The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1911-10-23
LECTURE BY REV. j. b. LEY

church, spoke last night to an audience !
which completely filled the auditorium |
of his church on Some Lessons Sug- |
gested by the Completion Of Marion |
Countys New $4,000 Prison" He |
spoke for nearly an hour, holding the |
closest attention Of his hearers. Chos- |
ing for his scriptural reference Rom. |
1876. For the cause We pay tribute,
he cited the fact that the apostle was
here referring TO the cost Of the ex-
ecution Of law against its criminal vio-
lators.
Affirming his subject to be a live
one. viewed from any aspect, and COM
mending the authorities for the excel
Ience Of the work; affirming the build
ing 10 be a model of convenience, SAN
itation and humane. afording light,
warmth and ventilation and a measure
of physical comfort, it was neverthe-
less "a prison Its stone and steel
floors. walls and gratings were grim
reminders that there exists among Us
a considerab bic class whose cupidity or
lack of self-control renders such a
building necessary.
Not the jail" said the speaker,
however. as a building, not the public
spirit which directed and consummat-
ed its construction, not its adapta-
bility TO the ends for which jails are
built claims our consideration, but the
presence of criminal class sufficient
ly large to Justify such a princely eX-
penditure for their care, in COM
munity bristling with churches and
schools, in a county whose every cross
road boasts a school house and a
church, in a state and municipality
well governed and well protected, is
he a
the hands of our people"
( Three questions were then presented
and discussed:
LIST. Whence our modern criminal?
End. Why our criminal?
Bird. What are we going to do about
ft2
The first question may be answered
in sentence He is bone of our bone,
flesh of our flesh: he is not an exotic
transplated from some soil Internal
but is born and bred among us. He
eats of our food. breaths the same air
and walks amidst the same environ
ments out from which are developed
the fairest flowers of our civilization.
Second Why the criminal? Is it
because of some fatal defect in our So
cial and economic life, or in spite of
the good in his surroundings?
Answering the question the speaker
said
First, criminals are born. Not born
criminal, but with criminal tendencies.
He charged the moderate or excessive
use of alcoholic rstimulants as a bev-
erage in one or both parents as large
ly responsible, claiming that alcohol
blunts moral perceptions and these
blunted perceptions are often the aw-
fnI harita0 nf children horn S1fh
a parentage.
He also affirmed that 80 per cent of
the children born of criminal parents
became criminals. But charging every
environment with a larger measure of
influence. he said this was to be seen:
LIST. In lax administration of discip-
line. beginning all too often at the
paternal fireside. Illustrative of the
truth of this the speaker read various
extracts from leading writers and
thinkers on this phase of his subject
THE man of criminal propensity is
emboldened to acts of criminality from
the general conviction that he will ten
chances to one at least escape detec-
ton, or if caught, red-handed in the
act, will escape punishment.
''Vice and crime" said the speaker
again. "are fostered by the paradins
of criminal acts by the press and
visualized by the motion pictures.
ut is claimed by the press that only
that is printed for which there is de-
mand. So we once heard a vender OF
tainted meat say he sold it because a
certain per centage of his customers
were willing to buy it. But he had tic
stop"
Commenting on the law of sugges-
ton" the speaker said the poet under
stood that when he wrote:
"Vice is a monster of so frightful mein
To be hated. needs but to be seen.
But seen too oft. familiar with her face
We first endure, then pity, then en-
brace"
He charged the licensed traffic in al
coholic beverage as most fruitful
breeder of crime" \ statement "con-
firmed by courts and judges. prisoner:
and paupers, asylums and slums."
Several remedies" were suggested
by the speaker.
l. Without stopping to argue the
point, l wish to say, that certain kind:
of criminals should not be allowed Il
be born. Confirmed criminals, feeble
minded and common drunkards should
be prevented from reproducing thei
kind. by a resort to legal segregation
of the sexes, or. if that is not possible
then by sterilization"
2. There must be better enforce
ment of law. II must be impartial
There's no more reason why white mel
gathered in a saloon should be allow
ed to bet on the results of the world
series of ba seball games than that
crowd of negroes be allowed to pitcl
craps"
s. Some sort of news censorship i
demanded. He was in favor of al
liberty of the press" but not in favo
Of the license it sometimes exercise
to dish out its dreary routine of erin
inal rottenness day by day. Becaus
it is legal. that a waiter of America
beauty roses should be sold in our no
tells and on our streets, is no reaso
why it should also be legal for tn
same vender from the same waiter /
offer for sale the altar of ancient egg:
blended with the aromatic extract o
poiecat, even If some noses should b
educated to enjoy such blending O
odors" And because the press ma
wisely and properly print and ven
news of growth and development. an
all the good things of this life. sue
liberty" should not be transferred int
the license to serve on the same pa ge
stories in all their narrowing detail
of murders and rapes and suicides an
marital and sexual rottenness becaus
forsooth some folks demand the circu
49, az