The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1916-05-27

Penotogists in recent years have
fallen into the habit of making a sep
arate classification for offenders who
were hard to understand and speak,
ing Of them as ABNORMAL" Like
most hard and fast classifications
this one is generally an admission
that the user has reached the limits
of his own understandings; that he
can't make his sum come out even.
The word reflects the humanitarian
tendencies of the time, but is other
wise as great an evidence Of mental
blindness as the former exclusive ap-
plication Of ''crimina1'' to every one,
who, under any kind Of circum-
stances, broke any kind Of law. When
a judge treats prisoner as abnormal
he generally does it because he has
doubts as to the Justice Of applying
to his case the harsh letter of the
law, and yet is not certain as to the
source of his doubts. Here Is an
amiable, well-meaning individual,
who converses Interestingly, works
faithfully, and finally gathers up the
silver and steals away. Here is a.
man who has spent thirty or forty
years in prison for a series Of grave
offenses, but his whole outlook on
life Is as naive as child's, and his
code OF honor, as far as it extends,
is as vigorously observed as a Brah-
mans. There seems to be nothing to
do but to treat these as abnormal, In
the sense that their views do not
agree with the views Of those of us
who make the laws and build and
maintain the jails they are abnormal.
Our ways are not their ways. They
do not belong in this stage Of civili-
cation. A few centuries earlier it is
they who might have been normal
and we abnormal; the same may be
said of centuries to come.
so what we really mean when we
call a man abnormal is that he does
not agree with us in certain notions
which to US seem fundamental. He
is out of the 'norm," and the norm.
when we try to define it, turns out to
be nothing more than our personal
standards. We ourselves, it may be,
are normal only because our stand
ards happen to be those which pre-
vail at the present stage of society.
They are not necessarily permanent
standards. When a modern man
goes to war he has little trouble in
reversing the most fundamental of
them. He gets accustomed to killing
as easily as he gets accustomed to
sleeping in the mud ard going with
out baths. To the comfortable citi-
zen at home. with his roast beef, his
easy chair and his pipe, the mortality
Of the trenches is abnormal: to the
old campaigner it is as normal as
breathing. In the trenches the man
who won't fight, who won't commit
murder, is the most despised Of GRIM
inals
1t Is quite possible that so-called
abnormal people may look at the
hap1ts and practices Of normal people
In peaceful life as having as much of
a faint of abnormality as most of us
use in the life of the soldier. Re-
spect for property is g. very recent
human requirement, and it il easy
to understand that some may never
be able to acquire it. Yet without it
tney may have a keen appreciation
OF the bad and foolish uses to which
property is sometimes put-the I'M
necessary eating, drinking and luxur-
iatins. Their variation from the nor
NAL may be variation in the direc-
ton which progress will take, that is
toward state in which the common
opinion of mankind will be opposed
to bad and foolish uses Of property.
some human tendencies which. seem
abnormal are blind feelerD put out to
IND the way toward a different. kind
OF normality. Scientific Investigation
Wa once immoral and abnormal n