The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-03-30
By 1. JEROME

AlCnOugn Lne bauneS Crlme CCm-
mission was ostensibly appointed by
the New York State legislature to
investigate the causes and proven
ton of crime" not a single one of
the twenty-odd measures proposed by
the Commission and written into law
by the 1925 legislature gives evidence
of the slightest attempt on the part
of the sponsors of those measures to
understand the causes of crime. The
work Of the Commission was SEEM
ingly conducted in utter disregard of
casual relationship. Indeed, by its
omission to bring forward a single bill
designed against the handspring of
crime, by it's complete silence regard
ing the present social system which is
the source and the breeder Of crime,
the Baumes Commission has in eff
feet denied causality to crime. What
ever investigation the Commission has
made has been solely in the direction
of punishment, and to this end it has
effected the enactment of a series of
laws that for sheer savagery, for
blind, Intellectual vengefulness, should
turn the heart Of Mussolini green with
envy.
In the light of capitalist justice the
Baumes Laws are, of course, the prop
er and regular mode of procedure.
Capitalism cannot eliminate the
source Of crime! The structure of
capitalism is built on criminal foun-
dations, and an axe at the base of
crime would be an axe at the base of
capitalism. To destroy crime Capt.
talism would have to destroy the
marsh where crimes are bred. II
would have to end the basis of the
present economic system. 1t would
have to put an end to the state where
conflict is the condition of human re-
lationship, where man is made anti
social, and the innate quality of CO.
operation degenerates into competi-
ton. 1t would have to abolish the
evil of classes. 1t would have to de-
stroy the crime of private property
and the vast pyramid of crimes built
upon it. 1t would have to end ex-
ploitation, poverty, unemployment,
wars. 1t would have to cease brutal
izing human beings with toll and
degenerating them with squalor, cease
thinning the frail bodies of children
in mines and mills, cease driving girls
and women in despair to the streets,
cease wringing the Drawn from work.
ers in their prime, to throw them
used-up on the scrap-heap, cease send
ing millions into the mouths of can
non. 1t would have to destroy the
crimes on which it flourishes. II
WOULD HAVE TO CUT THE
GROUND FROM UNDER ITS FEET.
1T WOULD HAVE TO END ITSELF.
Capitalism dares not end crime.
1t can only engage in a continuous
building of an intricate, artificial,
legal system for the protection of the
source of its power-private proper
ty. Property commands all duties and
is above all restraint. 1t is preemin-
ent over social welfare and is holier
than human life. Property is the
Supreme Being in the Capitalist re-
ligion. All things are in awe of It. |
All things serve it. And Justice
serves it. Justice under capitalism is
a uniformed sentinel mounting guard,
bludgeon in hand, before the sacred
door of Property. Before the eyes of
Justice human happiness may be vio-
lated, human brotherhood trodden un-
der foot. Justice, the sentinel, is
blind. He sees only the one concept
of his concern, the God in whose inn
age he is made-Property, before
whose inviolate door he has been
commanded to stand, against the
calls of Need, against the means of
Disqualification in hand.
The exclusively punitive character
of the Baumes laws is apparent to all
who study them. There is a law to
strengthen the system of identified
ton and detection of criminals. There
is law compelling physicians to re-
port to the police any case treated
for pistol-shot wounds. There is law
providing for the taking of finger
prints on arrest and before conviction.
A number of laws have been enacted
to make bailing very difficult. One
law-worthy Of the best days of A.
Mitchell Palmer, provides for joint
trial, in the discretion of the court, of
defendants jointly indicted, instead of