The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-10-22
The Criminal Class
-TNHE criminal class is just as much of a
 humbug, as artificially produced, un- {
By DR. FRANK CRANE

FTNHE criminal class is just as much of
 humbug, as artificially produced, un- necessary, and maintained in ignorance, as the high-born class of Europe, the hierachy of ancient Egypt, or the castes of India. Any class, any exclusive group, is an enemy to democracy, whether the elect be saints or sinners.
 The criminal class exists simply because society creates and maintains it.
 When a man commits crime, such as stealing, forgery, or assault, he is not neces- sarily a professional crook. If he can be helped, made to see the wrongness of his act, and saved the shame of exposure, he may never be guilty of a similar deed again. But if he Is haled to prison, measured, his photo graph put in the Rogues' Gallery, and his disgrace trumpeted to the four winds, then society is doing its best to force him to re- main criminal. q, r:2
 Our fundamental mistake is that we assume that people are divided into two fixed classes, good and bad, sheep and goats, and that be- tween the two classes there can be nothing but war and hate. This is lie, as all class ideas are lies, and as full of poison as any lie.
 The truth is that we all have criminal qualities; we all make slips. Most of our goodness is due to the restrictions with which we surround ourselves. If our utmost hearts were known, and if we were judged by our
 
 and some of which we are afraid to indulge, not single full ll-bloOded man or woman would be found at the age of forty whom strict Justice would not have sentenced to the penitentiary. 3st &
 We all need forbearance, forgiveness, aid and those we call criminals need these re- deeming forces most of all, If the young man of good family, who breaks the law while on Ia spree, ought to be treated with leniency in order to save him, how much more does the ex-convict require the same treatment! Yet the latter we hound as if he" were a wild beast. sz
 Our whole police system is built on the vicious theory that once criminal a man must remain a criminal. IVY irfye the weak wilIed out like lepers and handle them as snakes and not as human creatures. At first they may have sought crime of their own free wills; at last we will not allow them to follow any other business.
 That woman is an abandoned creature and that she is wholly bad when she has com mitted one sin of weakness is most mon strous lie.
 That a man who has robbed or embedded once is, as a matter of course, of a wholly different moral makeup from the rest of us IS a lie.
 Call men criminals andsyou make them so.
 Our criminal law, with its prisons and gallowe trees, is the greatest source of crime. 1t manufacturers lawbreakers, It drives men to crime as a livelihood.
 Let us have done with the stupid notion that some men are all bad and some are all good. Let us take our stand upon the fact that we are all human.
 The brotherhood of the righteous for one another is of no virtue; the only brotherhood that is redemption is the brotherhood that refuses to acknowledge any wall of class, even a penitentiary wall, and is friend of sinners"
 There is but one sure way to treat wrong doers, and that is to treat them as human be- iAgs, to help, cure, and strengthen them.