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THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
4TLAITA, GA.. 5 IOBTH FOBBYTB BT.
r>red at the Atlanta Postoifiee as Mat! Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMZI *■ »*AT.
Preaident and Editor.
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mission allowed. Outfit free- Write R- K BRAD
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sLMLWEEKI Y JUL UN AL. Atlanta. Ua.
The State Road Extension.
The question of extending the State roau to the
sea becomes particularly interesting in view of the
latest proposal submitted to the Western and At
lantic commission. Under the terms of this tenta
tive offer, capitalists are prepared to deliver to the
State, free of all incumbrances, an extension of the
Western and Atlantic railroad from Atlanta to Sa
vannah together with adequate terminals and all
other needed appurtenances. In payment for this
property they will accept fifty-year, four per cent
State of Georgia bonds, the exact amount depend
ing on the character of the extension and terminals
to be prescribed by the Commission. It is proposed
then to lease from the State, "preferably for a term
of, forty-seven years from the expiration of the
present lease.** the entire line from Chattanooga to
Savannah - *
"at an annual rental which will yield to the
State of Georgia a return on the present line
■ running from Chattanooga to Atlanta) sub
stantially in excess of the present rental and
an additional sum equal to the interest on all
the four per cent bonds issued by the State in
payment for the extension and a further sum
sufficient to provide for a sinking fund that
will retire all of these bonds on or before the
date of their maturity, the sinking fund to be
annually invested in the bonds of the State of
Georgia or of its various counties and munici
palities.’*
This offer, which was laid belore the Re-Leas
ing Commission last week by Mr. Hooper Alexan
der in behalf of his clients. Mr. William Hurd
Hillyer and associates, is the second of its. kind.
Earlier in the year Mr. J. A. J. Henderson submit
ted a proposition to the same general effect. The
Commission, though authorized to receive and ac
cept proposals for extending the estern and At
lantic to the sea. has no power or means to .pro
vide payment for the extension. This deficiency, it
appears, can be met only by special legislation au
thorizing a State bond issue for the purpose. * It if
essential, therefore, if the enterprise is to go for
ward. that an extraordinary session oi the General
Assembly pass a Constitutional a amendment and
submit it for popular ratification not later than
December of the present year.
It remains to be seen, of course, whether the
Western and Atlantic Commission sanctions either
of the proposals it has received, if it do'is find
either of them acceptable, the legislative machinery
should be set promptly in motion in order that the
State road extensicn. which is supremely impor
tant to Georgia's "Interests, may be assured and
consummated.
There’s at least one redeeming feature about
air castles: we don’t have to pay taxes on them.
Ex Cathedra.
"The Macon convention is going to indorse
Wilson, of course. It couldn’t do anything
else."—The Atlanta Constitution.
The prophet has spoken, and the heathen will
rage in vain. As Mr. Dorsey’s closest counselor,
the Constitution declares in advance what shall be
done at Macon next Tuesday, despite Watson’s de
mand that the convention either pass over in
silence or openly condemn the record of the Wilson
administration. It Is indeed gratifying to learn
ex cathedra that the State Democratic convention
will do its duty by the national Democratic leader,
even at the risk of offending, and mayhap alienat
ing. the ribald rowdy of Hickory Hill.
There would have been no question as to what
rhe convention would do had it not been for Wat
son’s manifesto and bis claim to recognition at the
hands of those he bad served. Said the insistent
Watson
“Ten thousand anti-Wilson men worked
hard for Dorsey: and. therefore, it would be
ungrateful, indecent and even brutal to slap
these men in the face with a Wilson indorse
ment. which has no business in this conven
tion.”
Well, the slap is coming if our esteemed contem
porary speaks advisedly, as doubtless it does. May
the blow ring true and hard: The aftermath is no
concern of ours. To those who have lain down with
the dogs and got up with fleas, we speak our earnest
pax vobiscum.
The Constitution is eminently right in saying of
the convention’s duty to indorse President Wilson.
“It couldn’t do anything else." If there was ever a
time when the Democracy of Georgia was bound to
be outspokenly loyal it is at the present juncture
when one of the greatest Democrats in American
hlstoty stands for re-election and when the
country’s good no less than the party’s is vitally
involved. ,
The convention’s indorsement of the national
administration should be whole-nearted and em
phatic, worthy of Georgia’s traditions as a strong
hold of Democracy. If by chance there should be
present at the Macon convention persons or influ
ences that oppose a resolution to this effect* they
should be pul down as enemies of the party and
intruders upon a Democratic council.
It s'the first time we ever beard of a Creme de
Mentbe*’ tank. Most tanks require stronger waters
THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1916.
Thb Georgia Land Show
One of the most promising enterprises the State
1 Chamber of Commerce has inaugurated is the Geor
-1 gla Land Show, to be staged in Atlanta in January,
j 1917. The distinctive purpose oi the exposition will
be an appeal to hoineseekers and investors, and to
j that end efforts will be made to attract visitors
, from the country at large, particularly from the
; West. The railroads have given assurances that
. they will offer special inducements, and it is hoped
that stop-overs in Atlanta will be allowed on all
j tourist tickets.
Few States afford settlers opportunities so rich
. as those abounding in Georgia. Land is much
cheaper here than in other sections whose resources
have been widely exploited. Our soil and
are admirably suited to stock raising, fruit grow
ing, truck farming, grain production and virtually
i every other agricultural pursuit. By demonstrat
i ing the truth of this through an exposition of diver
, sifted crops, the Land Show will be an advertise
ment far-reaching in its value.
Some years ago the trend of American migration
was toward Canada and the Northwest. Thousands
of men and families left^ their native States to seek
what appeared to be golden fortunes in regions
far away. But more recently the trend has been
steadily Southward. People in quest of fresh op
portunities are realizing more and more widely that
the advantages of the South are incomparably su
perior to those of the far Northwest.
This change has been effected largely through
judicious and persistent advertising. If Georgia is
to get its due share of homeseekers and investors, it
must make its resources known. To do that is an
important function of the State Chamber of Com
merce. and the projected Land Show is one of the
happiest ideas that institution has conceived.
Profits From Peanuts.
In the decade 1899-1909 the peanut acreage
in the United States increased sixty-eight' per
cent; the yield increased from eleven million,
nine hundred and sixty-four thousand bushels to
nineteen million, four hundred and fifteen thou
sand: and the value of the crop from seven mil
lion. two hundred and seventy thousand dollars
to eighteen million, two hundred and seventy-oue
thousand. It is estimated the output for 1915
will be considerably larger than for 1909.
These figures attest the development of an in
dustry the beginnings of which were almost
ludicrously trivial. "Peanut’’ has been a synonym
for "paltry.’’ But the peanut and its, by-products,
now highly valued for their food properties, bld
fair/to become more and more commercially im
portant.
According to a recent bulletin of the federal
Department of Agriculture, it costs from twenty
to twenty-five dollars to raise thirty-five bushels
of peanuts, which is the average acre yield of the
Spanish variety: this reckoning includes labor
and interest on investment. At seventy cents a
bushel, the revenue thus derivable is twenty-four
dollars and fifty cents an acre. The hay. which
is worth about ten dollars, brings the total up to
thirty-four dollars and a half.
The New York Commercial notes that this mar
gin of profits is none too large and that if peanut
oil is to be sold in competition with cotton seed
l»il. even under present conditions, "the mill man
cannot afford to pay more than seventy cents.”
The way to increase the profits of the peanut in
dustry. thinks the Commercial, is to improve on
the variety grown "thereby obtaining a higher
grade of peanut oil for the market.”
The South in the Corn Belt.
One of the most interesting phases of agricul
tural expansion in recent years is the widening of
the Corn Belt. That belt once was limited,for the
most part to au area extending from Pennsylvania
to Kansas and embracing Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Missouri and southern lowa. Today jr. reaches
farther east and west and north, and especially
does it reach farther south. It includes Michigan,
Wisconsin. Minnesota, the Dakotas and Montana,
while the Southern States, as the Farm Life mag
azine observes, “the showing that a hundred bush
els to the acre is easily attainable by them.”
Between 1911 and 1914 Georgia’s corn yield in
creased from 39,374,569 bushels to 63,023,000, and
the value of the annual yield from 137,079,981 to
$57,531,000. In the same period the average acre
yield almost doubled. Since 1914 this upward
trend has continued, so that Georgia has an assured
and important place in the Corn Belt.
That is typical of what is being done through
out the South. The cotton States are becoming
grain States as well. They are breaking the bonds
of the one-crop system and are drawing prosperity
and independence from varied resources. The in
creased output of corn is laying broad foundations
for a new industry in the South—the live stock in
dustry’ which bids fair to become a prime interest
of this section. The expanding production of hogs
and cattle is followed naturally by the establish
ment of packing houses, and these in turn open new
fields for the investment of capital and the employ
ment of labor. Thus by turning to diversified agri
culture, by raising more grain and forage the South
has opened the way to a new era of economic
achievement.
The Horse Goes On.
A horse census recently taken in New York
State reveals a rather surprising fact. Count
ing only the horses that are over three years
old. New York now has one hundred and eight
thousand more than in 1910. Adding the colts, the
total number reaches one million, seventy-eight
thousend, five hundred and forty-five.
One would have supposed off hand that horses
were gradually going out of use. not to say out of
style. The Sunday supplement philosopher often
pictures them ambling toward oblivion with the
hippogriff. The automobile and motor truck have
j 'whirred forward so fast that w e fancied the horse
necessarily was jogging backward. Yet, In a
crowded eastern center of population, horaes are
actually on the increase.
They are advancing in prices, too. That is ex
plained partly by the extraordinary demand from
Eurojie which in the last year or so has imported
hundreds, of thousands of horses and mules from
America for war uses. But there are divers tasks
of peace which the horse still holds peculiarly his
own despite the age of .gasoline; and. further, he
still holds his place in hear* of man.
Comparathely few people remain m the self
satisfied class after they once get acquainted
with themaelvet.
Quips and Quiddities
On, Ebetiezer Waterskin was in great form al the
temperance meeting as he held forth on the glories of
teetotalism!
“Listen, my friends!” he cried. “If you desire a
long and happy life, then shun the drink as you would
the smallpox!”
\t this a well bitten old fellow at the back of the
hall sprang up.
"Don’t believe him. boys! Look at me' I’m sixty
five todaj. sound in wind and limb, hearty and happy,
and I’ve been a bard drinker all my life!”
“Ah,” cried the lecturer, “but if you'd been a tee
totaller you'd have been ninety by now!”
•. • •
During a trial in New York two countrymen were
among the spectators.
“Sure enough,” said one of them, "the evidence will
convict the prisoner.”
"Not only convict him. it will hang him,” said the
other.
"Man alive! They don’t hang murderers in New
York.”
"Well, if they don’t hang them what do they do
with them?”
“Kill them w’lth elocution.”
• • •
A good story is going the rounds about a prominent
city man who was visiting France the other day, and
there was an owl in the garden that had only one leg.
My friend nsed to admire this owl, and two or three
days after his arrival he had some glbier (as they call
their game) for dinner. The “game’’ was very small,
but he enjoyed his dinner immensely, and the next day
he missed the owl from the garden.
“Where has the owl gone to?” he inquired of the
landlord.
“Monsieur had a little dish of gibier yesterday,”
was the answer to the consternation of the traveler.
"Why, did you kill the owl for dinner?”
"I no kill z.e owl, M’sieur; he dies himself.”
• • •
Scribblem, the editor of the Mudville Scraper, was a
modest man. He believed in modesty—even in journal
ism. He thought it paid no better for a newspaper than
for a man continually to be bragging.
A prospectus was once drawn up for him. There
were several blatantly boastful paragraphs in it, and
Scrlbblem ran his pencil through them all.
.“If I let this go,” he said, "It would be pretty
nearly as bad as the epitaph that the young widow
carved on her aged husband’s tomb. This epitaph read:
"Sacred to the memory of John James Greer, aged
eighty-four, who departed this life bitterly regretting
he must leave forever the most Beautiful and best
of wives.”
♦ ♦ B
Bibulous Bibbens. en route home from the club, had
anchored to a lamp post, with absolute certainty that
if he hunted diligently he could locatq the keyhole.
Finally he could endure the silence and suspense no
longer.
“You can t fool me, Mell,” he shouted. “I know
you’re home. I can see the light in your window.”—
Puck. ,
• • •
A man who had just finished a comfortable meal at
a restaurant the other evening suddenly rose from his
chair, caught up his hat and umbrella that stood against
the wall and rushed out of the building.
"Stop him!” exclaimed the proprietor. “That Jel
low' went out without
“I'll stop him," said a determined-looking man, who
lose up hastily from a table near where the other had
sat. “He took my gold-headed umbrella. I’ll stop him
and I’ll bring him back in charge of a police officer,
the scoundrel!”
Without a moment's hesitation he dashed out of the
house in hot pursuit of the conscienceless villain. And
the proprietor, a cold, hard, unsympathetic kind of man,
has somehow begun to suspect that neither of them
will ever come back.
As a Progressive Views It.
That pioneer and leader of the Progressives in
the West, Victor Murdock, takes Mr. Hughes
sharply to task for his criticism of the President’s
handling of the strike peril. Observing that Mr.
Hughes while denouncing the President’s methods
fails to point out by what other course the threaten
ed disaster could have been averted, Mr. Murdock
says in his newspaper, the Wichita (Kansas)
Eagle:
"The railroad men took the position that
the eight-hour day was not arbitrable. They
refused flatly to arbitrate. Under the circum
stances, then unless the eight-hour day was
granted, a strike would have been inevitable.
Would Mr. Hughes have preferred a strike,
its inevitable burnings and disorder, its blood
shed and prostration of industry, ifs stirring
of class hatreds and sufferings of millions of
people, to the settlement that Mr. Wilson ef
fected: for the strike of 1894 gives a faint idea
of what might have been expected in 1916 if
the president, following Mr. Cleveland’s pre
cedent, had attempted to settle it by force. The
Adamson bill does not effect a permanent set
tlement. Further measures are necessary and
should be adopted as the president has recom
mended. As to the surrender of the president
of the demands for an eight-hour day pro
gressives demanded that measure of social
justice four years ago, and it certainly ill be
comes anyone who supported that platform
to rail at the president for helping to secure a
measure manifestly just to labor.”
The Adamson bill not only met a dangerous
crisis, it also opened the way for a permanent so
lution of grave industrial problems. The inves
tigating commission for which it provided will
gather and lay before Congress the facts on which
to base effectual legislation dealing with all the
elements of such disputes. The railway executives
themselves have decided, after a second, sober
thought, that the law has advantageous features.
Certainly, it should not be condemned until all its
provisions have been fairly tried out.
U-Boat Warfare.
Berlin dispatches tell of renewed agitation for
unrestricted U-boat warfare. Major Bassermann,
a leader of the National Liberal party, is reported
as urging that "in a struggle wherein the exist
ence of Germany is at stake the most ruthless use
of all possible weapons is called for;” and in this
view is said to be shared by Admiral von Tirpitz,
Admiral van Koester, Prince von Buelow. Count
Zeppelin and other personages of high rank in the
Empire.
It has often been predicted that the last stage
of the war would be the most cruel and terrible.
Driven to the verge of defeat. Germany may enter
upon a campaign of frightfulness beside which her
pevlous Zeppelin raids and submarine attacks will
seem almost mild. This, at least, is what Allied
observers expdet.
It should be noted, however, that the policies
of the Empire are now in the hands of statesmen
who counseled prudence and restraint when the
question of submarine lawlessness was last a cru
cial issue. The Chancellor apparently controls the
political situation, and he is flrm against unbridled
ruthlessness. For Germany’s future good as well
as for the cause of civilization, it is to be wished
that in the final stages of the war she will not
turn to a course which the humane world would
condemn
l tttHAT are the real effects of self-analysis?”
Vy the question was put to me recently.
’ ’ "Some authorities say self-analysis is
helpful."others that it is hurtful. Which statement
is correct?"
Both statements are correct. It all depends on
exactly what is meant by self-analysis.
When an authority says that self-analysis is
hurtful he has in mind a habit of continual watch
fulness with regard to one’s bodily sensations.
This kind of self-analysis is truly one of the
most hurtful things in the world.
We are so built that our physical mechanism—
our heart, stomach, liver, lungs and the rest—
works best if we do not try to watch it working.
If we do try to watch it working and especially
if we let ourselves worry lest it work badly, then
indeed it begins to work badly.
It is like a nervous man who becomes awkward
the moment anybody pays attention to what he is
doing.
And, unfortunately, there are many people who
indulge in this wrong kind of self-analysis.
For example, every time they eat many people
think overmuch of their stomach. They wonder if
it will behave well. They conjure up all sorts of
unpleasant pictures having indigestion as their cen
tral feature.
Their poor stomach resents this excessive at
tention. Left to itself it would have taken proper
care of the food put into it.
But now it begins, so to speak, to lose confi
dence in itself. It functions feebly, and painful
sensations result. Even then little harm would he
done if only these sensations were ignored.
But no. There is now a firmer fixing of the
attention on the luckless stomach. Whereupon the
stomach grows fretful, irritable, and a typical case
of chronic nervous indigestion is the result
THE LESSON FROM IN FANTILE PARALYSIS.
BY DR. FRANK CRANE- -—————
The entire United States today is Interested in
the strange outbreak of infantile paralysis in New
Y ork.
It is one of those severe blows that the Ruler
of the universe inflicts upon* men—because of their
sins we used to say; because of their ignorance and
stubbornness and laziness we say now; though per
haps both reasons amount to the same.
What is our sin?
If we can find out what it is, and quit it, we can
be saved.
We found out what was the matter in Panama,
abated the mosquito, and abolished the plague.
The mediaeval world was periodically devastat
ed by various pests, red death, black death, and
cholera.
How did we stop them?
Plagues have never been done away with save
by one means.
And that is—concerted action.
The most salient truth in modern medicine is
tnat disease is not an individual but a social af
fair.
The»onlj’ way for ire to keep healthy is to make
everybody "around me heaDhy.
In the realm of diseased, at least, “no inan
liveth or dieth unto himsejf.”
Typho in the sweatshop tenement means death
in the millionaire’s nursery.
The diseased hobo in the street sends his
microbe emissaries to the Biltmore and the Ritz.
In disease, if nowhere else, we are brothers —
‘all one body we.”
Think right to the bottom of this matter, there
fore, and you must reach but one conclusion, to
wit: That health is public business, disease a pub
lic calamity.
And the corollary of this ought to penetrate
"“our reason, to wit: That the medical profession
should be a public and not a private profession.
. it is as absurd to have private doctors, hirbd
by individuals, as it would be to ha'’® on b’ private
ptolicemen or privately employed soldiers.
NEW LIGHT ON CRIME. I—What Is a Criminal?
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN
HICAGO, Ilk, Sept. 23.—Not lons ago there was a
C daring automobile robbery here. A young auto
bandit nineteen or twenty years old stole an
Automobile, filled it with a few of his young: friends and
went joy riding at forty miles an nour. Result, he
collided with another car, killed himself, injured
occupants of both vehicles, and smashed things up
generally. The general verdict was that a reckless and
dangerous youth had received his just deserts.
But down at the municipal court, where the criminal
branch courts dispose of 400 or 500 cases a day, there
is a new tool for the long arm of the law known as
the psychopathic laboratory. Os this laboratory, as Sir
Walter Scott would say, much more anon. In the case
of the auto bandit the records of the laboratory were
consulted to see if the young man had ever been in
court, and if the laboratory had any record of him.
The laboratory had.
The purpose of the laboratory is to examine offend
ers by the recentlj' developed psychologic and psychi
atric methods and see if they are normal mentally, or
if they are feeble minded or otherwise irresponsible.
The automobile thief’s card showed that he had a basal
age. mentally, of eight years, and an average age of
ten years. In other words, he had t’ne mind of a child
ten years old: in some lines of a child only eight years
old. With the desires and strength of his nineteen
year-old body he had stolen the car, and then he had
run it with the judgment of a ten-year-old child.
Viewed in this light, his crime and its consequences
are more pathetic than thrilling.
Here you have one case of many thousand cases.
Here you have an example of the new science and the
new ideas that are making people sit up and think all
over the world. Here you have a stray ray of the light
that may show us a new concept of what crime is, and
what a criminal is, of what punishment should be, and
what is justice.
Stated baldly, the point is that expert Investigators
are coming to the conclusion that a criminal in many,
perhaps in the majority of cases, is a not
because natural perversity or the devil has entered into
him, but because there is something the matter with
his brain. This is no closet conclusion, reached by a
theoretical expert from his armchair, but an idea that
has been gleaned from the study of thousands of cases.
Here in Chicago the busiest psychiatric laboratory in
the United States, if not in the world. Is located. Dr.
Hickson, the expert in charge, has just reported on
2,700 cases —the largest number of criminals ever
studied by an expert alienist and neurologist to be
reported on in a single document.
If the new concept of the criminal is the right one,
the recognition of it will have results of immense
importance. It will obviously make a Mg difference in
the way criminals are handled. This is a question that
touches all of us, not only as it affects the safety of
ourselves and our property, but also because a third
to a half of the taxes we pay go to protect us against
the criminal, the feeble minded and the insane, and to
caring for them in institutions. It will mean also that
the criminal will get a real justice.
At this point it is just as well to state that there is
nothing sentimentalistic or maudlin about making out
a case for the lawbreaker on the score of addled men
tality. The psychopathic laboratory, it is true, taking
all manner of criminals large and small as the net of
the law gathers them in dally from the streets of
Chicago, finds that a great many of them are not right
mentally, and this is inevitably taken into consideration
as an extenuating circumstance. It ought to be, if it is
true. If that is what is the matter with our criminals,
the sooner we know it and provide for it the better.
It has been urged here, where the people have been
arguing warmly over their psychopathic laboratory,
that by decreasing the number of convictions and
punishments the number of crimes would be increased.
The old idea, in other words, that fear of the law pre
vents crime. Perhaps it does, with normal people; but
with the abnormal it doesn’t, because their brains
don’t work right. Tn old England they used to hang
people for stealing 50 cents’ worth of muslin, and the
percentage of crime was just as high then as it is now.
To punish the normal ci'iiuluai and to recognize and
SELF-ANALYSIS
BY H. ADDINGTON BRUCE
In the same way nervous heart trouble, nervous
headaches, and so forth, nyiy be produced. And
they frequently are thug produced.
Decidedly, this kind of self-analysis ought to
be avoided.
The case is different with self-analysis directed
to the workings, not of the body, but of the mind.
Success and happiness in life depend on right
acting, and right acting depends on right thinking.
Right thinking, in its turn, depends largely on
right desiring.
There are desires that cripple, and there are
desires that enlarge. There are mental attitude#
that promote a man’s progress, and mental atti
tudes that make progress absolutely impossible.
Most men —all men who have been educated
properly—know what these helping and hindering
desires and attitudes are. But not all men take the
trouble to examine themselves from time to time
as to their personal adherence to the best standards
of desiring, thinking, and acting.
The great majority, in fact, simply muddle
along without personal scrutiny of any sort. When
they fail in life —as many do —they are at a loss
to account for their failure.
Self-analysis could have saved these men—selt
analysis made soon enough and with special refer
ence to their modes of mental and moral action.
Just how am I behaving? Are my motives
good? Do I really think? Or am I drifting along,
wasting my life? What are the special weaknesses
I need to overcome? * •
These are questions all of us can and should
frequently ask ourselves, and which w* should try
to answer candidly.
This is the kid of self-analysis the authorities
approve—the kind that is as helpful as the other
kind is hurtful.
(Copyright, 1916, by The Associated Newspapers.'
Physicians ought to be public servants, chosen
by and responsible to the public; for I am as much
interested in keeping smallpox and poliomyelitis*
out of the house in the slums as I am in keeping it
out of the flat building in which I live.
Every human being, every, man, woman, and
child; is entitled to the best medical treatment sci
ence can supply.
This sfstem need not be forced on us from a
government autocracy, but should be secured by the
intelligent co-operation of the people, by demo
cratic methods. .
For my own sake X ought to try to bring it to
pass that every person in my nation should re
ceive the best medical attention.
The only way to secure this is to make medical
attention to be without money and without price
to all.
And the only way to reach this end is to with
draw all medical practitioners from the welter of
competition and make them officers of the state.
Says Dr. Joseph Krlmsky: "The world must
awake to the realization that the problem of pre
ventive medicine, the prevention of epidemics and
’plagues, can only be solved by she state, using the
individual physician as its agent. It needs the
edmbined efforts of radiologist, diagnostician,
clinician, surgeon and trained nurse. It needs
team work and supervision, and all these essentials
can be secured, not in the dingy office of the aver
age poorly equipped, struggling, keenly competi
tive, private physician, but in the great, modern,
efficient, highly-equipped hospital and clinic. This
Institution, the outgrowth of industrial, mechani
cal and scientific advancement, must be redeemed
from the thraldom of charity. It must be thrown
open to all that require its services not alone for
medical and surgical treatment, but for the P erlodl °
examination of the apparently healthy, in order to
protect them against insidious disease. It must be
owned, controlled and supervised by the state, and'
paid for by a tax laid on rich poor, employer
and employe.”
’ (Copyright, 1916, by Frank
treat the abnormal as such is the alm of the new
criminology.
For instance, the case of a twenty-year-old boy came
up here the other day. He was charged with carrying
a gun. He was holding a job with a good-sized com
pany, and there was nothing to show that he was not
an ordinary cheap laborer. He attracted the attentio.
of the laboratory, however, and they examined -him.
He had the mind of a nine-year-old child. His family
was called and questioned, and they admitted that he
was feeble minded, but protested that he waj unusually
lovable and inoffensive. He brought his wages home
carefully, and had been known to walk four miles with
S2O in his pocket rather than pay a nickel car
He had gotten the gun when he had temporary employ*-
ment as a strikebreaker. •
All this tallied with the known laws of such cases.
The feeble minded, when their malady is uncomplicated
by dementia, are usually cheerful, docile and lovable.
They are capable of performing simple tasks in a
simple environment enough. There was little
doubt that the boy was doing his manual work satis
factorily, and less doubt that he was even more dan
gerous carrying a gun than a normal youth. He might
have shot somebody in his good-natured way with little
provocation. On the other hand, to sentence him to
prison or to a reformatory with his easily influenced,
plastic mind would have meant that he would be
molded by all the evil of his companions and come out
a permanent menace to society. The real state of
affairs was made clear to his family, and on their
undertaking to keep him out of mischief—no difficult
task—he was discharged.
All cases of crime caused by brain trouble of one
sort or another are not so easily disposed of, because
most abnormals have their trouble complicafcd by some
form of dementia that makes them dangerous. By
dementia is not meant what we usually understand by
the term—easily recognized insanity—but one of the
subtler forms of mental trouble that escape all but the
expert eye. The abnormality is there, but the people
who brush up daily against the sufferer do not see it.
There is one test that brings it out sooner or later.
They speak of it in the laboratory here as the "world
test,” the test of dally life.
We walk hedged around by the thousand laws and
ordinances of a complex civilization that we never
notice because they have been drafted with elaborate
care to conform to normal standards, to the habits of
normal
mality in him/ sooner or later he wilf come into con
tact with one 'of those laws, infringe upon it, break it.
Then he turns up in police court.
That is why the psycopathic laboratory here in
Chicago has been termed by experts the "greatest
clinic of abnormal psychology in the world.” The city
courts are strongly centralized under the municipal
court system that originated in Chicago, and all offend
ers against the law in a city of 2,500,000 people are
gathered in by 5,000 policemen and brought to a
common center. They are the individuals who cannot,
or do not, conform to normal standards. Ts there is
something the matter with them, this is the place to
find it out.
Os course, among the hundreds that come in dally,
there are some who are perfectly normal mentally.
Some criminals are lacking in the moral sense, but twt
In intelligence or mental balance. But the bulk of
them, the bulk of any collection of criminals, seems
even to the most inexpert eye to be abnormal.
A story is told by an American expert in this line of
the days when he went to Germany to study. Criminal
psychiatry is a new science, but it is not as new in
Germany as it is here. The world-famous clinics
where the foundation work was done are in Germany
and Switzerland. The American attended his first
clinic with a stack of text-books under his arni.
"Throw away the books, man!” said the German pro
fessor. “For one thing, we are here ten years ahead
of the books. And in this science you must above all
things study the case. Let thp books go. Look at the
case!” And “looking at the case” here in the labora
tory seems to bear out the figures that run stagger
ingly high in feeble mindeduess and deranged men
tality among criminals.
