Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/571

Rh is true not only of individuals, but also of masses as well. We have to prove it the statistics of Dr. Ogle, in regard to the English population at a time of a steady increase of crime: "Eighty-five per cent of the population were able to read and write in the years 1881-'84, and as this represents an increase of ten per cent, since the passing of the Elementary Education Act, it is probably not far from the mark to say that at the present time almost ninety per cent of the English population can read and write. In other words, only ten per cent of the population is wholly ignorant." In spite of this general diffusion of knowledge, in spite of compulsory education in the most critical and formative years of childhood, there was no decrease, but on the contrary an increase of crime.

Again, it has been conclusively proved that destitution, that specter which frightens the hearts of men, which covers and obscures with its sodden wings every wrongdoing in human life, is not in any way the real cause of crime; it is true that often it is the excuse. But it is only the excuse, and even in that capacity it serves for the want of something better. However, relying upon this excuse, one would naturally think that men with the greatest burdens would be the most liable to lawbreaking, and that times of profound destitution would be those most deeply marked with crime. As a matter of fact, both of these suppositions are false, so that we find criminals, as a rule, to be those persons having almost no responsible burdens, and, strangest of all, the times of prosperity show the greatest flourishing of crime. Therefore, Morrison, a reliable writer, says: "It is a melancholy fact that the moment wages begin to rise, the statistics of crime almost immediately follow suit, and at no period are there more offenses of all kinds against the person than when prosperity is at its height." Again: "It is found that the stress of economic conditions has very little to do with making these unhappy beings what they are; on the contrary, it is in periods of prosperity that they sink to the lowest depths."

In like manner it can be fully and plainly proved that the other fortuitous and external conditions which are usually blamed for the wrongdoing in the world are either quite innocent or merely accidental. Thus, climate is said by some to be a guilty factor; but we all know how easy it is to show that there is no part of the world untainted. Seasons are responsible, say others. Here, again, a strange fact confronts us: for it is in the pleasantest seasons of the year, when people have least in Nature to contend with, when they are most abroad and mingling together, that crime is commonest. Some well-intentioned men say that certain foods, especially "strong" and animal foods, so inflame the tendency to viciousness that evil instincts flare up, and as a