ
jections that were raised on various
points during the books preliminary
trip, in serial form, through the Lon
don weekly of which Mr. Blatchroro
is the editor and part founder. Mr..
easily demonstrates that
the greater part OF these criticisms, by
such men as Sir oliver Lodge, Arch
deacon Wilson, DR.. Aked, G. K. Ches-
terton, Revs. j. r. Campbell, Marson
and Conrad Noel and others, arose
from misapprehensions OF the PROPOSE
lions or from loose reasoning upon tine
same; and It Is rather surprising IN
view of Mr.. Blatchford's clarifying gift
of exposition, that some of his learn
ed' critics could so have "squinted with |
both eyes," 1t is, however gratifying
as we'll as significant circumstance that
a well fought out discussion on the
contested points, which Mr.. Blatchford
generously allowed to be conducted IN |
his own paper, has resulted IN tne
drawing closer to Mr.. Blatchford OF
MANY Of these his erstwhile opponents
who have since so far identified them
selves with his views and aims as 10
appear on the same platform Win nlnl'
To resume here in detail Mr.. Blatch-
fords brilliantly simple process OF DIS
ENHANCEMENT Of difficultles real enouen
to their propounders yet startnngly-
almost ludicrously-soluble to Mr.:
Blatchford's unanswerable logic would
be to spoil the readers pleasure In the
hook and therein to do injustice to the
author Father Adderley, Rev. c. A.
Hall, Rev. Horton, as we'll as the gen
tlemen named before, all have their
turn at 1more or less) friendly criti-
cism, and, it is safe to say, get full sat-
isfaction. But as Mr.. Blatchford de-
clares in concluding this chapter: "The
world is very ignorant in affairs OF
moral sanitation and has an almost re-
ligious generation Tor the sacredness
of grand ducal ducks"
The concluding chapter OF this book
(Which, by the way, the author con-
siders his best yet, (and his "Merrle
England" turned the million mark In
Great Britain alone) forms the sum-
mary of his closing speech In defense
of the bottom dog; and 1t is fine
sample of the authors simple, Anglo
Saxon style, and Blatchford Is distinct
ly a "stylist." He never uses a long
or Learned" word where short and
simple one will serve; and he never
jeopardizes the clarity of his argument
by an undue lengthening or compound
ing of his sentences.
Truly does he claim that his task is
one that might we'll stagger the stout
est heart. Against him nearly all the
wealth, power and learning of the
world, no less than the presidents of
human history, with law, religion, GUS
tom and public sentiment. With these
all against him the unfortunate victims
only hope is in the justice of his case.
After deploring that SO many Chris
tian ministers uphold blame and pun
ishment in direct defiance of the teach
ing and example of Jesus Christ, who
babe them love their enemies. Mr..
Blatchford goes on to say: 1.-THE Chris
tian prays to be forgiven as they for
give--how can they advocate blame and
punishment for the prosecuted and I'M
fortunate? / suppose that II q man do