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Show LET US TALK IT OVER. An Ogden friend of ours gently rebukes us for our "assumptions" in last week's editorial on "Murderers "Mur-derers and Defectives." Here is what he takes exception ex-ception to: "As for those abnormal human beings who are as ready to commit murder as the' are to steal or beg, or who murder just for the sake of notoriety, or who slay upon impulses they can neither control nor account for, nothing remains but to round them up and keep them where they can do no harm." Our Ogden friend, who won't let us publish his letter, denies-the rationale of our position and maintains that there are "no impulses which can not be controlled by a free agent." Maybe so. But the difficulty, we take it, is to determine the limits of human freedom or to define free agency. Our experience has taught us that there are men and women born with criminal instincts inherited from their parents, and who, when temptation confronts con-fronts them, cannot resist or can only feebly resist. That mental defect or weakness, especially in the form of downright insanity, i3 commonly hereditary, hered-itary, has long ago been known. Indeed, it was recognized by the common experience, observation and judgment of mankind long before the medical profession began to take serious note of it with a view to combating the condition. A celebrated jest, spoken in most Pober earnestness, earnest-ness, of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes was to the effect that thoroughly to reform a man we must begin with his great-grandfather. We cannot do that, but we can at least make it possible that our .... : they could go back and reform us. There are in our penitentiaries and jails this morning men and boys who, though guilty of gross crime according to law, may yet be irresponsible before God. That is, they inherited a weak; will, as some children inherit in-herit a weak constitution. But the singular feature, fea-ture, or weakness, of our criminal code is that the Lw is measured out in the same proportion to these unfortunates as to the wilful, and mentally strong, criminal who enters upon a career of crime of his own volition. How to deal with this problem and to measure the degrees of responsibility or irresponsibility irre-sponsibility from the absolute zero of idiocy to the point of high intellectuality constitutes the difficulty. If the records of the examinations of school children were kept by the teachers, and compared, they might help, particularly if to these records were added something of the character of the parents, the physical, moral and mental condition of the child from year to year, and the opinion of the teacher or examiner as to the tendencies of the child toward an upward or a downward career. When the boy or girl left school, these .records might assist the civil legal or criminal authorities to deal with the young man or woman in a just and Christian-like manner. Repeated offenses on the part of the boy would indicate the tendencies of the youth toward a career of crime and would war- j rant the authorities in segregating him from society so-ciety and placing him in a home where comforts would be provided and where he would be surrounded sur-rounded by influences to counteract his vicious tendencies. ten-dencies. Exaniples are not wanting to prove that pauperism pau-perism and criminal instincts are transmitted from generation to generation. Only, then, by segregation, segrega-tion, by fair treatment and instruction may this dangerous and increasing element be controlled and a strong nation of wholesome men and women be built up. The absurd saying that all men are born equal, and the foolish boast of our school books and magazines mag-azines that any boy might hope some day to become be-come President of the United States, are an insult to our intelligence and our American citizenship. Every school teacher knows that among those under his care there are found the weak-minded and the physically imperfect. These can never become be-come fully responsible people. They will have to be watched all their lives as they are dangerously susceptible to the influences of immoral men and women. Let it also be understood that environment, environ-ment, including light, air, clothing, food, cleanliness, clean-liness, home life and religion make for the future of the child. Our Ogden correspondent will notice we have not combated his contention, for he has unconsciously sprung upon us an objection which, to close and wrestle with, demands concessions which our space will not allow us to grant. |