Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-19
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
l. C. M.

Il u. W.
THE STORY OF PUNISHMENT: A
Record of Mans Inhumanity to
Man. Harry Elmer Barnes. The
Stratford Co.
Even t.fore the father of lamenta-
tons gave meaning and name to the
ieren1iad, Wailing Walls-or their equiv
alent-re- echoed with cries Of those
mourning the sins Of man, with plead
ings for mercy to an angry Jehovah.
And not much different in this re-
spect has it been since the day OF the
prophet. Each age, taking its place on
the platform of time, becomes con-
WINGED in the minds of its mentors
that with it the climax OF all evil is
speedily approaching, that wrongdoing
in its multifarious forms is reaching a
height never before attained. Indl-
vidually this settled conviction comes
out on every hand in the familiar Such
things never happened in the good old
days When I was young" and so on,
and so on. Much of honest opinion in
the prevalent deplorings; much besides,
of short sight, of no real sight at all.
The true value of history, I take 1t,
is to provide measuring line for every
new period. History is not primarily
the storing up of names and decades as
such. 1t is not roster of greatness,
not a shining sequence of mighty
events. Rather does its worth lie in the
substance of each age, in the perennial
element of growth that it contains. To
seize upon this substance as a whole,
20 apprehend it as a unit of light or
darkness, of promise or warning to those
who come after, of advance or recession
this is to realize history as an in
strument for the present, as a guide for
the future. This is history.
Today Is a gorgeous many-sided af-
fair. dazzling and bewildering hour.
To embrace 1t as whole is not posi-
BILE, save in the most superficial of
gleaningS. And so, through the intelli-
gence and competency of the present,
readers and students are supplied with
means OF examining it line by line in
its most vital and significant depart
general and absorbing interest, choice
of subjects is not easy. Let the news
papers help at this point of indecision
In short order 1t becomes patent that
crime Is an overlapping concern of the
day and hour. Swarming crimes range
from petty violations of the law to mon
stroSitieS of murder torture, fear, men
tai anguish. Not that lawlessneSS has
taken complete possession of the age.
Far from it. The great majority is
law-abiding. But this orderly prepon-
derant element is justihably nervous
and uneasy over the menace of the
small law-breaker, as 1t is clearly
aghast before the arch-criminal himself.
This may, or may not, be a new day
in the prevalence and character of
crime. 1t is certainly a new day for
the criminal. Rather it is the break
OF new day. In the bulk of lawlesS-
ness with which the daily press is
weighted, there is now and then
new strain, different tone to the rec
ord. An occasional word comes from
scientist, professional student of the
human mind and body, interlocked:
from humanitarian, legal expert on the
inadequacy of the law to meet the sit
uation. from prison wardens-not big
group, but a growing group, dedicated
to the conviction that criminal Is a
sick man whose case calls for treat
ment rather than for punishment.
This revolution in respect to crime
and its treatment stands in summary
as the last chapter in Harry Elmer
Barnes THE Story of Punishment"
Stands, also as an outlook upon one
of the most significant changes that
have taken place throughout historic
recordings of mans relations to man.
in actual procedure, will make over the
prisons and their administration, will
reconstruct criminal law, will change
both motive and means of punishment,
will make scientific study of the GRIM
inal through the plastic years when he
was in the making, will make study of
the home and the streets and the school
and the church, will take a lock back
into the blood and the forbears-will,
in word, bring to account the various
agencies of his birth and upbringing.
one. An inspiring chapter. Not an
enthusiast, its author. Not given over
10 visions and dreams. A scientist,
rather, who has learned the long lesson
of science, the slow, slow processes of
growth and change, of tardy adapta-
lions and confornities. No, not an en-
thusiast, clearly. Yet, a man who de-
votedly espouses the cause of begin
nings in this matter, of persistence in q
new building program for the human.
no matter how slowly it may advance,
no matter how often seeming disaster
may overtake it, no matter that the
criminal himself may appear to be the
real enemy in the great enterprise.
What about the other chapters in
this invaluable study, vital to the con-
Germ of the world itself? Those other
chapters will introduce you to the hard
est reading that, I venture to say, you
have ever come upon. For here is the
story of punishments as history has
measured it out to WrongdoerS. Here,
set down, are the crimes and punish
ments of early society," How to find the
guilty one? A first concern. Interest
ingly, in this first chapter dedicated to
detection of the real criminal, there
big as life-stands our own beloved,
modern third degree" Time, certainly,
is a slow and deliberate workman Very
slowly, evolved the trial by jury, broadly
speaking that which persists to this day.
An Illuminating book could be writ
ten-engrossing too-on that trial by
jury. Law, custom. religion, in a hodge,
podge of partnership took such care, or
llncare, of the criminal as he received.
Gradually, criminal procedure split OFF
from this common social fabric and set
lp on its own account. Penalties for
crime ranged from corporal punish
ment to transportation. ConvictS used
to be transported, you know, from Eng
land to America. The War of Inde-
pendence stopped the practice, while
leaving a slight convict tinge to the new
United States. Australia was fine
place for English criminals. France,
for such purpose, had its Caledonia,
Devils Island and other points.
Fresh information of startling char
scter steps out from this part of the
work New facts and a narrowing of
the heart wait upon you here. But for
sheer horror go back a bit to the time
Of corporal punishment. Flogging, the
commonest of puniShments, is not al
together unknown even yet in some
homes, in some schools. A relic of
earlier way with criminals. Lying was
punishable offense-then. Piercing
the tongue with hot iron was the
specific for this anti-social indulgence.
Great ingenuity of device for intiicting