San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-04-09

tives, the district attorney and man,
others run from pillar to post investigat
| ing possibility after possibility. An in
lternaticrally known millionaire is ques
toned. The son of the encouragement
of the United States makes statement
Women friends of the girl are solicited
for information. Remote incidents il
the girls life are studied. A theory tina
she was a victim of blackmailers is adj
vanced. Yet the motive for the crime
remains undiscovered. About the onh
certainty established by the investigator:
is that the girl came to her death by
chloroforming.
A rabbi, under an assumed name
rents room in company with a stranger
The next day the rabbits almost-lifeless
body is found. His stranger-roommate
has disappeared, What was the motive
for the attack? Why did the rabbi
register under an assumed name? No
body knows. The whole affair is a
mystery.
mo motive for the crime has been
assigned"-"the police admitted that
they were mystified" frequently
such statements appear in the news re-
ports.
What is the explanation of this queer
condition? Is it, possibly, that the men,
tai processes of man are not the same
as they used to be? Do scientists of to-
day, with whatever facilities that dis
tinctly modern study, psychoanalysis,
affords know less about the workings of
the human mind than did the ancient
philosophers and students of human
nature:
The answer that seems to be the most
plausible does less discredit to psychoan-
alysts than to modern man in general
1t does not, however, explain the pres
ent-day wide prevalence of crime.
Start with the simple recognition of
the fact that many crimes, running the
entire gamut of human emotions, are
being committed, and consider the
further fact that society is almost in
more complex than it used
to be, so that each PERSONS affiliations
are far more numerous. Then, in any
given case, try to figure out which one
Of the victims interests or activities or
associations would have been most likely
to lead him into trouble in the circum-
stances in which he was at the time of
the tragedy. Consider, too, that the line
which public opinion draws between re-
'pectability and its opposite is less dis
-inct nowadays than it was under sim
bier conditions OF life-that, in short, this
$ not the age of the Scarlet Letter. Can
lnyone be absolutely certain in his esti-
nate of the character of those whom he
Knows only by formal reputation? Is
anyone superlatively surprised when it |
ranspires that Mr.. So-and-So, promi-
lent and respected citizen, has embezzled |
unds entrusted to his keeping? Does
lnyone feel that the world has been
urned upside down when Deacon Don
'uan is made the defendant in a divorce
suit which make allegations concerning
AS the number of people susceptible |
o criminal influences or impulses in !
reases, the motives for crime multiply |
orrespondingly. The motive of man
If learning may be widely different from
hat of an illiterate person. And some
" the greatest criminals nowadays are
If the educated kind, whereas in ear
Ter times the typical criminal was dis
inctly "low-brow"
When crime is not limited to any one
general class, but finds practitioners
mong all classes, the high as well as the
ow, it is no wonder that the work of
is more arduous, must |
over broader field and is more likely
o be fruitless.
Another city election is at hand and |