Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-09-04
OLD-TIlNE RELIGION
WHAT is THE CURE FOR CRIME?
BY BISHOP "

carried by civil government.
The expenditures made from year to
year for the support of criminal courts, the
maintenance of jails and reformatories and
the general execution of penal laws amount
to hundreds of millions of dollars. And the
moral waste of criminality is far greater
than the monetary loss which arises from it,
How then shall crime be arrested and the
fearful damage which it does be diminished?
10 this and kindred questions novel an
swers are now being offered by new school
of criminOlOgists
These men teach that crime is not really
crime at all, but is the result of disease;
that it is not so much misconduct as misfor-
tune. They locate its source in physical de-
fects of the brain, and insist that criminals
commit their offenses because their lower or
emotional brains are defective. They affirm
that intelligence and emotion are functions
of two different pieces of physical mechan-
ism, so that the same man may have per-
fectly good thinking machine and thor
oughly bad feeling machine.
The psychology upon which these penolo-
gists rest their theory of crime is BADLY and
boldly materialstiC One of them has re-
Gently set forth this philosophy briefly as
follows:
every human being has two minds-not
in any mystical sense, but literally. One is
in the upper part of the head, the 'cortex'
With this group of gray matter We reason.
This is the thinking mind
1.-THE other mass Of gray matter is the
feeling mind. 1t is the base of the BRAIN
1t receives the impressions of the senses and
is the home of the emotions. 1t also controls
the muscles, by signals through the nerves.
The signal to move is act of the will, and
the will, too, has it's home in the lower
mind.
"These are the only two functions of the
lower mind that concern crime: the emotions
aid the will All crime comes from defect
of the lower mind only, because all conscious
acts require the exercise of the will, and all
improper acts arise from improper emotions.
The criminal, then, is a man whose lower
mind is defective, so that he does not have
the right feeling about what he ought to do.
And this defect is physical defect Of the
actual gray matter of the lower mind. His
moral judgment are bad because he has an
imperfect physical mechanism in his head
that makes his moral judgments for him.
"a mans upper brain may be perfectly
normal, while the lower brain may be defec-
tive 1t is quite possible for man to have
an upper brain (intellect) so good that he
could have invented the steam engine, and
for the same man to have lower brain
(emotion) so bad that he could have COM
mitted a cold-blooded murder. And the re-
verse combination is possible: a man may
not have sense enough to earn his own liv-
ing, but his emotional response to life may
be perfect-he would not steal penny nor
harm a fly. And every conceivable combi-
nation between these extremes exists in the
people about us
Of course all this theory sets aside the
doctrine of the freedom of the will; and
for crime it calls for pity, and not for pun
ishment.
Nevertheless, the remedy for crime which
these theorists propose is an elaborate i'm
practicable and costly system of segrega-
ton Of criminals which amounts to impris-
onment for life. They believe that all crime.
being the result of an inherited defect is
ncurabIe, and that by the separation of
criminal offenders from all other people it
can be eliminated from society in genera
ton or two They would have prisons give
was to segregation FARMS on which the I'M
fortunate victims Of hereditary defects NAV
live together all their days in happy and
harmless isolation from the balance of man
KIND. They say that under this humane
system men and women would occupy sep
arate farms, and that in a generation or
TWO by this plan of negative eugenics the
human race would be rid of the tainted
bIood-stream that is the cause of crime.
Ihey do not say that this purging pro-
gram would have to be Worldwide and
that every nation would have to adopt If in
order to make it effective in any nation.
But, of course, this would be necessary; for
otherwise a polluting current of defective
immigrants might flow into a purified popu-
lation of a reformed nation and thereby
undo all that had been accomplished in one
or two generations.
The program fails also at another point
1t herds all criminals on established plague
being out here amongst strangers, and with
no money.
Please cable me if you get this safely
am sending it to Mr.. Fishers office, as no
other address seems to find you.
Your miserable unhappy
DOLLY.
That was all. David finished reading it
to the end, then he turned back, and looked
at the address.
Fisher was watching him silently
"WelI?" he asked.
cts from the woman Nigel married. She
has evidently married again." There was
sort of grimness in his voice; the lines Of
his mouth looked hard.
Read tread it for yourself" he said.
He pushed the letter across.
''She seems to have very strong ideas
about me. I cannot believe that she got
them from Nigel
Il always said she was no good. Nigel
made the mistake Of his life when he mar
ried her. Poor boy!"
CHAPTER LTV
On the Track
T~HERE was little silence while Fisher
read the letter
1--WE know better how we stand now,
at least" he said more cheerfully.
David brought his clenched hand down on
the writing table before him. There was a
ring of passion in his voice.
But it doesn't tell us where she is, man"
he said. 1T doesn't tell me where to find
her"
Fisher hesitated Presently:
If you don't mind, I'm going to send
for that clerk Of mine" he said impulsiyely.
Don't say anything-just sit there and
listen He rang the bell at his elbow
SrNO h.