Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1924-07-18

1
In other wouis,s said President
Collins, the wage to he paid. regard.
less Of the character of service ren
dered. is to depend upon the supply
Of labor in The market"
like 10 have IL put In these terms,
but We shall never understand the
/ actual situation until we are literally
struck In the face BY facts.
And the fact Is that We are healing
our eflpples, curing eur insane, ana
successfully treating all manner Of
| physical and mental disease. while II
a single criminal Is transformed into
a law abiding citizen We are forced
70 confess that his cure Is an accident
lawlesSness is growing. while disease
Is being stamped cut by efficient
treatment.
The reason Is obvious. Not one per
cent Of those who are elected 10 en-
force the law OF administer its code
are specialists, The majority of them
are helpless, except In applying the
remedies of the medicine man.
We need schools, departments In
the University and public schools,
where men and women may he trained
IN curing moral disease. We should
not leave this all.important matter
wholly 10 the church, which has un.
consciously reared an arbitrary wall
beyond It's portals and declares "rhou
shalt not pass"
The present method of treating
moral inhrmities BY fines and prison
sentences Is better than no treatment
at all. The pest house where persons
contaminated by all manner of disease
may be herded together, az the moral.
ly contaminated are hefdud In pris.
ons or reformatofiea without regard
to the distinct nature Of their crimes,
would be preferable to letting them
run the streets, exposing healthy per
sons TO disease.
But we have our sanitarlums. hos
pitals, inirmanes and asylnms where
each disease receives its special treat
lively By physiciaus who have made
life study of disease.
Physicians would not thing Of ad-
ministering the same treatment for
pneumonia that Is administered for
the cure of surgical case. yet we
treat the moron with the same remedy
which we apply TO the thief and mur.
derer--the fine aud incarceration, and
expect the remedy TO be effective. We
command the criminal to be good
without imparting TO him the power
TO be good. This shows the inss.
eusable lack OF study in the field of
moral disease.
Renowned specialists agree that al
coholism Is a disease, yet We expect
to cure IL by fines and imprisonment.
Ina this We are as efedulous as the
South African Medicine man who be.
liepes that his vile potion will ward
oil evil spirits.
The study Of moral disease Is I'm.
peratiyc If we would reduce erimin.
ality, The practice Of herdinR the
thief, the yagabond, the murderer
and the moron together where each
may become contaminated with the
moral disease Of the others, is pfae.
tice that must be stopped.
We have no schools where those
who expect to administer the law may
be educated as specialists, except
the school of experience. We do not
pay salaries 10 Officer adequate TO
command a high degree of service.
We assign to the courts all manner
of criminal cases, and expect judges
20 be wise enough to administer jus-
tice In all cases; yet we have all but
abolished the school where teacher
has charge OF more than two grades,
thus recognizing a fundamental truth
Ia education that no mind can spread
itself out over many courses of study
and be adept at any.
We need legislative enactments
providing for the study of moral dis.
ease and the discovery and adapta-
! tion OF remedies suited to each spe-
cial criminal case. We need similar
enactments providing separate build
4 ings for the variety Of malignant
moral diseases--and these should be
looked upon as hospitals or sanitar-
iums rather than prisons.
We need 10 revise our attitude To
the criminal We do not need to
revise our attitude to crime any more
| than we need TO revise our attitude to
/ physical disease. We need 10 look
upon moral disease as we do upon
| mental arrangement, as a thing to
be eured--and not upon the victim
as a thing 10 be punished.
We need to revise our whole sys-
ten Of arresting, fning and incarcer-
atlng the criminally diseased, as well
as our whole court procedure in deal
ing with criminal cases. We need to
revise our method Of administering
/ justice to the extent that money can
not be used 10 prevent justice.
We need to eurtail the privileges
Of attorneys at court, 20 abolish the
browbeating tactics, the deceptions,
the lagrant misconstructions Of law
and 10 eliminate the practices in court
whereby justice is thwarted and
courts are put to shame, and through
which officers become the targets Of
abuse and the objects Of hatred. and
for reason Of which the Law Is defed.
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