The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-07-12
Dorothy Dix Talks
Partners in Guilt.
BIZ DOROTHY DIX
worlds Highest Pai1 wsnaR Wits.


The Chinese. who are the most
logical people on earth. have a COM
prehensive way of dealing out Justice
When a crime is committed they not
only punish the wrong-doer but every
one who could, or should, have pre-
vented it.
Thus, not long ago, in report in :
Shanghai newspaper of the court pro-
ceedings, there was an account OF
crazy man, who had suddenly de =
veloped a homicidial mania and killed
two people. The maniac was put in
an asylum and every member of his
family, even to remote cousins, and
the entire population of the village in
which he lived, were fined because
they knew the man to be mentally
unbalanced, yet had taken no measure
to protect the public against him.
In another case a youth was con-
victed of having robbed his employer.
He was sent to jail. and his father
| sentenced to a severe flogging for
! having reared a thief. and for having
neglected to instili the principles of
honor and honesty in his con.
We of the western world might we'll
adopt this Chinese system of admins
tering justice. For no man sins by
{ himself alone, and we are all|more or
less responsible for the evil done by
those about US.
| No one will deny. for example, that
we are all accessory before the crime
of the political corruption that curses
our country. We pay taxes that
should make every road in the state a
velvet-spread boulevard, and every
! city Spotless Town. Then We sit
| supinely down and watch road COM
missioners and aldermen steal mil
lions, while we bump along over the
ruts and unmended highways, and
/ have our children sicken and die of
city filth.
/ We make our politicians grafters
because we make it perfectly safe for
/ them to loot the public treasury. and
we are just as much their partners in
guilt as is the servant girl who leaves
! the door unlocked so that burglars
may come in and help themselves to
the family silver.
! In domestic life the Chinese system
! of justice even more adequately makes
| the punishment fit the crime, and fas-
tens the guilt on the real criminal.
Because when a man or woman goes
wrong, or fails in life. nine times out
\ of ten he or she could truthfully say:
This is. my parents fault. They are
to blame more than ].
l have never seen a boy standing in
I a felons' dock without thinking that
his father and mother should be
standing beside him, and that they are
more responsible than he was.
+, They let him grow up with an I'M
| governed temper and in some moment
of rage he committed murder. Or
they never Taught him to control his
appetite, or deny himself anything he
wanted. and so when he lacked the
money to indulge himself in what he
desired, he stole to get 1t,
The father was absorbed I'm bust
ness. The mother in society or clubs
and they left the boy to grow up on
/, the streets and learn his code Of con-
duct from hoodlums. Neither father
nor mother ever took the trouble 20
get acquainted with the boy. to be his
friend and confidant and to instill in
his youthful soul those high ideals OF
principle that keep a lad straight thru
the temptations of life. and SO he be-
came a criminal.