Evening star., 1923-10-13
The Prayer of
the Emperor
BY DIR. FRANK CRANE.

In the old days Of the emperors in
China there was held every year az
the altar of Heaven an impressive
ceremony. This altar, the most i'm
posing religious edifice in the whole
world, was a vast circular structure
rising in three massive grades. In
the hour before dawn the emperor
came hither with the multitude of his
court. 1t must have been magnifi-
cent spectacle. all that horde of peo
pie in their gorgeous robes, the scene
illuminated by the flashing of torches
There is no roof covering to this
altar, and above all there was only
the starry sky.
Upon the top platform were only
the sacrifices of the people. On the
next below stood the emperor, and
for his people. AS he stood there he
was handed a scroll containing the
names of all the. criminals that had
been executed during the year. Hav-
ing read it he made this prayer:
God, forgive me for my misgovern-
ment in falling to lead the people
Alright For these men, through my
own fault. 1 have had to condemn 10
death"
The Chinese were a very wise peo-
things. The surface fact is that If
man commits crime he alone Is to
blame for ii, and when he is punished
justice has been accomplished.
But there is deeper truth than
this, and that is, for the crime of every
individual society and government are
in part to blame. The emperor as
the embodiment and representative of
his people recognized this fact in this
prayer.
In capsidaripo tbic rpatter thara ora
two errors which we must avoid ,
first. that the individual is wholly to
blame, and second, that society is
wholly to blame. Their guilt is mixed
Both are to blame.
In the countries of western civil
lization we have gone too far in think
ing that guilt is entirely individual,
and that when man Is punished the
account Is squared.
The result of this is that we have
gone on creating conditions that tend
to produce and increase criminality.
The prisons and jailS of a nation are
supposed to be the remedy for crime.
AS a matter of fact they are not. They
greater efficiency in lawbreaking.
They are really "crucibles of crime"
Out of the prisons of the United States
every year there are turned loose into
society some 100000 graduates from
the school of crime, 100000 bachelors,
masters and doctors of crime.
This arises from the fact that So
ciety as a whole does not realize its
responsibility. OF course, better gov
ernment and better social conditions
could not entirely do away with in
dividual responsibility. There will
always be certain perverts who break
the law because of weak wills or the
sheer love of evil.
But IL should be recognized that
these persons are diseased, they are
abnormal precisely as if they had the
smallpox or yellow fever. They cam
not be cured by brutality and punish
ment any more than a man with in
tiuenza can be cured by beating him
over the head, or an insane person
can be cured by torture.
They can be cured only by ply
sicians and not by jailors; that is,
they can be cured only by people who
start out with the idea of curing them
and not with the idea of making them
suffer.
Society should always act as if it
were to blame. This is the under
lying principle of the modern move
ment of prison reform. 1t does not
rest upon any sloppy sentimentality,
but upon the soundest statistics and
upon Psychological law and the facts
of human nature.
Our present method of dealing with
criminals is proven failure; II might
be improved if we should lay to heart
the prayer of the emperor.