Page:A hundred years hence - the expectations of an optimist (IA hundredyearshenc00russrich).pdf/257

 equipped by the knowledge of a trade is consequently not so liable to be dishonest as one who is less hopefully situated. He is also likely to be more intelligent, and consequently better qualified to perceive that the balance of comfort is on the side of the honest worker and not on the side of the burglar or thief. Anyone who has had occasion to observe the proceedings of criminal courts must have noticed the frequency with which the description "labourer" is adopted by the offenders charged. "Labourer" means an unskilled worker—a man who has learned no trade, and brings nothing to his work but thews and sinews. It is much less common to find a trade claimed: one rarely sees a thief or burglar described on the charge sheet as "John Doe, carpenter," or "Richard Roe, gas-fitter." They do not even profess to have a trade. Of course where a man's business is such as to lend itself to criminal pursuits, the case is different: one finds banknote forgers described as "engravers" and "lithographers," and makers of counterfeit money as 'die sinkers." But in the average of crime—at least crime of the more stupid sorts—it is the tradeless man who is nearly always charged. It is impossible to resist the inference that poverty is a determining cause in most crimes of greed. In a hundred years' time the spread of technical education will