Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1924-12-17
Are Cave Man Instincts
RpSnOnSibIe for Crime.

Optimists who like to think and say
tho world gets better all the time re-
ceiye a rude shock when they study
social and crime reports. 1t seems
that instead of improving things get
worse. Without a doubt insanity IS
IN the increase. Without doubt
divorce increases. Without doubt
crime is at the highest point IN mod
ern history. AS civilization speeds
I'm and becomes more complex, OPP
nortunities for wrong-doing increase.
And "iust what is the re2sonT is a
ouastion worrying sociologists and al
TRUSTS alike.
prof. VIM. Fielding Ogburn of Co
1umbia University steps forward with
an answer. He is not Joking or ro-
mancing. His conclusions bear the
earmarks of fact.
prof Ogburn saws the world hasn't
changed in a cultural or social SENSE
He says that man doesn't develop
culturally or socially within me-
time. He doubts whether natural OF
biological man is fundamentally dlt-
ferent from the Cro-Magnon or cave
man.
1t is essential to point out that Pro,
lessor Ogburn is speaking or naturai
man. that is, whether he be Cro-Mag-
non or modern natural man, Win MS
biological fears, hates, appetites-hls
instincts generally. Viewed from this
angle we have not changed; we are,
he saws. still hioIogically speaking,
cave men. Society, because OF lnVen-
tions because of the accumulation OF
cultures, has changed; the germ
plasm which keeps man alive seems
not to have changed at all.
Tn other words, Professor Ogburn
maintains that while we can talk and
read and fly an0 pick up sounds and
messages discharged into the air
thousands of miles away, these are not
natural characteristics. A modern
child or a hundred modern children
for example, left on a desert island,
would no more be able to talk or ny
than a hundred Cro-Magnon children
left on the same hypothetical island.
And from a standpoint of shifting and
doing of themselves in wilderness
the modern child would be far out
distanced by the cave-man child.
The Gro MagnCn child reared among
us would, dependent on his mental
ability, have as much chance OF be-
coming an Edison or a Harold Bell
Wright, or just the average man, as
the modern child Moreover, a Gro
Magnon man dressed, says Professor
Ogburn. in modern clothes, would be
unrecognizable, would not stand out,
save perhaps in the sense that Jack
Dempsey or the Wild Bull OF the
Pampas stands out.
This is a scientific way of saying
that man, with all his external prog
ress, is still pretty much the same
fellow. In fact, Professor Ogburn's
most telling point in distinguishing
between biological and social evolu-
ton is in indicating mans malad-
iustment to life in the modern city.
This NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. crimes,
sex difficulties, Indigestion, wander
lust; the fact, for instance, that two
times as many single men (and wom-
en) go insane as married persons
leads him to think that we are cave
men trying to live in the modern
city.
The professors observations on
this interesting subject fill book.
A digest of it would take a page of
this paper He has no conclusions to
offer except that power over Nature
in the form of improved machinery,
etc, do not spell real civilization.
We must not be too impatient at our
slOwness in development. The ac-
quirement of a real human culture
will take many ages yet.