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Show I THE CHURCH"A8 I PREVENTATIVE OF CRIME H Judge Says tlmt of 2,700 Per- H sons Charted With Crime 9 None Church Member fl The testimony of a Brooklyn B judge to tlio power of the Church fl in curbing crimo seems to tho B editor of Tho Congrcgationalist, fl Boston, to he n pretty satisfactory B answer to those who arc harping B upon tho present-day ineffective- B ncss of our churches. Judge B Fawcctt's words, as this paper H quotes them, were: "Approxi- B matcly 2.700 cases have been B brought before mo in my five B and a half years of service on fl the bench. During all this time B I have never had to try a man B who was at the ti.mo of the al- fl leged ofTensc, or over had been, H an active member of the fl Church." This, wo are told, was H a deliberate statement, and tho H juigo had even moro to say on fl the Church's restraining power fl in the community. Like this, fl too, recalls Tho Congregational- H ist, "was tho recent testimony of fl a Chicago judge who had tried fl many divorce cases. He said B that rarely, almost never, wcro B tho parties to a divorce suit ac- fl tivo church-workers." Judgo B Fawcett, it seems, has such con- H fidonco in tho efficiency of church fl orgnizatlons that tho boys ho H puts on probation aro ordered to fl attond Sunday school and church. B As ho says: H "I havo asked each young de- B fondant if he was a momber of B or an attondnnt at a Sunday fl school, and I havo never been B answerod 4Yos.' I believe in fl Sunday-schools. When, by means B of suspended sentences ormerci- H ' nntiovrcTJsrrhava auen nt to fl give young prisoners opportuni- H ties to lead bettor lives in freo- H dom, I havo in overy case insist fl od that the first thing they must fl do is to join a Sunday-school." fl Such words as these, writes B tho approving oditor, "aro po- H culiarly valuablo as medicine for H scofTora and critics of tho church- H cs." At least, tho churches are M "restraining tlieir adherents H from crimo." Ho comments B further: fl "Not long ago a certain hater B of Roman Catholicism in a fac- fl tory-town said that if he could fl have' his way ho would closo tho B Catholic church, whoro hundreds B of Poles and Slovacs worshiped. B Wherupon his friend said, 'Then B you would have hull hero in six H months.' B "It really looks as though tho B Christian Church quito efficiont- B ly justified its existonco to tho B nation merely as a preventive of B crime, a barrier against rolapse B into barbarism, a police agency B in preserving order, a presorva- B tivo of common virtue and de- B cency. Wo believo any careful B student of sociology and morals B will sustain Judge Fawcctt's B statement that the Church is a H great curb on crime. Furthcr- B more, wo believo he would agree H that it is the wall which holds H tho race from falling back into H primeval habits and criminal in- H stincts. There is as much truth H as picturesqucness in tho habit B of calling those towns 'holes' H where there are no churches and fl Several saloons." B "This being true," certain of B tho conclusions which necessarily B follow aro thus pointed out: B "First of all. this: Most of our B respectable, attractive commun- B ities of high moral tone aro so B because the Church of Christ is B there. Our beautiful towns are fl lmt are' in3tead of ms B ?': 4 t hotbeds of vice, drukonness and crime, because the Church is there. Church-members are not usually criminals, whatever else they are. Neither are all non-church-members criminals, but ('the vast majority of criminals come from their class. Were not tho town predominantly Christian, Chris-tian, crime would make it impossible im-possible as a home. Therefore, every man in the community owes gratitude fo the Church. He profits from it whether he serves it or not. It is better burglar insurance than the insurance insur-ance companies. It makes the streets safe for his daughters. The stronger the Church i3, the cleaner, healthier, safer, happier, hap-pier, more respectable the town. If every man were in the Church, it would save most of tho expense ex-pense for police, judges, lawyers, and courts. Judgo Fawcett tells us that crimo now costs us $700,000,000 a year. It would coat us ten times that if there wero no churches. It would cost us hardly any of that if all were in the churches. Really, tho mnn who is living in our crime-free, crime-free, respectable towns and does nothing for tho Church is living on charity. Ho is profiting from tho Church's curb of crime, but is giving nothing in return." Then there is a lesson for parents par-ents in Judgo Fawcctt's remark-ablo remark-ablo statement: "Notice that he always insisted insist-ed that boys on parole should join a Sunday-school class. In his experience they rarely elapsed after doing this. The streets of the cities are full of idle boys all day on Sunday. From these aro recruited our future criminals. crim-inals. Closo to any group of thorn is a Sunday-school with many boys. They aro our f uturo citizens. Judgo Fawcett says thoy novor appear in his court. Tho implication for parents is too plain to need enlargement." Tho chief work of tho Church, wo read in tho final paragraph of this editorial, "is not, indeed, tho curbing of crimo, the protection protec-tion of socioty, tho preservation of order, the sustaining of civilization, civ-ilization, or tho warding-off of barbarism." It is rather "nurturing "nur-turing childron into the likeness of Christ, tho redemption of men from sin, the inspiring of men to the imitation of Christ, tho preaching of tho gospel of God's goodness and tho brotherhood of man, tho pointing of men to divine di-vine ideals, the building of the new society of Christ on earth." But this writor is "inclined to believo that testimony to the efficiency with which sho is doing do-ing these things could bo found to match Judgo Fawcctt's witness wit-ness to her curb on crime." Literary Lit-erary Digest. |