Arizona republican., 1910-10-16
SOCIETY AND ITS MAYNARD
 CHILDREN.

Kalamazoo is discovering an old truth through new methods. Recently it was determined to employ in the
 construction of good roads the men arrested for drunkenness and minor
 offenses against the public peace. There was promise of an unfailing supply of workmen. The plan was scarcely put in operation and a few : stretches of road constructed before there came a decided decrease in the number of daily recruits for the work. For some ineXpfcable reason, the drag net ceased to bring in the usual num-
 Der of drunks; there was a perceptible falling off in reports of petty crimes, and it begins to look now as though Kalamazoo, if it wants to finish its roads, will have to hire men to do it. The old truth which crops out in the new form is the one which traces a considerable share of the criminal ity of man back to his age-old Oppo- sition to labor. Men steal because they delude themselves with the
 thought that it is an easy way to get
 a living or make a fortune. In reality it is the hardest route ever taken, for if all men appreciated that fact there
 would be little stealing and few en- croachments of those other forms which society long ago found it nec- essary to ban in order that it might be left free to practice the golden rule.
 It is pretty generally accepted that
 the common plan of locking up in prisons men who make a practice of ! ha nrIH is a failure in so far as it operates to check crime. Men who steal to avoid work find small punishment in being supplied with free board and lodging at the expense of that society which they hold to owe them a liv- ing When it results in being forced to go to work, what is the good of stealing? If stealing ends in work, why not work in the first place? So cities which put their vagrants and petty offenders to hard labor are usually given a wide berth by the crook profession.
 The iniquity of the Third Degree has been aired more or less feverishly of late years. Police officers urge in it's defense that it is the most effec- tive argument yet devised for pro- tecting a city from the periodical visits of the gentlemen who prey. With the jail no corrector Of crime, the danger of arrest does not discOur- age the thief, the porch climber, the
 burglar or the strong arm man. But
 the prospect of getting at the hands
 of the police something akin to that
 spanking which is the universal re-
 sort for the correction of the wayward
 child, is a strong factor in turning
 the flow of the stream of crooks
 around that city which is known to
 have a police force that is free with
 the short-arm jab.
 Those who commit crimes against
 the public peace are the bad child
 ren of grown-up society, misguided,
 short-sighted often more to be pitied
 than condemned. They have simply
 failed to grasp the responsibility
 which life imposes, and while abuse
 is no more to be condoned in their
 case than 1t is in that of the way
 ward child. hard work and the kind
 of punishment most feared may in
 moderation be the best corrective left
 open for teaching them the truth that
 it would be better for them to sub
 scribe to the rule and turn to honest
 labor. And that is the underlying
 idea in all punishment for crime
 Denver Republican.