The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-05-15
The Scdpegodt

By DR 1sAEn cSANE

The ancient JewiA ceremony of the scape- goat was sisnificxnt4 A live goat vas BfnpEht; the high priest, Eiaid his hands on ifs head. "and confessed over it all the iniquitiss of the Children Of
 Israel, putting them upon the head of the
 goat, and sent 1t away by the hand of fit man into the wilderness
 The goat bore away into the desert all the
 sins of the people. When the lift man re- turned he washed his hands and garments, as did the high priest also. to remove all con fnRion of the sin laden aniEE& l used to regard this as merely an antique niece of primitive ritual. have reached the conviction, however, that it was an act full of knowledge of human nature; for it rep resents what humanity is still doing at the present time. tendency of people. when any calamity oc- CUTS, bankrupt, shipwreck, financiAi panic. or nest. to select some one person and load the blame upon him?
 When the French Revolution broke out. the poor king and queen, who were really medi- ocre folk and as incapable ef great evil as of great good, were seized and beheaded. The fauits of an ancient system were piled upon their heads.
 their merry monarch.
 There js an irresistible tendency among men to personify their evils. It is re- yersed hero worship.
 'The evil is usually the fault of the people themnelvee. their neglect, their greed and their a;shonHstv. Yet when they come to pay the price they look around for scapegoat
 In the United States we are eager to s'pun- ish somebody" for the sins of trusts. No body is to blame for the arbitrary and mn just use of combined capital; because every body is to blame.
 Mr. Moran and MT. Rockefeller succeeded in doing what most of the business men in the country want to do and cannot. But you cannot arouse popular wrath against sys- tam nearly so easily assyou can stir ID hate aaajust | man. We need . scapegoat
 An opera house burns "Whc's to blame we all cry. Everybody is to blame, the crifn- inally careless public who go on allowing theaters to be constructed without proper exits.
 A shipwreck occurs. who's to blame? Find him and hang him!' But it is no one man, 1t is the fool public who want swim ming pools, tennis courts, salons de luxe, and gingerbread gilded decorations more than they want safety. a
 Who's to blame for the inequalities of the tariff. money panics and other public ills! Simply public who are busy with personA pains and deficient in public spirit.
 Can you expect senators, elected py an appeal to partisan spirit and class greed, 70 act upon motives of broad patriotism:
 And is not our whole criminal law q pro- cess of scapeKoAtsFy Nine times cut of ten it is society that ia to blame; 1t creates and allows crime-breeding, conditions, but by its refusal to consider eueenics men are born perverted, by its permission of crime-makins siums men are made criminal experts; then when the open deed of violence ia committed the judge lays his hands upon the scapespata head, and a 1t man, a bailiff, leads him away to Id desert place--a jail. penitentiary, or gal lows and he goes with all the sin Of the people upon him.
 whereupon we all feel much purified