The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-26
DRUNKENNESS NOT
A PENAL PROBLEM
Speakers at st. Louis Confer
ence Suggest Cures
COLONIES ON FARMS
Bailey II. Burritf of New York Says
That Punishment of Drunken Of
tenders should BE Changed
to Rational Methods

seeded by medical treatment if three stu
dents OF the question who spoke before
| the National Conference of Charities and
Corrections had their way. They were
Bailey B. Burrtt of New York, Robert
A Woods of Boston and Judge William
| j. Pollard of st. Louis. Prof. Thomas
j. Riley of St. Louis presided at tonight's
session of the conference. Drs. Edgar j..
Swift and John ". Withers of st. Louis
and Howard Strong of Cleveland were
| the speakers.
THE almost universal practice of treat
| ing drunkenness solely as a penal prob
| lem with no medical aspect and of fining
persons convicted of public intoxication
small amount and sentencing them to
Imprisonment from three to 10 days is of
no use whatever. either so far as the
individual or as society is concerned"
said Mr.. Burrtt.
THE problem should be treated, he
concluded. ''as a medical problem with
penal aspects, rather than penal prob
lem with no medical aspects He pro-
posed a plan for dealing with the whole
problem as follows:
Il. A more adequate system of identi-
fcation of cases of alcoholism in order
| to sift out the 'rounder'
%. A graded series of remedies includ-
| ing release of first offenders without their
appearance in court and greatly EXTEND
ed use of probation and suspended sem
tence
'3. The use of fines to be paid in install
ments and the abolition of the practice of
filming man after he has spent his last
cent on spree and then committing him
to penal institution for the want of
money to pay his fines.
"A Provision for commitment of chronic
drunkards upon proper medical certifca-
ton without the necessity of being arrest
ed for public intoxication and hailed be-
fore court. This commitment should
follow the analogy of commitment of in
sane persons
3. The development of farm and hos
pital colonies to which habitual alcoholics
can be committed and where they can be
given abundance of healthful out-of- door
work and medical care"
Treatment of Problems
In discussing a scientific basis for the
treatment of problems of criminologv and
penology before the conference this
morning, Prof. Maurice Parmelee. of the
state university of Kansas. said that with
the aid of science we shall soon be able
to individualize the treatment of the
criminal and to apply such forces in each
case as will counteract the tendency TO-
ward crime manifested in the Individual.
'he cnlid' said Professor Parmelee
crime is danger signal to society. II
Is an Indication that biological and social
FORCES are at work causing certain indI-
vfduals to commit anti-social acts. The
juvenile court movement is of pecuIiar
interest from the point of view of putting
the treatment of the criminal on a scien.
tlnc basis, for. If conducted along scien-
tinc reform of the whole code of criminal
procedure, because legislators and the
public at large are less tenacious of anti
quated conceptions of crime and punish
ment with respect to children than with
respect to adults
The speaker urged that all persons who
have anything to do with crime, whether
they be legislators. judges, lawyers, pro-
baton officers, police officials. or prison
administrators, should possess some
knowledge Of anthropology, biology, pa
tholoey, psychology and sociology.
Social Settlement Work
The function of the social settlement in
the changing life of a neighborhood in a
large city was discussed by Gaylord S.
White of the Union settlement of New
Xark hit
changes that occur in almost every neigh
borhood In large cities are social indus
trial and racial. Sometimes a district
will improve in desirability for residence
purposes, but more often the process will
be one of decadence from a neighborhood
of homes TO a boarding house section,
and finally to a tenement district Indus
| trial changes occur because tenements
attract factories and factories attract
tenement dwellers as workers 1t is not
| always possible to determine the causes
for changes In the character of a neigh
borhood as to nationality and race al
though the waves of change are clearly
marked.
Mr.. White believes that the settlement
should remain in the neighborhood as the
one constant factor, the one esta blished
neighbor and that only through this
means can the new neighbors as they
, come be made to fit into the rational life
of the city or nation
Responsibility for Work
The responsibility of the central COM
mercal organization of a city and it's
relation to the standards of charity work
done in that community were pointed out
| by Howard Strong, assistant secretary of
the Chamber of Commerce of Cleveland,
| Ohio.
The Cleveland Chamber of Commerce"
said Mr.. Strong, lis concerned with every
movement for the betterment of Cleve-
land, for the uplift of it's citizens from
commercial civic, or social standpoint,
and 1t is therefore as much a chamber of
citizenship as 1t is a chamber of COM
merce. The chamber has in its relation
to the charity of the city assumed as
fundamental principle that the charity
which receives its support from the pub
lie is in a sense a public Institution, and
that the public has right, therefore, to
know its methods and to demand its con-
formity with an accepted standard of eff
cheney. Fully 80 per cent of the money
which is collected each year for the sup