Evening star., 1924-07-27
FRANKS CASE HELD
CHALLENGE TO AGE
Noted Chicagoans Discuss
Reactions Toward Brutal
Staying.
SERIOUS POINTS RAISED
Might Mean Start of Decadent Era
in America, Poet
Believes.
SERIOUS POINTS RAISED
BY MARY FIELD.

CHICAGO. July 26.-Can the crime
of Nathan Leopold, jr., and Richard
Loeb be traced directly to environ
ment or does its explanation lead
back into the hidden sources of here.
ditY! According as we take one view
or the other, we align ourselves with
either the prosecution or the de-
tense. The prosecution accepts the
statement of the lads that they com
mitted murder for the sake of the
thrill With much evidence on his
side, Prosecuting Attorney Grove
looks to environment for the source
of this crime
If the prosecutions contention is
. correct, then this case is of social i'm
portance. Then it has an immediate
bearing upon the rearing of children
and constitutes a challenge to Amer
lcan institutions and ideals, as we'll
as to our accepted formula for hap
pineSS and success.
Can Wealth Be Blameds
Can crime such as this be ac-
counted for by the possession OF great
wealth? Can it be attributed to the
fast pace of modern youth? Can it be
-hat education is at fault?
1 asked these questions of three
sthoughtful people. a psychologist. a
tpoet and a sociologist, all three of
whom have thought and written much
about humanity in its normal and
pathological aspects.
] asked DR.. Ellsworth Faris, pro-
fessor of social psychology at the Uni
versity of Chicago. He was Richard
Loeb's teacher.
: asked Carl Sandburg, the poet, a
keen observer of human phenomena
asked Jane Adams, who has con
tracted life in its many aspects and
phases.
Each one agreed that the tremend-
Gus interest aroused by this case was
more than the morbid curiosity over
murder. but that in some blind,
wise. laundering, open-mouthed way
society had felt a challenge in this
case. and in Anglo-Saxon fashion. had
faiths
Automatic Thinking.
Perhaps the deepest significance
Faris. lis that it has called attention
to our habit of automatic thinking,
to automatic beliefs which we have
accepted without examining for our
selves.
"A short time ago Richard Loeb
wrote thesis for me on the food
continue to live by these dietary
laws do not think about them, reason
them out for themselves. Their be-
liefs are automatic.
Most of our So-called thinking is
of this character. The reason people
prescribe hanging FOR murders, pre-
scribinS the remedy before diagnos-
ing, is because it is an old and
familiar practice. We are brought
up to it, accustomed to its practice
from childhood. We don't think about
it. We act automatically. We then,
without original thinking. justify our
action by endowing the criminal with
the capacity to choose between right
and wrong. That makes it right for
society to hang. But on the part of
most people, this thinking is auto
matte.
Question Education.
LAS an axiom, we believed that edu-
cation would save an individual from
crime, and when, as with two extraor-
dinarily well educated boys. it failed
signally to do SO, we question the
value of education instead of inquir-
ing into the truth of our belief.
Education is not a way of saliva
ton. Education is tool, not to be
discarded because it did not save