Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-09-26

BY FREDERIC ]. HAsKIN

+rsat the abnormal as such is the Of the new
criminology. -
I'D here the other day. He charged with carrying
a gun He was holding job with a good-szed com
pany and there nothing to show that ne was not
ordinary cheap aborer. He attracted the Afternoon
of the laboratory, and they examined 'hnl
He had mind of nine-year-old child HIS ranlly
was called and questioned and they admitted that ne
was feeble minded protested that he unusually
lovable and inoffensive. He brought his wages nome
carefully had been known to walk four miles with
$40 in pocket rather than nickel car fare,
He gotten the when he had temporary employ
ment a strkebreaker
The feeble minded when their malady is uncomplcated
by dementia usually cheerful docile and lovabe
They capable of performing simple tasks in a
simple environment well enough. There was little
doubt that the boy doing his manual work salts
factory, and less doubt that he was even more dan
gerous carrying gun than normal youth He might
have shot somebody his with little
proyocation. On the other hand, to sentence him to
prison or to a reformatory easily Influenced
plastic mind would have meant that he would be
nodded by all the evil of his companions and come out
permanent menace to society. The real state Of
affairs made clear to his family, and their
undertaking to keep him out Of mschief-no difficult
task-he discharged
All cases of crime caused by brain trouble of
another not easily disposed Of because
abnormals their trouble complicated by
form of dementia that makes them dangerous. BY
dementia is meant what usually understand by
the term-easily recognized insanity-but of the
of mental trouble that all but the
expert The abnormality is there, but the people
who brush up daily against the sufferer do not It.
There is test that brings it sooner later
They speak in the laboratory here the "world
test" of daily life.
We walk hedged around by the thousand laws
ordinances Of complex civilization that
notice because they have been drafted with
conform normal standards, habits Of
normal people, If a a trace of real abnor-
maty in himS later he wilt come into con-
with of those laws, infringe upon it. break
Then he turns up in police court.
That is why the psycopathic laboratory here In
Chicago has been termed by experts the greatest
clinic of abnormal psychology world" The city
strongly centralized under the municipal
court system that originated in Chicago, Offend
against the law in city of 100000 people are
gathered in by 5000 policemen brought to g
common center. They the individuals who cannot
do not, conform to normal standards IF there is
something the matter with them, this place TO
find it out.
OF course among the hundreds that come in daily.
criminals lacking in the moral sense. but not
them, the bulk of any collection of criminals
to be
is told by American expert in this line of
the days when he went to Germany study. Criminal
psychiatry is a science, but it is new in
Germany it is here The wOrd-famous clinics
where the foundation work done in Germany
Switzerland. The American attended his first
clinic with stack of textbooks under his
Throw away the books, man." said the German pro-
fessor. For thing. here years ahead
of the this science you must above all
things study the Let the GO Look at the
case!' And looking at the case here the lsbors-
tory bear out the figures that run stagger-
ingly high feeble mindeduess and deranged men
tality among criminals.