Golden Age, May 11, 1921
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A ;JOUR.N AL- OF - FACT H O P E - A N D - CO N VI CT IO N •
May 11,1921, VoL n, No. 43
Pubtitked every otKar IKI week at 3S tfyrtle Avenu\ VF Brooklyn, If. Y, V. 8. X fa Cekta a'Copy—S2.00 a Yeai tpd Tortfca Cooatii*^ *XM
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CUNTKNTS of the GOLDEN AGE
SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL CMma's Rtetac XMa
Cbuzebee and CHm. *4.
The Wealthy aad *5T
Woman and Crtma ezit - Environment aad Crime IM
TJaMtnal Criminate , SU
“Good" Criminate aad Bad *M
Um Criminal Uberty and Otma.
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and CrtmM aja Wealth and id Bevnrty and
POLITICAL—DOMBSTIC AND FOREIGN
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HOUSHWIFHBY AND HYGIENE
TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY Water Improvement ~ ,
AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY A Raat Baperiment————————— RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
and the Bible, Scripture! Recognition of Heathen vodi.,..^ ,,.470 ■he Two Babylone______4T0
Nimrod the Mighty Hunter
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aad hie Influence -Enue end Semimml a “Myatmtm” at Haataen BalUiona Iterator aad •on*'
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p —————ATS ttlan God delrla mnd , । , *‘T*
he Patriarch Shesa, and Mie Godly Influence in the World —,————are
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The ‘Tmace ** Jealeaw" «•
God Baochue M
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Pubflthad otiMr W«da««day kt S Myrtle Aveaoe, (Boro of Brooklyn) b«w York. N. Y-by WOODWORTH. XVDGXNG8 «ai MASTIN
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The GoldenAge
Brooklyn, N. T-, W»dne«day, May U, IMt
Crime’s Rising Tide (ft** Two)
THE real education of the young is not in the schools but in the more interesting environment outside the school; for the secret of education is interest, and a half hour of interesting intercourse playing craps will outbalance a day in school. The greed and avarice of adults far outweighs the lofty principles of dull and inefficient Sunday School teachers. The street at night is a powerful educator because "it is fun". Disobedience to parents at home inculcates contempt for law away from home. Lack of interest and love by parents for. their offspring ■ engenders lack of respect and reverence for the at^te and for moral responsibility. .
Difficulties of the Police
THE pay of the police is admittedly too low, and this has worked against the obtaining of the better class of men always attracted by higher salaries. Much of whatever inefficiency may appear to a person accustomed to strict British enforcement of law, is due to the desire not to have their system of graft interfered with on the part of politicians in control, with consequent lax enforcement of law. Whenever the “higher-ups” call for observance of the law, the police force is prompt to bring to an end the petty crime and vice which is made so profitable for those that toil not, neither do they spin.
Ineffectiveness in keeping crime at a minimum is not'usually the fault of the police. That not over one percent of the losses through petty stealing is recovered by the police may be attributable to the fact that the offenders have as expeditions and effective methods for the disposal of stolen articles as they have for getting ball, and that some of the agents through whom they work enjoy protection from big business and big politicians in return for a ■hare in the booty, a condition which has repeatedly been shown to exist, though uncovered with difficulty. Criminals at work safeguard themselves with look-outs and guards of their own, and do their work behind an effectual concealing screen of some kind. Reasonably strict discipline is the rule on police forces, with lapses varying with the efficiency of the bosses behind the scenes. In view of the enhanced difficulties coming through world changes, these are- considered critical times • generally for the forces set to contend with criminality. Considering war influences the police have not been properly increased in number, or they feel discouraged over their salaries or over conditions far above them making for favoritism or for a general laxity in law-enforcement. ‘
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Churches and Crime
AY. M. C. A. youth robs a train, takes $105,000, kills a policeman, defies fifty detectives, and dies with a bullet through his heart He had been a mail clerk with a good "character”. Nearly every person in prison is a church member. America, a country the best policed by church agencies, has ten times the murders that China is reputed to have with four times ' the population—or forty times as much on an equal population basis. What a wild_ riot of anarchy there would be in China if there were proportionally as many churches as in "Christian” America! For obviously the churches do not prevent crime. On the contrary the actual example of a church insidiously leads toward criminality; for what church is there that will discipline its wealthy or otherwise influential • offenders, rather than hush matters up and keep the ulcers unhealed! Churches run fairs with gambling games that teach boys to get something for nothing. Where is the church moneymaking affair without its fortune-telling booth
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taanhing familiarity with spiritism and demonism, which in later life bears fruitage in gross superstition and credulity toward mediums, astrology and other forms of occultism! Millionairesses vie with sports and toughs in organising boxing bouts, and afterward wonder at the decline of the spiritual influence of the church, and at the disregard of the high things for which the church of God should stand. And what may be expected of the well-trained members of a church — Roman Catholic — whose theologians such as Liguori specifically advise, “A servant has the right to rob his master, a child his father, and a poor man the rich”; and “When a crime has been well concealed, the witness and even the criminal may and even must, swear that the crime has never been committed; the accused may deny his crime under oath, understanding that he has not committed this crime in such a manner as to be obliged to confess it"!
The Wealthy and Crime
O JUDGE by prison records, there is one class practically free from crime. Seldom do the wealthy get to prison. A wise man says that law and procedure are a net to catch little fish and let big fish through. When wealthy interests pick nominees for office, sometimes up to the presidency of the United States, and including the worth-while lower offices, legislative, executive and judicial. federal, state, municipal and town, and when these appointees are elected by the artless voter, there is little wonder that laws and their execution and interpretation are made in the interests of the class that so seldom enter prison doors. Any politician harming a man of great wealth is bound to encounter swift and severe handling at the hand of well-to-do anarchists and their agents and appointees.
Much of the criminality of the rich is done under cover and protection of laws put through-for thdt specific purpose: and the plunder that continually goes on. and the injury done, are so vast as to dwarf to insignificance all the stealings of ordinary criminals. Occasionally the opportunity eonies to steal on the hugest possible scale \Vithont let or hindrance, and then the linns of Wall Street emerge into the open. Sir.-h a chance appeared in the World War.whieh was characterized by a world-wide orgy of robbery, corruption and crime unprecedented in the
history of the human race. Immense fortunes ' • were heaped up by the profiteers and by a f horde of self-styled and press-lauded "patriots* who utilized the sacred mantle of love of conn-try to cover unparalleled iniquities. Many ; -
governments had “investigations", alias “white- 1 washes," in which the paid political agents of
the wealthy painted white the black crimes of
their masters.
In the United States there was at least one. ' honest investigation — that of the. Shipping £ Board—in which dark depths were shown up to ; public view by fearless and incorruptible mdn, i such as Congressman Joseph Walsh of Massa- ' chusetts, chairman of the House investigating committee, and A. M. Fisher, in charge of the " J actual work. In the riot of corporation deprav- -ity, exposed by the committee, practically every crime in the code was practiced in an insane lust for money. To obtain excess profits, in the language of the committee report:
“It is necessary to corrupt timekeepers and checkers
in order that the work done by inferior labor but charged
for on the basis of skilled labor, may pass inspection,
and that loafing men or padding of pay rolls may go unchallenged. This again results in good men being heckled, insulted, or even frightened off the work, where . they will not prove susceptible to corruption. It is comparatively an easy matter to drop ‘accidentally’ a ' bar. or a wrench into the hold when a ‘straight* timekeeper or inspector is standing under, and thus it is not long before honest men are disgusted and discour- .
aged and others are corrupted. . . .Prevalence of thefts is so great as to demand immediate attention. Accord- . ing to the testimony of masters, mates, stewards, supercargoes, even seamen, the lack of proper checking, inspection and inventory has made the ease of theft of sunpiicj from United States Shipping Board boats the talk of the world’ in sea circles.”
In the higher circles of big business the crooked work to be done in profiteering at the expense of the various governments involved in the war was planned before relations with • the governments were entered into. That the । actors in this drama of iniquity knew better may he conjectured from the fact that many of . them were hankers and financiers—university graduates who had studied social ethics, personal ethics, business ethics, philosophy, Biblical literature, etc., and been under influences purporting to prepare them to become “moral leaders" of admiring communities—not the immoral ■ leaders and inspirers of crime that they have ! been. What was done by the well-to-do in con-
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nection with army and navy work throughout the world dwarfs into insignificance the two billion dollars alleged to have been squandered, or wasted, or stolen in the American ship work. The tidal wave of crime among the rich, which began during the war and still continues, is the real "crime wave", concerning which an obedient press has been discreetly silent
The ethical standards of big business may be guaged from the advice given by a prominent American financier in an address on "Success” before fellow-bankers. The aspirant for success ipust make Success his guiding Star, and ever keep his eye on the Stai?. Anything that comes between him and Success must be overcome or removed, or he must give up Success. If some individual steps between him and the Star, that person must be removed, the plain intimation being that a financier must not stop even at murder. The record of the unscrupulous rich abundantly bears out this Philosophy of Success.
It is a steep descent to consider matters relating to petty crime; but who can blame too severely the female members of rich families when well-brought-up, well-bred, well-dressed women occasionally have to stand up and plead guilty of stealing a pair of gloves, a Georgette waist, or some silk stockings! Such women steal because, like their brothers and husbands, they want something and employ "direct action” in going after it, and often, following the masculine example, show not the least penitence or regret. Of course the insanity dodge is worked by the lawyer and the stealing is "kleptomania”; and the husband who steals in business is duly horrified and confused at the misconduct of a wife for whom he has always provided a good home, automobiles and plenty of money or credit.
Women and Crime
■pERHAPS the rise of woman to the suffrage A and equal rights with men, necessarily implies equality also in the underworld; but a bye. She feigns to be a street walker to Iura men to a waiting automobile full of bandits* or to her mon friends in a vacant flat In Chicago she is a nineteen-year-old Madonna-faced girl, who obtains employment in wealthy homes, chloroforms "the missus”, and disappears the night of the thefts, or is "badly frightened" by the burglars and discreetly resigns and goes "home”. She organises the theft of $50,000 worth of sugar from a government warehouse.
characteristic of the world-wave of crime is the emergence in many countries of the woman • criminal. She ranges from the rich shop-lifter-ess, bridge-whist shark and automobile and stock swindler, down. She lives with the gunman and is caught with him in the, blood-streaked taxi. She courteously inquires for valuables at the point of an automatic. She helps truss up the victims and kisses the young men good-
In Paris pretty Henriette Miffonne, alias Yevette, is head of a band of apaches. Wall educated, slender and attractively feminine, sho directs scores of robberies, watches near by against interference, and meets her Waterloo attacking a gendarme with pistol butt and bullet In London the Daily Herald says that "expert women crooks, specializing in housebreaking, safe-cracking, jewel-snatching, and cloakroom thieving have made a busy season for Scotland Yard. Posing as 'ladies of society' and frequenting the best hotels and most ex-' elusive drawing rooms, they are daring to a degree. Scotland Yard detectives believe that . the disappearance of the famous $200,000 Mango pearl necklace from the Savoy Hotel is traceable to one of the woman crooks that attended the ball there that night” That an increase of desperate crimes by women may be expected in America is intimated by the architect's plans for a goodly number of rooms for women in the new death house in Sing Sing prison.
Environment and Crime
THE old battle of heredity and environment rages on the crime question; but professional men, especially physicians, attribute little crime to heredity and much to environment. Certain it is that the two microcosms that unite to become a human being know nothing about crime, in comparison to the impressions favorable to disregard of the law and of right that encircle the person that grows up in criminal surroundings.
To boys that grow up, for example, in that part of Brooklyn adjoining the waterfront north of the famous Brooklyn Bridge, and in like localities in all other cities, to witness crime is a daily incident. From childhood up they are encouraged by parents born under the demoralizing influences of Boman Catholi" Europe to bring home articles picked up in th ittle stores or off the peddlers’carts, and no questions asked.
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Hundreds of these boys never do a stroke of work after leaving school, and live on the fat of the land. Gang life on the streets of the cities is full of attractive adventure, often under the leadership of spirits that become adepts in eri me. What would be more unnatural than that the gang members should not follow their admired leaders! Kindred spirits herd together and, with no formal Fagin schools of crime, are moulded by an environment they cannot resist Under the present civilization it is impossible for the reform agencies to keep up with the power of environment
The “trusted employe” has been figuring prominently in spectacular crime. He is a $90-a-month bank clerk handling fortunes daily; and Justice Landis paroles him, with blame laid on impecunious bankers who cannot afford to pay their help more and who thus place undue temptation in the way of the poor men, for be it not forgotten that $90 now is the equivalent of $50 before the war. He embezzles for a good time, a good living or speculation, and “organizes” a hold-up of liimself to cover up the theft. As chief messenger for brokers he lays the plans for confederates to rob him and give him a harmless wound or two. Many crimes “happen” in which the offenders are more than accidentally acquainted with the business habits of the concerns robbed.
Habitual Criminals
TN ORDINARY times the habitual criminal A figures largely, but in the recent roundups only about a quarter have had criminal records. So many offenders are new at the business of crime as to suggest entirely new causes at work for the world-wave of crime. A typical old-timer was recently taken in Leeds, England; his record for twelve months was: Stole a portmanteau and contents at Baslow; a dressing case at Grimsby; left Grimsby in a stolen motor car, went to Scotland and then to Ireland; came back to England and bought a £400 motor car witlT* worthless check; tried to get another car at Shrewsbury; and another at Tunbridge Wells by paying part of the purchase price; at Windsor used worthless checks to obtain £25 worth of clothing,}a car and some jewelry; at Woodhall Spa a' £300 car with another worthless check; at Cambridge £9 worth of cloth; at Dux-ford a fountain pen; and worthless checks for a car at Southend and London, and £150 in
money from a lady; the total property vahx was £3,273 (nearly $13,000), for which five j years were given, after many previous yeara in j
prison. '
Habitual criminals have to be at it all the time and in different localities—there is no neo- . i ful occupation in which they can be employed^ _. This differs from Japan, where the law is that a 1 penalty suffered pays the man’s debt to society, and that it is a criminal offence to discriminate ' against an ex-convict because of his prison . record. Of course no one expects heathen Japan to be so advanced as Christian (!) America or ' England! That she is far in advance in this par- ■ i
ticular is greatly to the credit of the Japanese.
“Good” Criminals and Bad
THE ways of the criminal are legion. Four-teen-year-old Eliot Michener smoked expensive cigarettes, and spent money for travel, moving pictures, a pistol, and two boxes of candy, all bought in the most expensive stores. Peter Colaginio kills a neighbor in a quarrel over chickens. A sixty-year-old terror from Texas gambled forty years in California, Oklahoma, Nevada and New Mexico, and never worked a day in twenty-five years, except four .days when “I just got mad at myself, and I waa the . workin’est man in the bunch”.
New York pool rooms are full of youths who never work, but who always have plenty of money, and some of the police are afraid of them. A bandit growls to his pal: “Don’t take that ring! A wedding ring is sacred with a woman; I’m a married man and I know how they feel. But she'll have to hand over her money!” “Outside of the fact that they were robbers,” said Mrs. French of some bandits, -“they look to be most respectable in their dress and manner.” “That old rabbit’s foot is no good,” exclaimed burglar-and-eoiivict Leroy Green as he threw the talisman aside. Rev. Henry G. Miley honestly carrying the communion cups to church is knocked down and kicked ’ for a thief by an undiscriminating crowd. A Hull, England, undertaker is arrested for stealing a two-shilling shroud off a corpse. The poorbox contents and the jewel? from the pyx box go their way to the “fence” of some thief who had no scruples against church property. “Diamond” Mike backs out of mass at Catholic churches, picking the pockets as he crabs his
way out. A Canadian burglarizes the home of Cardinal Gibbons. The meanest thief strips AH Saints* Christmas tree of the gifts for the "kiddies", but a burglar with a heart heeds the piteous appeals of little Buth Malley not to •take her Christmas presents. A highwayman robs Mrs. Mertz of $80, but courteously hands back $2 with, "You might need it for gasoline".
When "Nick" Cohn gave himself up in the ' interests of Arn stein because "he was willing to take the stand in defense of Amstein", it was an exemplification of that real honor that exists among thieves. It is nothing unusual in penitentiaries to find men suffering terms for offences they say they did not commit, rather than gain freedom by betraying some pal whose liberty would be compromised by the telling of the truth. Much of the crime of violence and robbery today is committed by boys of twenty and twenty-one, devoid of that sense of social responsibility which it is the duty and privilege of home life to inspire.
Popular imagination paints the criminal as unshaven, with a mask, a low forehead, and Undershot jaw, slinking around in the shadows. l*his was the old-fashioned "criminal type” of the criminologists, but now there seems to be no type. Criminals look like other people, and are like other folk who have adopted a new line of work, wherein they have adopted the motto of big business, "You can put over anything, if you’ve just got nerve enough to do it right".
Insanity and Crime
IT IS difficult to ascertain to what extent mental unbalance causes crime. Everyone is more or less out of balance, and more so at some times than at others, according to the acuteness of mental stress or to impairment of powers of resistance. Those that have good clothing little imagine the stress at times upon the minds of women and girls that love pretty things hut
cannot afford them. Many highly educated . world; for a heavy proportion of criminals are
grown-up^women plead insanity—kleptomania —as an excuse for their shoplifting escapades. Bobberies and pocket-picking are at an annual peak just before the holidays, when "the boys’* .go out to get the wherewithal for Christmas presents thdy cinnot otherwise pay for. If a audden brain-storm overcame Harry Thaw as he slew White, how often must reason and i'udgmenl be swept away in the crimes that •lock court calendars!
. There may be more truth than superstition in the ancient idea that crime, like witchcraft and insanity, was deemed a visitation from the devil. If the Bible is to be believed at all, human beings are sometimes possessed o f devils, under whose influence tney do irrational and violent things. By those that have made a study of the subject it is stated that half the inmates of insane asylums are victims of just such demoapossession as we must believe existed when devils also came out of many crying out and saying, "Thou art Christ the Son of Goa”; and He, rebuking the devils, suffered them not to speak; for they knew that He was Christ (Luke 4:41) It occasionally occurs that persons under demon-possession say that they are incited to crime by their unwelcome guests, and in not a few instances criminals state that they were irresistibly prompted to execute their crimes. The arch-criminal of the age, Kaiser Wilhelm H, said for years before the World War that he was continually hearing a voice’ that urged him os to his great offence.
Drugs and Crime .
A FEW years ago most of the crimes of certain classes would have been charged to liquor; but now, owing to the beneficent federal prohibition law, the evil influence of drink Is gone in ninety percent of the United States and, in a few years of rigid enforcement of the law, will be entirely gone. Alcohol as a narcotic drug has at last been placed in the class where it belongs, among the other habit-forming drugs. Except in the larger cities which have been flooded with liquor illegally obtained from bonded warehouses, and with dangerous homebrews, one of the great crime-causing agendas is practically gone. With the British Empire pouring opium and other drugs into the United States it is little wonder that a vast amount of prohibited drugs is consumed by the underdope-users. This enhances the difficulty of satisfactorily helping the professional criminal,, who under the degrading influence of the hypo- ' dermic needle often sinks lower and lower.
Speaking of this class, Chief Magistrate William McAdoo, of New York, says: "They -are all degenerates, and ought to be on a big custodial farm working at manual labor; they are more dangerous now than the red Indians were to the early settlers”.
2 Movies and Crime
THE political clergyman finds it convenient to point away from causes nearer home and |■ - to lay the blame for much of the juvenile orime ;,■ ■ » at the door of the movies. But we have had the
movies for nearly twenty-five years, and in their early days they were far worse than now, - : . for it must not be forgotten that never has the
product of the motion-picture industry been ? : cleaner and more wholesome. The same blood-
drenched clergy who only four years ago every-w where preached the world into the ghastly
butchery eventuating in the dark chaos now ‘ engulfing a civilization, would perpetuate their
. evil influence in a reign of intolerance liable to
* rival that of the dark ages. They seek to fool
1 the people and cajole or threaten lawmakers
into putting the control of the people’s movies j and other amusements into their blood-stained
| hands. As a cause of orime the movies are
slightly oontributary, but nothing in compari-1 son with other great causes which the clergy
have not dared to oppose or expose. It was the * political clergymen to whom Christ said: "Ye
are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed apI pear beautiful outward, but are within full of
4 dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness; even
■ so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto
jf men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and
4 iniquity”.—Matthew 23: 27, 28.
The Criminal Press
! TT IS the proper business of newspapers to
< J. report the news, and in this connection to
report crime. But orime is an exceedingly incidental part of the life and doings of a great 4 people, and ought to be given only its propor
tional place in the day’s news. On account of , the powerful feelings of fear and animality
excited, crime stories are published in harrow* ing and disgusting detail; for the attention
value of something appealing to base motives is also “news value”. A brutal orime obtains . rnosp publicity a hundred times over than a
, beneficent' act of the highest possible worth.
The fame-seeking mind of the criminal sees in crime both a livelihood and a blaze of glory . after detection. The popular mind responds
‘ almosfi entirely to impressions and suggestions from without, and the incessant prominence of " suggestions of crime makes the daily press the
most powerful and dangerous permanent cause ■ of crime. The newspapers of a given oity by
exploiting local crime advertise to criminals the ~ 9 country over that that city is a good safe plane | to practise crime, and "the profession" dock | thither from all over. . . I
The press both eulogize crime and belittle N crime-combating agencies, about which perver- ■ - >> sity of the criminal press Commissioner Bn- -*•* right of New York says:
'"Throughout this critical period, fraught with evil '■I'’ potentialities, the support of the press and any of the . It other pseudo agencies of good, government were oon- ' s apicuous by their absence. These very agencies, oon- . ,
trary to all other generally understood principles, when -■; many other cities throughout the country were seething with unrest, riots and lawlessness, lost no opportunity ' ' to malign, - belittle and decry the Police Department t
of New York City, although the tranquility of the city
remained undisturbed and its citizens and visitors trans- J acted their affairs in the same undisturbed fashion that
prevailed in the piping days of peace of 1916 and 1917."
“I wonder,” inquires a writer in the New York Globo,
speaking of the criminal inactivity of the press attitude J toward crime, "If- it has ever occurred to any of the 1 newspapers to take some constructive . steps toward *’ | reducing the wave of crime which seems to be flourishing in the greater city.” ba
The newspapers are owned or controlled by p
big business, and work for the politicians. The j
politicians wish to oust a police commissioner; p the papers terrorize the people into believing P that a fractional increase in certain classes of ; crimes constitutes a tidal wave of crime. It is 1 very simple. But it demonstrates the necessity : for a complete change in the management and ' operation of the newspapers. ’ p
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Liberty and Crime . j
IN OTHER countries that used to bo free from ■ , any great amount of crime, the citizen and I especially the foreigner were card-indexed, and \ permitted only a slight amount of movement rL without permit from authorities. In almost any t great foreign oity the traveler is more or less | under surveillance all the time, must register, ’. and tell where from, where to and why he ia I-
there. American traditions and regard for oon- 1,-
atitutional rights would raise a mighty protest . against any such infringement upon personal liberty; but that liberty, as a much lesser evil, !’ contributes measurably to crime. The foreigner • in America, accustomed to restrictions, is temp- , ted to change liberty into license, as his mind turns toward crime as a livelihood; and the native-born is not behind his foreign brother. ja
; ■ * The foreign mining and industrial sections of
> cossack-ridden Pennsylvania had a chronic
k yrave of crime until the advent of the mounted
i’ ; constabulary or the coql and iron police, which
lawlessness was promptly suppressed, and is f. ' kept under by the efficient but lawless brutality !*< . «f these officials.
< . There is a sharp difference of opinion bet < tween Wall Street and the common people
< whether under the industrial oppression of
f ' certain localities it is a good bargain to barter Hberty for order, when order might be obtained t)y lifting the heavy industrial yoke somewhat ~ and giving the workers a chance to stand up
' straight. In all parts of the country there is a
' drift toward the giving up of liberty rather than the giving up of profiteering, in plain defiance of the principle that under just conditions liberty and order are twin sisters.
Radicals and Crime
THE radicals have been indirectly responsible -for some crime. Not that they committed the crimes, but that the police were kept so busy hunting "reds” that the real criminals enjoyed * much needed rest from police aggression and had a chance to increase their regular activities.
' Recent sworn evidence in court is to the effect that most of the dynamiting, bomb crimes, . arson and other crimes charged by the press against the working people and the radicals, were committed by private or public detectives hired for the purpose by big business. Moreover, it is a matter of record that a federal -judge stated that the United States Department of Justice under the Wilson administration operated a considerable section of the communist movement of the country, when those people were made the object of public hatred and fear by the press. Without detectives or secret sery-ice men in disguise to corrupt the movements and incite the members to violence the workingclass jnovem' nt would have been comparatively free frbm violence.
In order to throw suspicion from off them-aelves the great profiteering, interests have caused one class after another to he unjustly - charged w^th whatever offenses might at the •’ moment be particularly odious. The public has * one-trackhnind and will hate but one class at a time—a b’+ of psychology behind which the hue and cry has been raised first here and then there, a plan to be carried on until the statutes of limitation should liquidate the blf offenses and free the big criminals from worry.
The latest persecution has been directed toward persons charged with being undesirable aliens, and the accusation is made that most of the crimes of violence are committed by this class. The charge would be true if made broadly against dwellers in the slums and other undesirable quarters, whither aliens naturally tun in quest of low rents and low living costs. If a great deal of crime is done by such people^ it is the fault of all the rest of the people is failing to realize that a poor alley or court ii a liability for the rich avenue a block or tw* away, both in disease and in crime. If the alien* could’ take well-paying positions at once, they would be a highly law-abiding class, and if the native Americans were forced to live in slum quarters, the crimes would be theirs; for not so much birth or parentage, but environment produces criminality, or the reverse. It 1* society's business to make the alien feel at home, and enable him to earn a good living, and thus make a law-abiding American of him —not neglecting first to have done likewise for the sons of the soil.
Some Responsibility for the Best People
SAMPLE excels precept; and when the grown-ups indulge in an orgy of crime it is little wonder that the weaker-charactered people—the young, the defectives, the undereducated and the undernourished—follow the example.
Ex-President Taft says, “We have prided ourselves on being a law-abiding people”. I The italics are ours] But that passed away a few years ago when the self-styled law-abiders— of Wall Street, politics and the pulpit—threw down the big-business jimmy, the legislative black-jack and 'the ecclesiastical club, took up in one hand the cross and the star of liberty, and in the other a fist-full of persuasives — cannon, trench mortars, tanks, T-N-T, machine guns, hand bombs, and poison gas—and on all sides of the Atlantic and Pacific started out for Christian blood in an orgy of devilislmess abroad and a reign of terror at home—Teutons and the Allies alike. The so-called “best” people turned loose to maim and to kill, and to hate, hate, HATE! They placed murderous weapons in the hands of millions of young men, taught them hate, and urged, instructed and preached
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them to commit crimes upon the bodies of other young men, cruelly and ferociously to a degree. Youths became accustomed to seeing piteously wounded friends and enemies piled in heaps, to hear their wails of agony as they rotted to death in sight but out of reach. Teachers and preachers of the gentle Christ enjoined devilishness as a Christian duty, and had imprisoned, tortured, or shot any of the heroic twentiethcentury martyrs who persisted that Christ taught love, not hate, and the doing of good, not of murder.
Today the same preachers enjoin the loving kindness they rejected yesterday, and bewail the wicked criminality of the young men that with the same weapons enforce immediate compliance to crimincommands. The ones commanded are not the hated enemy, but the stayat-homes that profited from the ruin of war. The curse of the world today is that men just graduated from the gigantic school of crime run by big business, the politicians and the clergy, refuse to discontinue instanter the practices they were too well instructed in. Nearly all. the recent crimes of violence are by men of twenty to twenty-five. Men instinctively recoil from the thought of taking human life; but, as comments the Baltimore Sim-.
“When men unfamiliar with strife are taken from their peaceful vocations, trained as killers and led into battle, where they may win praise and promotion by displaying unusual efficiency in the art of slaughter, they cannot return to the ways of peace with their former dread of homicide. Those with well-developed minds and strong moral characters may within a short time force the nightmare of war from their minds and become as they once were; but the weak character and the weak mind will never rebuild the structure torn down by war. Yesterday he killed a fellow-mortal and rifled his pockets in the cause of democracy; today he kills a fellow-mortal and rifles his pockets because he needs the money. The ‘glorious’ slaughter arranged by statesmen prepares the way for private jobs of killing.”
Th^war is responsible for the cruelty and violence of much of the crimes of the day. Responsibility for these crimes lies at the doors of those that promoted the war—the wealthy, the politicians and the clergy of all the countries involved.'Let'them either bring about changes in business, public administration or practical religion calculated to remedy evils of their own creation, or suffer whatever penalty a just God has ready for them.
Aftermath of War
IN EUROPE the dread aftermath of war is sketched by an expert criminologist at Budapest University:
"Crimea have increased in the countries to ten times their pre-war number. The criminal in his revolt against society is becoming more and more desperate. It is not simply that there are far more crimes, but what is worse, they show an appalling increase in inhumanity. The cold-hearted villains of today are far beyond anything formerly known. There is no question that the World War, with its untold suffering, tried the faith of millions. It seemed hard to believe that there was_ any God controlling human affairs. If there was the God of Love of whom the Christians spoke, how could He allow such unspeakable sorrows to come upon the world? Under the strain faith gave way. And nothing will bring the world back to quiet and steadfast ways again, but a return to its faith in God.”
And the world contemptuously challenges a clergy who forsook the ways of God to help bring on the war, to teach again the gentle Christ to people that have lost respect for them. No, the way out is not through a clergy who betrayed God, Christ and the people that had trusted them to teach God’s Word.
Economic Causes of Crime
IT IS a steep descent from so gigantic a causa of crime down to mere economic causes, but from such causes springs even war itself. An insignificant cause of crime is gambling. Gambling, which is a manifestation of the love of adventure and a superstitious belief in the deity of. chance, is rather an accompaniment than a cause. Some crime flows from insurance; it was broadly hinted that companies insuring against burglary found it profitable to have a few more burglaries than usual—it brought on a scare and bettered the business.
Press reports continually convey the impression that labor troubles are great causes of crime. The facts are the reverse, except for the crimes committed or incited by private or public detectives working among strikers to get them into trouble.
Wealth and Crime
WEALTH, however, does cause crime, directly and indirectly. There are no more dangerous criminals in the world than those whom Roosevelt called "malefactors of great wealth”. The business crimes are legioa
i which are cooked up in corporation offices and S - indorsed by the banks. There are plenty of ? good rich people, but these scoundrels not only commit innumerable crimes in the pursuit of < money and power, and for private grudges and * in wantonness, but they incite others to crime. F'~ Stealing by the rich furnishes the example for
i- stealing by the poor. To the young man there
is little difference between the wealthy holding-L' : up the public and the thief holding up the rich ; man. Many burglars would not have become burglars or gangsters if the idea had not come aown from above that it is good business to grab everything in sight and get away with it.
' War profiteering is an extreme instance of callousness in “higher” circles, which is certain to be followed by a wave of crime of which what baa yet been seen may be but the beginning. It would be well for these great thieves, before it is too late, to set a good example, and save themselves and the rest of the nation trouble, by making restitution of as much as possible of their stealings and other ill-gotten gains. This would immediately create an atmosphere • in which the better influences and agencies might have some chance of saving an almost hopeless situation.
Professional criminologists relate that in the dark ages the punishment for crime was made as severe as possible. Death became the regular sentence for dozens of minor offenses against property; and torture, quartering of the dead body, and exposure of decapitated heads upon city gates and along roadways were added. But crime was unaffected except that the worse the punishments, the more dangerous became the criminals. However, when times grew better, there was less crime; and when they became ' harder, crime increased. It finally dawned that . - crime varied with economic conditions, which is the true theory of variations of criininality.
Poverty and Crime
t rpHIS principle never sleeps. If the World J- War had been followed by unprecedented prosperity everywhere there would have been comparatively little crime, in spite of the bad r influence war and its sponsors. Europe is seething with crime, because times are very bad; the crime varying according to the pros. perity of the locality. In Germany the prisons are crowded; and judges and juries are working overtime, from nine a. m. to eight p. m. Yet crime flourishes as never before, robbery lead
. ing the list. Not professional criminals, but employes of railroads, stores and like enter* prises, are stealing to eke out a miserable living for their families. To counteract the crime wave . will require, not more hand-bombs and rifles for the police, but less hard times. Vienna, which seven years ago so lightly started the great war, has added to its court cases children six years old and upward; these little ones are not criminals, but human beings destitute and desperate from hunger that knows no let-up. England is seeing a rapid rise in crime from the plight of its hundreds of thousands of workers.
When the Federal Reserve Banks in 1920 chopped off the customary credits from American industry and trade they opened the sluicegates of crime; for the unemployment of several million people is directly traceable to the banks. Police magistrates throughout the country assert that the chief cause of crime has been unemployment. During the war the working people were geared up to a higher plane of living than before—and none too high at that; and when the dump came, some of them began to steal in order to enjoy good things a while longer. In Seattle a census revealed that four-, teen hundred children were starving. The wonder is that more of the parents were not out stealing for their little ones. That they were not is a tribute to the sterling in their character. Not a few everywhere work by day and thieve by night, as is apparent from the low-pkid occupations of many that are arrested for robbery.
It is to be hoped that something will teach the bankers at the head of the fabric of civilization that they must be more considerate of the welfare of the millions actually, though not legally, under their charge. They are in duty bound to do everything in their power to retrieve their great mistakes before things go so far that the situation cannot be saved. The people are becoming aware that the banks are the responsible parties, and they are watching the acts of great bankers as never before, with a view to legislation and other governmental action that will take from private hands the unlimited power that now exists to do the world harm.
Pagan Persecution of Christians
MUCH is said at times about the persecution of Christians by Pagan Rome, but the , principal cause of the persecutions lias been
oarefully hidden from view.
A variety of subsidiary causes have been ' written up, such as the unwillingness of early * Christian to worship idols, to worship the
Emperor of Rome or to take part in the bacchanalian orgies of pagan rituals, the intent » of the writers being to ascribe religious reasons
for those ancient persecutions.
There is a reason, however, why the main ■ cause has been hidden from view by the eccle
siastical writers. The cause of persecution was ! of such a nature that if the ecclesiastics of
today had been in places of influence seventeen * hundred years ago they would perforce have
.! been chief among the persecutors of the early
martyrs. For the victims of Rome’s ferocity t were condemned to torture and death for the
same reasons for which within three or four - years twentieth century Christians have been tortured and slain at the behest of clerical instigators of these crimes.
. In a book entitled "The Early Christian Attitude to War, A Contribution to the History f of Christian Ethics,” by C. John Cadoux, M.A.,
, D.D., published by Headley Brothers, 72 Oxford
Street, W. I. London, a searching investigation ; is made of the various Christian authorities and
■ writings of the period from A.D. 33 to A.D.
1 170, concerning this subject. Many interesting
1 and important findings are published in this scholarly study. Objections are carefully met, ’ and clerical forgeries exposed.
It would seem obvious that if the actual attitude of Christians in the period immediately t succeeding the twelve apostles can be ascer
tained, it must indicate a suitable attitude for all Christians to take toward combatant service. This .understanding is exceedingly important ’ to suclt' persons as desire to live real Christi
anity; and the findings of Dr. Cadoux should be of value as a guide to that body of Christians . that seek to pierce through the darkness of
' antiquity\and ascertain the truth, in order that they may^walk in the truth. The book corre-. apondingly condemns opposing views and holds out to mistaken Christians the invitation to reverse their steps and walk in the ways that
undoubtedly were taught by the apostles; for these truths were taught and held by their successors for a century and a half.
In brief, the early Christians were persecuted by pagan Rome because they were conscientious objectors to war, and only in a minor degree for religious reasons, the latter being usually mere excuses for attacks upon innocent and unoffending people guilty, in a military age, of adhering to the peaceful principles of the Founder of Christianity. ,
Apart from Cornelius and the one or two soldiers who may have been baptized with him by Peter at Ctesarea about A.D. 40, and the jailer baptized by Paul at Philippi about A.D. 40, there is no direct or reliable evidence for the existence of a single Christian soldier until after A.D. 170. In those days all persons wearing the uniform were engaged in combatant service, non-combatant work being done largely by servants, many of whom were Christians.
The early Christian - church-rules were as follows: In the Egyptian church order, Latin version, the rule was: ?
. "The soldier, who is under authority, thou mayst not allow him to kill men; if he is ordered to do so, thou mayest not allow him to thrust himself forward . . . if he is unwilling to comply, let him be rejected. If a catechumen or a believer wishes to become a soldier, let him be rejected, because he has despised God.”
In the Ethiopic version of these rules it says: “He who is a soldier among the believers, and among the instructed, or a star-gazer or magician and the like, and a magistrate with the sword, or chief with prefects, let him leave off or he rejected. . . . And a catechumen or believer, if he wishes to be a soldier, shall be rejected, because it is far from God.”
The Canons (or rules) of Hippolytos said:
"A man who has accepted the power of killing, or a soldier, may never be received at all. . . . Persons who possess authority to kill, or soldiers, should not kill at all, even when it is commanded them."
The rules known as “The Testament of Our Lord,” said:
“T.et a catechumen or a believer of the people, if ha desires to be soldier, either cease from his intention, or if not, let him be rejected. For he hath despised God by his thought, and leaving the things of the Spirit, he hath perfected himself in the flesh, and hath treated the faith with contempt. ... If anyone be a soldier, or in authority, let him be taught not to oppress or to . kill or to rob, or to be angry, or to rage and afflict
The Golden Age for May n, 1921
J
- ',lw ■
■: anyone. . . .But if he wishes to be baptized in the
r Lord, let him cease from military service or from the
1 ' post of authority, and if not, let him be rejected.’’ t ■ The summing-up by Dr. Cadoux of these ancient rules is:
“The substance of that original regulation must have been that a soldier or a magistrate who wielded j’ the power of the sword could not be admitted by bap-f tian to membership in the Christian church, unless he had first resigned his military or quasi-military calling; that if a catechumen or a baptized Christian - became a soldier, he must give.it up, or else suffer exclusion from the church; and that similarly a mere J desire on his part to become a soldier, showing, as it was thought, contempt for God, must be relinquished, on pain of rejection or excommunication.”
One of the famous martyrs of ancient Christian times was Maximilianos, in 295 A. D. He was a young Numidian Christian, just over twenty-one, and was brought before Dion, the proconsul of Africa, as fit for military service, He refused to serve or to accept the soldier’s badge, saying repeatedly that he could not do so, because he was a Christian and served Christ. Dion tried again and agajn to overcome his objections, but without success. It is fairly elear from the martyr’s own words that the objection was largely, if not solely, to the business of fighting, the question of sacrificing to idols or to the Emperor not being mentioned by either party.
“I cannot serve as a soldier,” said Maximili-anus; “I cannot do evil; I am a Christian”. Dion told him, “In the sacred retinue* of our Lords Diocletianus and Maximianus, Constantius and Maximus, there are Christian soldiers, and they serve”—this being after the period of universal conscientious objection to war by professing Christians, and at a time when “Chris-tian’ministers served also as priests in heathen temples, showing that they were not Christians at all.
Maximilianus replied: “They know what is fitting for them; but I am a Christian, and I cannot’do evil.” “IVhat evil do they do who serve?” asked the. proconsul. “Thou knowest what they do,” was the answer. Xothing more could be done, and Maximilianus was sentenced to and suffered the death penalty. His body was taken'to Carthage and his father returned home, thanking God that he had sent forward such a gif’ to the Lord. Maximilianos was ultimately canonized as one of the saints of the Roman Catholic Church, being an awkward
saint for a church which so vehemently advocates killing, bloodshed and war “for a good ' cause”. ■ t
Another famous martyr, Marcellus the cen- > turion, A. D. 298, insisted on resigning hil office, cast off his military belt before the standards, and called out, “I serve [milito] Jesua Christ, the eternal King”. Then he threw down his vinestaff and arms, and added; “I cease from this military service of your Emperors. . . . I renounce the standards and I refuse to serve as a soldier.” His last words to the judge were, “I threw down my arms, for it was not seemly that a Christian man, who renders military service to tlw* Lord Christ, should render it also by inflicting earthly injuries”. When he was sentenced to death, Cassianus, the clerk of the court, loudly protested and flung his writing „ i materials on the ground, declaring that the ।
sentence was unjust. He suffered death a few I i
days after Marcellus.
Lactantius, an early Christian writer, ruled" । out military service on the ground that it in- i volved homicide. “If God alone,” said he, “were worshiped, there would not be dissensions and । wars; for men would know that they are sone of the one God, and so joined together by the sacred and inviolable bond of divine kinship.” He adds that the gentiles had banished justice from their midst by persecuting the good.
In the Christian’s attitude toward war at that time the pagan authorities found ample excuse for persecuting and killing Christians. To induce Christians to take up man-killing they ad- .
vanced every argument that was brought to bear : ’ upon twentieth-century Christians in the armies of so-called Christendom. Latter-day militarism has brought nothing new to persuade conscientious objectors to take up combatant service.
In view of the foregoing, which is only a 1 fragment of the testimony of antiquity in favor of the Christian conscientious objector to com- i batant service, the letter on the next page from 1
a young conscientious objector in the British armies makes interesting reading when his experiences are contrasted with the relatively humane methods of pagan Rome before it came under the influence of organized religious hypocrisy.
Rome executed her martyrs with a speedy efficiency. A hint of what modern count' ic ■ have done, at the instigation of “Christian” clergymen, follows this article.
In the Lion’s Jaws
WHEN the World War broke out I was sixteen years of age. My four brothers were promptly inducted into military service; and in due time, as soon as I reached military ago, I was also instructed to report at camp. Having conscientious objections against the taking of human life, I made application for work as a stretcher-bearer, and finally obtained it after sixteen months of experiences in England and in France, which are briefly summarized for the readers of The Golden Age.
My first application for stretcher-bearer service having been refused, I purposely overstayed a leave of absence just long enough to miss the embarkation of my company for France, was oourtmartialed and sentenced to Wandsworth Prison, London. After ten days my sentence of one year was cancelled, and I was ordered to rejoin my company and drill with bayonets. This I refused to do, and was again imprisoned. Shortly afterward the major of my regiment told me I could be transferred to the medical service after crossing to France, so I rejoined my regiment and went to the front.
Arriving'at the front I made three written appeals for stretcher-bearer service, all of which were ignored. When ordered to fall in, with a rifle, to join the men in the trenches, I purposely absented myself until the company had left and then surrendered to the military police. Was given another chance to rejoin the ranks, which I refused, even when threatened with immediate execution. v
For three months, while awaiting court-martial, I was very busy carrying food into the line, repairing trenches, and doing whatever I could for the comfort of the soldiers, but refused to carry munitions or barbed wire, because of their relations to the cause of human suffering. On one occasion a bursting shell buried me with my loa<l, and I was the only one of our little party of food carriers to survive. Shortly afterward the coiirtmartial convened and sentenced me to three years imprisonment at Abancourt, France, military prison.
On arrival afithe prison I still refused to perform military duties and was taken before the governor who, after talking harshly to me, sentenced me to what was known as Number One Punishment diet. This consisted of ten
By F. Q. Plait (London) '
days solitary confinement in my cell with ft period of three days bread and water alternately udth three days full prison diet, which in itself was not a substantial meat This made six days bread and water out of the ten. On each of these days I was allowed six ounces of dry bread and one pint of water at eight o’clock in the morning, and nothing more until eight o’clock in the evening, when I received the same.
At the end of the first two days bread and water, one began to feel famished; but on completion of the.third day the pangs of hunger seemed to die, and nature seemed to take the new diet more easily. But on completing the three days full diet which followed and on commencing again on the further three days bread ’ and water, hunger was renewed. Thus every three days full diet served as an aggravating process. _ ,
During my confinement I was not allowed to receive or write letters, and nothing was allowed to be taken into my cell, even the Bible being forbidden. The cell was empty, having not even a stool. It was small and gloomy, having just sufficient room to enable one to lie down at night on the stone floor. The walls were of iron. There was a small ventilation opening near the ceiling, through which the rays of the sun occasionally entered and the stars peeped at night.
After completing the ten days I again refused to comply with orders, and was again t^ken before the governor. With a look of surprise he sentenced me to a further two weeks of the same punishment, after which I began to feel physical weakness, owing to insufficient nourishment. I was over eighteen years of age at this time, but was still growing and, of course, had a growing boy’s appetite.
On completing that sentence I was again before him for the same offense, when he sentenced me to a further month of solitary confinement. During this month I was given three days bread and water alternately with three days full diet for two weeks. During the second two weeks I was placed in handcuffs. These were better known as “figure of eights”, -owing to their shape. They were so made as to grip the wrists securely behind the back, bringing the forepart of the arms up, one over the other, in a painful maimer.
f
* ■>
. These were applied all day, from eight in the
r morning until eight at night, with one hour's
• break at twelve o’clock noon. It was then in the
S zcold month of February; and being unable to
। rub my hands, I had swollen and frost-bitten
p . fingers. The medical officer visited the cells every morning; and on my asking for treatment for my eut fingers he exclaimed, “That’s 1 nothing!” and slammed the cell door in my face. 1 Sty arms, being tightly secured behind the
back, ached terribly, especially after the first five hours. Owing to the intense cold I was ‘ compelled to walk quickly up and down continually, so as to keep warm. Sometimes I was . forced to keep this up practically all day: but having been under bread and water punishment for some considerable time, there were periods when I was unable to continue my walk and was compelled to sit on the frosty stone floor.
I was unable to sleep during the day, owing to the cold, and slept very little at any time, owing to the pangs of hunger. Very rarely I slept any before midnight, and often I heard the prison bell strike two o’clock in the morning before sleep came. We had to be up at six-thirty. . ■- Having, by the Lord's grace, completed this sentence, I again refused orders, whereupon the governor seemed tried beyond patience, and sentenced me to another six weeks solitary confinement to my cell, the last four weeks of which were on severe punishment diet. These last four weeks were a period of gradual starvation, • during which time I felt myself becoming-weaker, and as a result experiencing greater difficulty to keep myself warm.
Coupled with the last two weeks of this punishment, I was taken outside in the open and tied to a post by the shoulders, hands and feet, twice every day for a period of two hours each time. This was done before the other prisoners, probably as a warning to them. Finding that this would not move me, the governor became furious and sentenced me to continual confinement to my cell until I should be forced to give way. With this I was given twyo weeks of what was known as "shot drill”.
A cement block weighing thirty-five pounds was placed in my hands and this the sergeant ordered me to hold out straight in front of me. He then instructed me that on every blow of the whistle I was to place this weight on the ground, and lift it up again quickly, walking three paces in between the movements. This was a slow pro-
■! ' ■' ' ...... '
cess of fatigue until one’s back felt ready to ’ break. There was an allowance of two minutes i rest at the half hour. ]
Having been on bread and water punishment j for nearly three months, with very little nourish- 3 ment in between, I soon found my strength . J failing me. After I had been undergoing this 5
fatigue for about fifteen minutes the governor ]
came and watched me and remarked mockingly^ “How do you like it!” Soon after he had gone j I became faint with exhaustion; and dropping the weight, I refused to continue. The sergeant then warned me that he would hang the weight .< around my neck i f I did not carry on; but finding ;
I could not continue he took me before the .
governor, who sentenced me to a further eight- . een days of the same punishment, threatening that if I refused again he would have the weight -hung around my neck and have me dragged with it around the open square.
The next morning I reported myself to the medical officer, as prison rules allowed a prisoner to see the doctor if he could not undergo his punishment as a result of ill health; but before I had stated my case I noticed the governor standing behind the medical officer who, upon my entering the room, said to the doctor, "Ohl this man is a cons-ientious objector”. Im- _ mediately the doctor's mind was poisoned against me; and refusing to examine me, he marked me fit. It was evident that the governor had planned to be there; for had the doctor found me unfit, the governor would have had to withdraw his sentence.
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