Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-01-24
What All These Robberes Mean
BIZ Bishop w. A. Gambler

in cities. In our own city of Atlanta
there have been a number of such out
RACES. and the press dispatches report
many such in other American cities.
The evil seems to be general without
reference to section. 1t is a symptom
OF serious moral disorder to which we
should give careful attention.
When a robbery is committed three
elements enter into the crime in varying
proportions according to the character
of the criminal who perpetrates it and
the time, place, and circumstances sur
rounding the crime. There must be an
intense desire to get money, a DISPOSE
ton to take human life If necessary 10
secure money, and a belief that the
criminal can escape the penalties of the
law. Given these three mental condi-
tions and a robbery will be committed
on the first favourable opportunity The
force of the three will be mingled in
various degrees of strength in different
instances of the crime, but each will
enter in some measure into every case.
To extirpate the evil many will de-
mand the more certain and speedy exc
cution of law against the men who COM
NIT the crime, and this doubtless should
be emphasized. Most of our cities nave
inadequate police protection. 1t Is
easier for a criminal to escape in
great city than in q rural community.
American cities are proverbially ill-gov-
erned. But when all is said on this
score that can be Justly said, 1t remains
true that the better enforcement of law
and the more perfect policing of the
cities will not extirpate this evil. The
remedy lies deeper, We must Sy some
means cleanse our social SYSTEM of the
feverish love of money which consumes
it. and we must correct the widespread
disposition to hold life cheap as COM
pared with money. These evil passions
are producing other crimes besides high
way robbery. They are not confined TO
what we call 1.-The criminal classes;
they are pervasive among all classes.
Our people are filled with mania for
money which admits of no delay in the
qualification of the ardent desire for
gain. we have all sorts Of "get-rich-
quick" schemes, including many which
are not excluded from the mails.
There are schemes for specializing in
real estate, for cornering grain and cot
ton, for all sorts Of grating commits
sions, and for every kind of shortcut"
to wealth. These schemes arise in order
to procure money for the wanton self
Indulgence and wild extravaganza of
people bent on lives of pleasure and dis
play Thousands feel that without such
daily gratifcations life is not worth
living, and that with them the most
unworthy life Is made honorable They
regard the want of money and the things
That money will buy as the deepest
disgrace, and they imagine that the pos
session of money with what 1t can pro-
cure ennobles any sort of vice. Life is
thus degraded by the undue exaltation
of mere things.
From such social conditions robber-
les exude like vile exhalations from a
putrefying body. When all classes feel
that they must have money at all haz-
ards, a certain number will take the
hazard of robbery to get it, while 9TH
ers are taking the hazards of specu1a-
tions and grating TO obtain 1T. And 1T
does not appear that some operations In
commerce are so far removed from ron
berries in point Of moral quality. A
robber puts pistol in a man face
with the demand OF your money or
your life" not really wishing or ex-
pecting to take the life, bur designing
only to get the money. A SPECTATOR
gets control Of certain of the necessa-
ries of life, and he says to the whole
community, Your money or your life.
He too wants only the money, and he
generally gets 1t. The robber We put
in the penitentiary, If we can catch him
and keep him caught long enough 70
convict him. The Spectator who takes
advantage of the necessities Of all the
people and EFFORTS a few millions from
them, we honour and laud as Imam
cial king"
The robber gets what he deserves
sometimes, and the Spectator gets
far more than he deserves.
But in the last analysis OF the case,
1t will be seen that the whole communi-
ty gets also pretty much what it de-
serves We are all in measure gull
ty In that we contribute to the making
of the conditions out of which these
crimes arise.
When all of us unite In putting an
excessive valuation on money ana the
things ii will buy, and an under-appre-
citation on the uncommercial and un-
purchasable things of life and charac-
ter, we must be prepared for the preva-
lence in the land OF all sorts OF meth
DDS for getting money and despisfng
virtue. If money is the chief end, Will
not men get it at all hazards? Will
they stop to discuss methods OF obtain
ing 1t when life without IL IS reckoned
as worthless and life with it as nm
measurably greatg
This rank evil is blood disease. ana
II calls for constitutional treatment. In
all ages and in all lands the eruption
has always appeared on the social sys-
tenn when it's heart was infected with
the virus of commercialism. In the
days of King solomon the united king
dom OF Israel was prosperous as never
before or afterwards; gold and silver
were plentiful as stones in the streets
of Jerusalem, says the inspired histo-
rian; the king himself conceived a ma
MIA for magnificence and all his SUD-
jects caught the contagion. Then rob
berries began to be prevalent In the He
brew capital and throughout the land.
A Calcium light is thrown on the SIT
uation by some words in the book OF
Proverbs, such, for example, as these:
my son If sinners entice thee consent
thou not. If they say, Come with us,
let us lay wait for blood, let us Turk
privily for the innocent without cause;
let us swallow them up alive as the
grave; and whole as those that go down
into the pit; we shall find all precious
substance. we shall fill our houses with
spoil: cast in thy lot among us; let us
have one purse: my son, walk not thou
in the way with them; refrain thy foot
from their path: for their feet run 10