The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-13
EDUCATION AND LAWLESSNESS
DIR. J. H. PHILLIPS IN EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGE

Tho harvest and disregard for human life which certain sections of our state have been reaping is not an accident or chance occurrence. The seed has been planted. It is the natural effect of causes for which society in it's organized capac- ity is responsible. No child is born a criminal. Some children are born with brains which, under certain unfavorable conditions, given by society, are more liable than others to produce criminal acts. Some children are handicapped by physical defects; others on account of inheritance or home conditions are way ward, incorrigible. physically degenerate or mentally defective. Because these classes were neglected by society gen- eration ago. why should we be surprised if the society of today suffers the con sequences? From the ranks of these neg lected children are recruited the major ity of the vagrants and paupers, thieves and murderers which infest our com munities
 'Who did sin, this man or his parents that he was born blind?'' was the charac- teristic question put to Jesus. by his dis
 
 his time. Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents" was the emphatic re- ply. Society in every age has assumed guiltlessness and has endeavored to sad eile the entire responsibility on the in dividual sinner. Blindness. physical, men, tai or moral is generally mark of social rather than of personal culpability. You cannot limit sin, either in it's cause or it's effect, to, the individual aspect. and the roots of all vice. and crime must be traced ultimately to the heart of society
 What are the means employed by our society for, the correction of this condi- ton of lawlessness? An immediate solu- ton is difficult It is too late to con sider the formative and constructive method. That should have been done 20 or 40 years ago. The only thing left is to relieve the situation by the negative method-by processes of law by courts. jail and penitentiary. But here again our society breaks down and utterly fails Tn the administration and enforce ment of law. The trouble has been attributed to the reckless facility with which unnecessary laws are enacted to our methods of judicial procedure. to that hoary institution known as the flee system,' to the inefficiency of our execu- tve officers and other causes. Doubt sss. these defective agencies are in part re- sponsible for the failure to suppress crime and lawlessness. But these agen- cies themselves are social; they are the creations of society and are, so far as they are defective, symptoms of social disease. Human life has become cheaper in the eyes of the masses than human property. and instead of facing certain and swift punishment the murderer after securing bail, faces certain. if not swift l acquittal. The fee system is irrational ana barbaric and can have no justlfica- ton or apology in any civilized society. | In effect. it places a premium upon the violation of law It establishes an off 1 ciai class whose financial fortune de- bends upon the multiplication of petty off, lenses. It has developed special in iustry, based upon ignorance. human | weakness and vice as the raw material of the business But the officials them | selves are not to blame. They are mere l ly the agents of society in the manage | ment of a machine which has been es- tablished by society. and which stands | before the civilized world as measure | of our social development.
 The officers selected by us to enforce | our laws and to protect our rights are no worse and no better than we want. Society has no fixed standards of quaii- fcation, moral or intellectual for It's | officers. and 1ittle heed b glvon e the