Page:The plea of Clarence Darrow, August 22nd, 23rd & 25th, MCMXXIII, in defense of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr., on trial for murder.djvu/4

 Society in its relation to those charged with crime, through its organized agencies first demanded revenge as a punishment, then protection, then restraint. Today it aims to reform or reconstruct the offender, and already anticipates the day when prevention of crime may become a practical achievement.

Clarence Darrow gave voice to this forward looking principle of social government in his eloquent plea before the bar of Justice, and has expressed it with such clearness and conviction that it must long remain as a masterpiece of pleading for the social outcast and the offender. As such the publishers have undertaken its publication.