Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-05

long sentences as to prohibition. If your fiquoI
laws were modified, the United States would b6
the soberest nation in the world. This defiance
OF law Is just gesture of resentment"
This student of crime, who has a better
acquaintance with the lawbreaker, perhaps.
than any save the thigh command" of Scot.
land Yard, is convinced, after 80 years of such
observation, that the only way to reform q
crook Is to shoot him Segregate him. He
believes in the death sentence.
s. HAVE no sympathy with criminals" said
Mr.. Wallace mot even q sneaking SYM
pathy. They are little less interesting than
lunatics and little less romantic than sewer
men. Their lives are drab and ugly The
majority go crooked because they are too lazy
to earn an honest living.
Roughly speaking. there are three types Of
criminals First, criminals through oupor-
tunity; second, criminals through real or
imaginary necessity; third criminals through
deliberate intention
THE good-time motive largely operates
with the frSt and second classes that is to say,
these classes commit criminal acts with the
idea OF getting money to enjoy themselves
To the second category belong most muir
derers. 1t may be noted that very few who
come under the first and second headings are
criminal in the strictest sense of the word.
To the first class belong the pilferers-
people who would steal stamps, open letters
and extract their contents. They are thieves
while acting caretakers or in positions Of
trust. In the second class are those who either
seize or make opportunity with the idea Of
having good time.
''The first and second classes are peculiar i'm
that they never imagine their offenses win ba
detected. They never prepare for detection.
They have complete faith that the ceverncss
with which the offense is committed-the alb
Sence OF all observation and the certainty thap
iOIn Uty ha Ifctw-s 80
viii afford them minimum amount of danger
That Is one reason why count most muro
dererS In this class They include for thu
most part, men above the average in the maoD
ter OF education and worldly knowledge They
meet inquiry with the greatest self-confidence
Iney are conScious-the majority of them-of
their intellectual superiority to those whose
business it is to bring them to justice or who
viii be in charge Of the investigation
"Swtndlers on . grand scale have the same
mental attitude But these men, as say are
not criminals in the strict sense of the word
They have not spent their lives in criminal
practices. Only about 10 per cent Of convicted
murderers have had any previous conviction.
and the majority of the 80 per cent are men
and women who have lived nearly blameless
lives except for the offense5 for which they are
charged.
Most criminals by intention are specialists
on the job. I have never yet met q clever
criminal The vast majority are iIIiterate.
while not few are ON the border line OF inaS
becility. Nor have ever met O criminal wI6
was not as vain as peacock, nor one who wat
not an unconscionable liar. The first moral
sense that atrophies in q continuous criminal
Is the sense Of truth. The faculty of readT
lying Is an inevitable stigma Of an ineradicabII
sense of dishonesty
There are many amazing instances Of criniS
mai vanity. There Is type OF criminal vanity
which prevents q man from committincs small
ofenSeS but urges him on to commit greater
Continued ON Ttpentieth Pnoe