Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-30
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM

BATTLING TAE CRIME WAVE.
Harry Elmer Barnes, author Of THE
Story Of Punishment" etc. Boston:
The Stratford Co.
Here at the Capital is concrete exc
ample of that which Harry Elmer
Barnes so earnestly advocates in his
new book, Battling the Crime Wave.
Out on the Bladensburg road near
the District line stands the National
Training School for Boys. Penal in i'm
mediate objective, reformative in ex-
pressed purpose. Here are brought to-
gether both occasional offenders against
the law and the more dificult tribe Of
incorrigibles.
Just a year ago there came to the
place new superintendent, Col. Claude
D. Jones. Prior to that change, the
chief engrossment of the boys in this
school" appeared to center upon no.
ceSsful issue Of such besetment. Rec
ords Of the institution seemed to spe-
cialize in captures and recaptures. Its
modes of helpfulness pointed upon
manacled feet as particularly efiica-
ciouS, upon bodies beaten with rubber
hose, slithery and singing, as good
medicament for wanderlust. Just q
hangover from old and barbarous CEN
turtles, this. Unbelievable, but true.
Then came Col. Claude D. Jones.
And he said "Shucks r'-or some such
thing. why, holy smoke! These are
just boys, no different from the rest OF
their tribe the world overt" He liked
them-no doubt about that He seemed
moreover, to have shed lot Of the
Puritan that we, here in the East, find
it so hard to get out from under. A
Colorado man. So, farther away than
the rest of us from Cotton Mather and
Jonathan Edwards and SUCH, The
point is that within the year a decent
way of life has been born out in that
school on the Bladensburg pike. Now
adays, these boys Work-actually work
No kindergarten pretending about it.
They make things In the shops and
grow things in the gardens, grow food
edible stun. Work till they're dog tised
as a man should be after the days
stunt Sleep deep, without fantastic
nightmares about running away. Play
games, real ones, with struggle and
strain, where victory and defeat do
equal parts in making dead game sports
of these fellows. Col. Claude D. Jones
is licking that place into warmth and
life and good human stuff.
read this story in The Sunday Star,
June 20. And it's good one. Here is
solid bit of the Greater Washington"
toward which the Capital is now strain
ing. A bit of Greater America, also,
raging out from the Nations home city.
***
Bernard Shaw has observed that if
man steals loaf Of bread in Eng
land he is run into Jail, while if he
steals railroad he is run into parlia-
ment." The writer's text, this, to de-
clare that the same is true in the
United States, declaring that if a man
wrecks train on the railroad. he gets
long prison sentence, maybe a life
term. But If certain men should wreck
the entire system-as they did-they
would not be molested-and they we're
not. Still do these tower and shine
as beacons of American honor and
probity This course, to be sure, the
highway to decentralization of our
Moreover and quite as disastrous in its
effects, does such state implant dis
trust in the high gestures of justice
and certainly does it breed the multi
form discontentS already Of clear men,
ace to the foundations of the country
itself.
There are many agencies, outside
the domain of pure law-making, that
are wakened and working in respect to
more intelligent conception Of crime
and the treatment of prisoners. The
church is doing much in this direction.
So are the newspapers. So are the
movies. The Big House." by far the
most intelligent and faithful presenta-
ton of actual prison life which has
ever been thrown on the screen, was,
to friends of prison reform, a thing Of
rejoicing and hope.
A deeply rousing chapter in this
book is the last one. THE Family Tree
of the Racketeer," that spectacular
adventurer who keeps the press on its
toes, so to speak, to march in time
with his dexterous performances. Who
is the true father Of the Capone tribe?
He is that earlier adventurer bent on
the treasure hunt,-early Spaniard,
then the 49ers, then the exploiters OF
natural resources throughout the rich
new country-miners, oil discoveries,
fur traders. The buccaneers Of Amer
lean natural resources, at first, then
buccaneers of American business.
These, the progenitors Of modern
gangland, of the modern racketeer, the
Capones and such. A different field OF
exploitation, a different method Of abb
sorption to individual uses, that which
defrauds the many, Expresses the less
assertive, the less resistant - but, in
spirit and in effect it Is with these
that the high racketeer belongs. Plau-
sible? Good sequence of historic study?
You decide that for yourself. Most
interesting as a topic for thought,
however.
No. I'm not lost. Nor have forgotten
my plan to give attention to this writer's
new book on the subject of crime. The
little story drawn from recent Star
is of the very essence OF that book. It's
basic thought rests upon the need for
an actual reform in the treatment OF
prisoners, in the conduct OF prisons, in
the approach of the great commonalty
to the subject of crime, in the enact
ments OF legislative bodies respecting the
subject.
A forward-looSing study. What Is
being done by science in its investiga-
lions of crime and the treatment OF
crime? What is being done by the law
to keep in step with the findings of
science regarding the sources OF crime
in heredity, early environment, misflt
systems of education? What is being
done with inef1iciency among officials
charged with public order and lawful
ness? What with vulnerable lawyers.
who have, thousands Of them, grown
rich and famous in the practice OF de-
livering powerful malefactors from the
effects of laws made for the protection
of society as a whole? These, some of
the standing places from which DR..
Harry Elmer Barnes invites the average
reader to look out over the landscape
in its present tempests of crime.
who Is the criminalp" asks the
author. And he cites some of them
the unintelligent, minded, sick,
poverty stricken, hopeless and desperate.
Only some of them. On the other
hand, there are the brilliant ones, bril-
liant in spots, but unco-ordinated as a
whole. At war with the social world
against which they take the role of
marauder and destroyer. Confident,
always, with the gamblers faith Of
being able to get away with it,"