Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/570

528 recent congresses for this object in Paris, Rome, and Brussels have opened a new world of information, have shown how misty have been our ideas on the subject, how primitive our methods have been and are, and what little hope for the future lies in a continuance of them.

This much, at least, we have learned: that the criminal forms a class by himself, no matter whether he is born so or grows into vice; that not only in his acts but likewise in mind and body does he vary from the healthy normal. For his tendency, as that of all organic life, is to reproduce his kind. This fact should be regarded as a rule that is as widely applicable and as unvarying as any law of biology. It can not be otherwise, for every child is a summing up and a manifestation of the traits of his ancestors. And so, in spite of our present efforts, each confirmed lawbreaker becomes an ever-fruitful fountain for wrong—a moral plague spot—the limits to whose contagion are bounded only by the amount of material that can be contaminated. The most superficial glance will show how true this is, for if it were otherwise one would rightly suppose that the vast efforts for social amelioration throughout society must surely result in an increase of the better and a decrease of the worse elements. But as a matter of fact this is not the case. We spend tremendous amounts of time and money and effort in the attempt to eliminate the need of crime; we strive to the last extent to do away with destitution, unsanitary conditions, ignorance, and depressing moral influences, and undoubtedly these efforts have accomplished much good. But in spite of all this, in spite of aid societies for discharged convicts, in spite of educational possibilities that are as free as air, in spite of college settlements, protecting associations for children, reformatories, and lavish charities of all kinds—in a word, in spite of vastly improved social surroundings—the criminal remains as he has always been. Crime does not lessen, but on the contrary increases with the growth of our cities, or even increases beyond the proportion which we should naturally ascribe to it.

The strange thing about all this is that the development in crime does not necessarily depend for its beginning and growth upon the elements which are popularly held responsible. Many people believe that with the wider diffusion of knowledge wrongdoing must necessarily shrink away—that mental enlightenment and moral darkness are incompatible. But this is merely a supposition, for the most part based on our admiration for education. And, as a matter of fact, concrete examples constantly remind us that the educated person, if wrongly minded, does not as the result of his mental training become a law-abiding citizen, but rather becomes a dangerous and capable criminal. Moreover, this