Show I J Dr Fa Frank I k Cranes Crane's Daily Edit Editorial riall I The Superiority Complex By DR PRANK FRANK CRANE ORANE There has been a good deal said about the Inferiority complex and I It Is doubtful whether It is not accountable for tor a good deal of ot the crime of passion and envy The m ider ot of young l Franks ranks however In Chicago reveals the possibilities pos pos- I of ot the superiority complex held by his murderers Both Leopold and Loeb w were re bright scholars and all the evidence I seems to be that tha they considered themselves particularly Leopold as asI I superIor persons and far tar enough removed remo from the commonality to toI regard them as merely subjects of ot experiment Leopold had experimented experimented I considerably with birds Insects and animals animalS' and seems I to have regarded himself as a mere superior bystander in the affairs ot of men It l was the kind of ot thing there would be a thrill In and we wanted I some easy mone money said Leopold We made a few mistakes I should I have picked up my glasses I didn't know where I dropped them Vet We Ve t thought that we had the whole thing airtight but It That's all all His companion in crime Richard Loeb has slowly slipped sUpped from I his lofty pinnacle pinnacle- cle in the ethereal spaces of self conceit lt He Is no no longer longI long long- er the sure footed well-poised well steeplejack scaling the spires spire's of a I vagrant Imagination and from them then glancing downwards to laugh atthe at atthe the clumsy efforts pf pt policemen bent on learning who kidnapped and killed Robert Franks He seems to have lost his nerve and become I jumpy The tac fact face is that no one can separate himself from the human masses without perversion No one can become the enemy of ot society without society taking is Its revenge upon him Each of ot the criminals accuses the other but both are re ready to acknowledge complicity In the crime Two things seem to have been the mot motives ves of ot these boys two vo things that are common enough greed and the spirit of ot adventure They were out for tor a. a prank ard and had come to regard the lIv lives s of at their fellow human beings as of ot no account compared to their l' l lown own amusement And they thought they would make some easy eay money Their case has down broken down and their condition Is pitiable Even more pitiable is that of ot their relatives Just as no man succeeds without t carrying others up with him so no man goes down without i iI carrying others down with him The sufferings of ot the families of ot the I two boys must be great i Their crime however was peculiarly peculiar atrocious They slew a a. abright i bright Innocent fellow in the of his youth In an automobile In the midst of ot a heavily traveled street First they hit him on the I head with a chisel and afterwards they Insured his death by choking him with a gag In addition to this they put acid on his face tace in in an effort to disfigure him so that his woud be destroyed There can be no excuse excuse of poverty in their action for tor both boys boya I were sons of ot well-to-do well parents and received from them a liberal allow allow- ance alice Ransom and the of crime were the motives for tor the deed I In removing from Its Ita pale the two murderers there should be no vengeance displayed ayed by society but only the desire to protect I itself by the administration of ot strict justice Altogether it seems to be an instance of ot the superiority complex I and of ot the unreliability of ot th intellect as a substitute for tor the natural Instincts of mankind It Is Js as easy to justify such a death said Leopold as s It ft is to I justify an entomologist for Impaling a. a beetle on a pin |