Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-08-19
Crime and 1S Taxes
HOW TO REDUCE THEM
BY Frederic ]. HAskin


Laboratory is the large number of insane
and mentally defective persons found in n
| typical American city. IL shows that
numerous delinquent types which have
been heretofore considered sane are in
reality the victims Of specific, hereditary
mental diseases, and it strongly suggests
that unidentified insanity and mental
defect are prevalent in other than Grim
inal classes
As DR.. Hickson points out, America as
nation has a psychopathic heredity. In
colonial days the surns Of European
cities were secured for criminals To be de
| ported To America. Popular histories
dwell upon the sturdy pilgrims, the
cavaliers and the Huguenots, but say less
Of the shiploads Of thieves, prostitutes,
murderers and children gathered from he
sl,ims, who were landed on these shores.
The failure Of many Of these criminal
settlements shows that the criminal then
as now was unfit for the battle Of life.
Yet enough survived and bred 20 leave
| twentieth century America n distressing
problem in psychopathOlogy Undoubted-
| ", the isolated masses Of uniformly de
fective population found IN this country,
as for example in tho Southern mo9n-
tains and the pine barrcns Of New Jersey,
where whole counties are populated by
| detectives, may be traced to these i'm
] portations from the cutters Of Europe
! THE CASE OF IMBREEDrEG.
Irnbreeding is popularity considered to
! be the cause OF these defective communl-
ties; but the modern science has shown
| that imbreeding tends 10 strengthen what
| ever qualities are dominant, whether
| good or bad And there are isolated noun
| tain communities in Kentucky which pro-
| duce children of uniform brlliance, Just
AZ there are others in the Allegheny re-
| gion that produce almost nothing but de-
| fectives
! The importation Of detectives from
Europe did not stop In modern times.
| The leading continental countries are 20
years ahead of us IN the diagnosis Of
| criminal insanity. Germany for example,
| has had psychopathic laboratories IN CON
nection with her criminal courts for many
wears And it is matter Of record that
the scientists in charge Of these laborator-
les have often recommended the sending
of crirninallv insane cases 10 America
At Ellis Island the immigrant IS put
through simple mental test, but it does
not serve To identify the less outspoken
eases Of dementia praecox and psyche
pathlc constitution, and these are the cases
that commit most crime Judge Olson
was once asked by visitor TO ms court
II IL could be true that the mentally de-
fective were passed by our immigration
inspection service. For answer ne showed
the visitor in an adjoining room a feeble
minded Polish woman and her six feeble
minded children, all Of whom had been
born abroad.
Before the war the laboratory deported
defective delInqucnts who had not been
in the United states three years
THIS COUNTRY PROBLEM
Americas problem, then, IS to check
this inflow Of mentally defective people
or rather, 10 prevent its resumption after
the war and To identify and isolate the
mentally defective already here, 50 that
thev will not continue to commit crime
and propagate their defects.
The first is merely a problem Of the
proper inspection OF immigrants. Hereto
fore, the need has not been realized, nor
nave the trained men been available
But the national government has had the
whole problem brought sharply 20 its
attention BY the execution of the draft
law There Is every probability that after
the war we will have force of trained
psychiatrists IN this country, and that
some OF them will be used at Ellis Island
The isolation Of the detectives now ~
large IN this country Is problem for the
cities and States, ana one which many Of
the more progressive cities are already
attacking The establishment Of psyche
pathic laboratories IN charge of properly
trained men, like the one IN Chicago, IS
the first step In the second place, judges
must have some knowledge Of psychlatry.
DR. Hickson suggests that every criminal
!, IA ,--NOilasl - sal~
in that subject.
The necessary complement of the labora-
tory is a coionv, where psychopathic cases
may be permanently isolated; for It IS
useless to identify the chronic criminal
and then let hum loose upon society after
short term of confinement. He must be
permanently Isolated, prevented from
breeding. and above all, he must be en-
abled 10 make his own living without
DESTROYING life and property, 50 that the
TAXPAYER will be saved the enormous sums
which he now pays for protection that
does not protect.
THE CRIMINAL DEFECTIVE.
The criminal defective lacks intelh-
gent initiative and responsibility, but he
IS not without energy. Under proper re-
striction and direction, he Is capable OF
useful work Tins was thoroughly demon
strated by W Whitaker until recently
superintendent of the District of Column
bic rcformatory at Occaquan, Virginia
With criminals of all types from chronic
drunks to murderers he established a
great farm and industrial colony. which
paid for It's own upkeep, and maintained
its inmates in the best Of health Further
more, it had neither lo,as, walls, nor
guards
DR. IIickson in his report to Judge
Olson, outlined a plan for model colony.
which IS substantially similar 10 that at
Occoquan He would have comfortable
homt for the inmates, and would give
them a variety of work 10 do. tie further
suggests that the colony be located upon
cheap, unlmproved land, and that when
this has been improved it be sold, and
the colony removed TO another tract The !
detectives could thus be used to reclaim
areas of woodland and cut-over land. /
drain swamps and perhaps establish ir-
rigation projects
There is nothing | topian in All Of this /
There can be no question but that, when I
every American city has a laboratory as
efficient as that at Chicago and a farm !
colony like the one at Occoquan, the tax 4
payer may look for regular decrease in /
the amount of crime committed and in I