Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1910-04-20

Holmes, and it, nm
Il A( wisdom is appar- NHV[
ent to all stu N\\\E
~ dents Of the his INN
~ g - tory Of crime and w
Whether crime ID caused by -
heredity, environment or Just
Happens" is a much-mooted ques-
tton The potency Of heredity as
causal factor Of crime is doubt
tul to che casual observer who il
OF the opinion that all depends on
| environment. But "atavism," or
the tendency Of nature ito return
to type" has come to be recog-
| nized generally by scientists and
historical and anthropological re-
search undoubtedly prove its ex-
istence
AS the criminal stands at the
oar and receives his sentence, i'm
mur1ng him behind the prison
| walls. little is known of his past,
even less Is learned Of his future
by the world at large The aver
age of mankind may know one or
two or possibly three criminals,
but IN all probability does not
know the pedigree" Of even one
OF them. Looking backward, we
nnd that we have outgrown the
friends Of our youth whose "pedi-
!: s Z:
gree" or ancestry we did know,
and so cannot trace them further. /!MHS
Thus it follows that whether he LtW01
red1ty tends to criminality cannot A1%<&
be ascertained by everyday or sSE:
common experience. There seems 1si
no doubt, however, that n can be
determined by statistical research.
Formerly the theory Of the <xA
criminal law was retribution-an
eye Tor an eye, tooth for tooth: Efts
he who has sinned must be Dun ~
| 1shed. But the advancement of
scientific knowledge has fur H&ss2
| n1shed the foundation for q new R#
system OF penology, which has, at
least upon the statute books, taken
the place Of the old. The trend of @
the law for many years has been Gk)
toward the amelioration of punish
ment and largely because the ma ~
| ture OF the criminal is better IN
derstood and 1t ia felt that he Is
one who needs not 80 much pun-
1shment as proper instruction: and.
moreover, because it is now believed that
purpose and intent of our criminal law should
to cure the criminal Of his criminal tenden,
and to restore him to righteous living
Under the old theory of responsibility" y
| ever or whatever sinned was deemed respons
for 1t and subject to punishment and in the 7
die ages even animals we're tried and punis]
Invertebrates, also, were not exempt from Or
cution. Havelock Ellis tells us in 1.-THE Crimi,
! that In 1854 the bishop of Lausanne fnitis
legal proceedings against the leeches which
tested the water at Berne. The "affair" c;
before the judges at Berne, the bishop b.
properly represented. A leech was obtained
| brought into the presence of the judges and
leeches, present and absent were warned to al
don the spots they had the temerity to occ,
three full days being allowed them to evacu
| and guardian was appointed to watch over t.
interests and take means for their defense
court. The bishop gained his cause, but
leeches having successfully resisted the de-
OF the court the bishop finally lost all pate
and mathematical them.
Formerly, insanity, even with its apparen
responsibility, was no defense to crime. Be
1889 insanity seems to have been unknown
the French law, although the seventeenth-cen
rule prescribed that no one in the state of "in
safe fury should be punished The rule,
ever, proved of little avail Responsibility
since received close attention and study
through the persistent efforts Of men of scie
its field has steadily enlarged Schopenh
says responsibility supposes that an indivi
could have acted differently from the way he
tually did act" In sense responsibility M
that man suffers the consequences of his
h1du peCOWSS TeSpOuSlDIe BECAUSE ne lives II
ciety. Society has the right to defend and
serve itself. 1t recognizes the need of supp
ing the criminal and preventing his unlawful
and it exercises its right so to do.
The progressive feature of the age in peno
has been to determine not only whether C.
was committed, but whether he who commit
was of such understanding as to be prof.
punishable therefor and amenable to discipli
treatment. Many of the worlds greatest m
, have studied this problem. but the first benef
attempt to minister to the criminal as one
sessed Of devil" or mind diseased" was I
in the state of New York, when the Now
State Reformatory at Elmira was created. 7
the inmates are kept under the strictest Of
tai and physical discipline: mental arithmetic
Turkish baths are applied together to crea
sane mind in sound body. They are taught
Honesty Is the best policy" the only policy
pays from the practical. worldly point of ,
The results have been surprisingly gratif
only about 20 per cent, the friends of that
tuition claim, of tho felons therein incarce1