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as much. Without any slackening in our work for the babies, we must pay very careful attention to the $4,000 article.

Dr. Louis I. Dublin and Professor Irving Fisher, in recent publications, have shown that the middle-aged citizen is not getting a fair deal.

The great advances in public health work have done much to reduce the acute or infectious diseases, such as typhoid, diphtheria, smallpox, even tuberculosis; but the middleaged man is dying more rapidly than ever of the degenerative diseases.

Cancer, diabetes, apoplexy, organic heart disease, diseases of the arteries, cirrhosis of the liver, and Bright's disease—these seven causes account for more than one-half of the deaths after the age of forty..

Both investigators charge the advanced mortality to the stress of modern life.

Dr. Dublin instances the making of shoes “made entirely by machine processes directed by specialist workmen, who perform, at high speed and over long hours, one or at most a few operations." This work has "left its mark upon the individual workman.

He no

longer enjoys the pleasure incident to the performance of a whole task. The unceasing whirl of high-speed machinery, the persistent noises of the shop, and the necessary nervous accommodation to the rapid movements of the machines result, after long periods of time, in distinct psychoses."

Alcohol and venereal diseases are potent factors in this middle-age mortality, but these are nothing new.

Professor Fisher remarks:

The great broad fact seems to be that, while we are freer of germs than our ancestors, our vital organs wear out sooner. There may be some difference of opinion as to the cause of this more rapid wearing out. But, personally, I believe it can be convincingly shown that the chief cause is the neglect of individual hygiene, partly from ignorance, partly from indifference, partly from sheer helplessness under modern industrial conditions.

Individual hygiene! After all, the problem comes back to the individual. The growing old, if it is to be well done, must begin at the cradle. Protection against these "degenerative diseases" means a life well lived and ancestors well chosen. We have gained in the last half century. We have pushed the average age forward. There is doubt yet as to the very best age that man may expect to live, but we know positively that it is possible for the body of a man to last him

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a hundred years, and, as the last years are the best, it is worth while to win them. How shall this be done?-.

We must take to heart this truth: We shall live our normal length of years only when we cease to encourage the slight ailments which, after years of an unchecked course, become the serious "degenerative diseases" so destructive during middle life. We must break loose from the lethargy that allows us to feel that our present state of health is all right, that it is the common lot, and is therefore the best we can expect.

To hedge ourselves around with a strict rule for every detail of life is irksome and undesirable, yet we should have a reasonable acquaintance with natural laws and pay them respectful attention. The laws of health have, every one, a penalty attached, and ignorance is never accepted as an excuse.

Fortunately, the human body has wonderful resources of repair, and it is rare indeed that health is so broken as to yield no promise of improvement to a determined effort. Luigi Cornaro was a broken man at forty, yet he lived on to be nearly a hundred, after resolving to shape the broken ends aright. Humboldt was a weakling who conquered. Horace Fletcher is a good modern example. We need not go out of our own experience to find strong men who have built up their own constitutions from a frail boyhood.

Prevent illness. Build up the natural defensive resources of the body. Use the automatic scavenger system with which you are supplied, but do not make the mistake of thinking that you can neglect it at pleasure and then escape by whipping it up with irritating drugs. Drink freely of clear water. Eat to satisfaction rather than repletion, and let the diet be of good balance. Never let the drudgery of daily routine obscure the end for which you live. A rush of work is not legitimate excuse for progressive suicide.

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Have thou moderation in all things; keep thyself from wild joy and from wailing sorrow; strive to hold thy soul in harmony and concord, like the strings of a well-tuned harp." (Pythagoras.)

To possess a sane outlook on life is a prime requisite for living long. Serenity, courage, poise, determination, all are important factors. It may be that there is a physiologic center which controls the aging of the body, as is claimed, but, even so, we may be sure that it reacts to these psychic influences. When ill employ a physician, not a "medi

cine man." Do not expect him to work a miracle of healing. Ask only that he give you such relief as medical science has now at hand, and conduct your body wisely back to normal functions. Above all things, do not urge him to allow a premature resumption of your work. The greatest obstacle to a full recovery from illness, a recovery that makes tissues and organs just as good as before, is placing the load on them again while yet they are weak.

Now, to revert to this important fact that ninety-seven per cent of two thousand apparently healthy young people, on examination, presented some defect. It is not in human nature to be constantly careful. There must be a check on conditions, something that will nip in the bud the apparently small matters. It is "the little foxes that spoil the vines;" the pyorrhoea that does its damage painlessly, yet persistently, and in the course of its run is more harmful than a typhoid attack; the increased blood pressure that works for years before you realize its presence; the nervous cough" that is so constant a companion that you scarcely notice it; the chronic catarrh that "everybody has."

Discovering these "little things" and giving them early attention is the best way to check the degenerative diseases that are robbing us of our prime years. The wise automobile owner puts his car in the shop every six months for thorough overhauling by an expert, because he realizes that a defect in some small part may ruin the whole machine. We must likewise submit our valuable machines for periodic examinations.

No necessity in your case? Eighteen hundred and ninety-eight of the two thousand had that idea, but only sixty-three of them were sustained. Remember that when death comes it is usually just one part of the mechanism that is worn out, while the rest could have gone for many years.

Volumes could be written showing how trifles, easily checked if given early attention, wreak destruction in the end. Pyorrhoea is a good example. It is an insidious disease because painless. If attended early, it is readily cured; left unchecked, it may cause arthritic joints (commonly described as rheumatism), valvular heart disease, chronic gastritis, ulcer of the stomach, and other dangerous conditions. Diabetes is never curable unless detected in an early stage; the same is true of Bright's disease. Arteriosclerosis, if attended early, may be kept well in check

and not materially shorten life. Thrombotic veins, which so often cause the tragedy of instant death from a clot getting loose in the blood stream, may be avoided by early treatment.

But, you demur, we go to the doctors, and they don't tell us how to avoid these diseases! That has been the case in the past, but is not wholly true of the present, and is becoming less and less. The medical profession is awakening-more and more learning to make examinations that look as much to the prevention of future as the cure of present ills.

It is not likely that the general practitioner will be the one to make these periodic medical examinations when they become an established feature of our social system. A special branch of the profession will develop, a branch that will confine itself fo examining and advising. There are many reasons why the family physician cannot make such a critical examination without bias. His interest in the patient is too personal. He is disinclined to accept the possibility of a serious ailment which he has heretofore overlooked. He dislikes to gives drastic advice, fearing to antagonize or distress his patient.

There is a way, however, quite independent of your family physician. This same Life Extension Institute, its interest aroused, we will say, by the fact that if you live longer you pay more insurance premiums, has arranged a chain of examining physicians enabling you to get a scientific and accurate examination entirely without personal bias.

But the profession of physical examiner is one bound to develop. It is bound to come, because it is a necessity vital to the preservation of our best years. It will be in the nature of public service, and sooner or later will be supported by public funds. The necessity for this is twofold: First, it will avail us nothing as a Nation if confined to the privileged few, able to pay big fees. Second, it must be a service of precision, absolutely detached from all considerations of gain or personal interest.

A practical method is to make the work a departmental feature of the various State Boards of Health. The importance of saving life is just as great in one way as another. It is just as important to head off Bright's disease as to prevent yellow fever. It is distinctly a work of public health, in strict keeping with the twentieth-century slogan, "Safety first." It is the logical way of preserving for use that "last of life for which the first was made."

D

URING a stay of nearly six months in the county jail, in which I was kept awaiting trial and sentence, I do not remember one man who went to trial with any other idea than that the verdict was a gambler's chance. The guilty went down, if they had a fairly capable attorney, feeling that they had a chance to "make a getaway." The innocent frequently feared that they would be convicted. Among the men it was generally conceded that the two judges of the Criminal Court were honest and humane men. The curious thing is that no appeared to believe that they had much to do with the matter. A majority seemed to believe that freedom or imprisonment was largely a matter of money. If they could raise enough of this to secure certain lawyers, the result was almost foreordained. And certainly there appeared solid ground for this belief in that these men did secure verdicts of "not guilty" for several scores of prisoners who had made little secret of their guilt while among us.

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Study of the situation reveals that not more than ten per cent of criminals have the means to engage really capable attorneys. And usually these are of the types most dangerous to society. Perhaps thirty per cent more are enabled to engage "shysters or beginners, whose fees range from five dollars up to whatever they can get. one member of the bar accept five hundred tobacco coupons and three dollars from a foreigner in return for his promise to use his "influence" with the judge to have the man put on probation.

I saw

During my stay in the jail and during my confinement in the penitentiary I was fortunate in the possession of the confidence and friendship of a large number of my

fellow-prisoners. Opportunity for this has come through my employment as librarian and as prison school-teacher. Of 980 individuals whom I have seen committed 937 admitted to me that they were guilty of the charges against them. Of course many offered extenuating circumstances. Of the entire number 267 were enabled to engage counsel of some sort. In the case of all but forty-five this was of very mediocre quality, and the fees paid were such that it could not be expected that the legal service rendered could be of a very arduous or extended nature. Eight hundred and thirty-eight of the men pleaded guilty without trial. Of this number 142 were of those who had engaged counsel. Of the total of 980 prisoners 125 stood trial. Of these 37 were acquitted.

The 142 men who, after engaging counsel, pleaded guilty paid for legal services $4,038.80, or an average of $28.40 each. Included in this number were men who went to prison, but who might have attained. liberty under suspended sentence or probation had there been adequate presentation of their cases to the judges. But the greater proportion of this money was not paid to the lawyers with the understanding that there would be any trial, but that they would use their influence with the judges to obtain a light sentence or release on probation or suspended sentence. In the case of all but two of the lawyers there was no possibility that they could use their influence, for the reason that they had none. There was no hope for the men unless the judges could be brought to see that there were extenuating circumstances or that it would benefit the prisoner to be given a chance to "make good." The approach to the judge was understood by the latter to mean that the attorney was simply trying to earn a small fee and that he had made no investigation of his client's antecedents or circumstances. In any event this was unnecessary, for the reason that in all cases in which the prisoner pleaded guilty investigation was made by officials of the probation office.

In effect, therefore, the attorneys simply took this money and rendered absolutely no service in return other than a few moments' conversation. Sixty-seven of the men neither

saw nor heard from the attorneys again after they received their fees. They were not present in court either when the prisoners made their plea or when they were sentenced. Can this be regarded as other than a form of theft?

A large portion of the money was paid by very poor prisoners, and in many instances involved sacrifice on the part of friends or relatives. In the greater number of instances it was paid very soon after arrest and when the prisoner's barriers were down and he was susceptible to any sort of influence. The attorneys were" tipped off" to the prisoners by jail officials, who received a small commission therefor.

The 125 prisoners who went to trial paid to their attorneys $20,625. The greater portion of this money was paid by men whom it was to the interest of society to see convicted. Of this number we have seen that thirty-seven were acquitted. A number of these men were undoubtedly guilty, and others who were convicted were enabled, through their counsel, to escape with much lighter sentences than men guilty of lesser misdemeanors who had pleaded guilty.

On the whole, I must conclude, from the consideration I have given to all the cases, that the greater portion of this money paid to the attorneys procured simply subversion of law and justice or entailed exploitation of men unable to make effort toward reprisal.

In the small individual family unit the small offender against the family code or even against the social code is commonly protected against undue severity, even though he may be forced to make reparation. The wise parent punishes the offending child solely with the purpose of correction of fault and provision of punitive experience as a possible deterrent against future offense. But the child, where the punishment is wisely administered, recognizes its justice and value, and the relations of child and parent are not impaired thereby. Indeed, it is possible that they may be strengthened.

Prison experience has shown that the majority of non-habitual criminal prisoners could be brought easily to the same desirable attitude of mind if they could be taught to believe that justice is administered fairly and corrective measures in force are wisely and judiciously applied. It must be remembered that a very small proportion of the offenders brought each year before the criminal courts are either criminal at heart or by intent. The majority of them are merely weak.

Face to face with realities, as men must come when deprived of their liberty, and especially when they have been able to come back to their normal mental and physical condition by enforced abstention from indulgences which may have been contributory to their downfall, they are amenable to reason. If it were distinctly understood that it would be impossible for them to evade the consequences of their action, and if they could have assurance not only of treatment looking to reparation on their own part, but also of assistance toward a condition which would insure possibility of reformation, we should be near to the solution of many of our criminal problems.

But as the system of court procedure stands at present this condition is impossible of attainment. There is on every hand the temptation to evade consequences; to postpone the inevitable reparation, through the use of money or influence, and to use every endeavor to secure these if they are lacking. And where the individual is without these and is observant of what effect they have in the amelioration of the condition of others perhaps infinitely more culpable than himself, there is induced a condition of mind which is not conducive to either repentance or desire for reformation.

There is coming a day, possibly long deferred, however, in which the individual will be considered the State's chief concern. When this day arrives, the welfare of even the delinquent will not be left to chance or the caprice of some individual impelled to interference for financial or sordid reasons. And it should be the duty of the State to ascertain exactly the degree of guilt or innocence of the offender. We know that the State now chiefly concerns itself with the guilt-that it, in fact, presupposes this-of the individual. It is for the good of the State and the individual alike that the offender's moral status be ascertained and that he make reparation, and thus, in the only way possible to him, assist in his own transformation again into the condition of an asset to society. Therefore the State should not allow private individuals, for gain, to approach a prisoner and induce him to seek to evade the consequences of his wrong-doing-the reaping of his own sowing.

In the case of a large proportion of men brought before the bar of justice there are extenuating circumstances, or there are conditions which constitute reason for not imposing the extreme penalty. If the offender

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could feel that these would be seriously and intelligently considered, he would far rather ease his conscience by confession and start clear in the world again. Experience has shown that many men have gone to prison with hearts made light by this consciousness that they had "wiped the slate " and would, after their punishment was over, have the opportunity to make a fair start in the world.

It should be clearly understood that a vastly greater number of criminals are at liberty than are in the prisons of the country. It is not the fault of these criminals that they are at liberty. They continue to commit crime with impunity and with little care to conceal their actions. Much of the responsibility for their continued exemption from penalty lies at the doors of the judicial system and the feet of the criminal lawyers.

No honest man, even though he be a lawyer, will listen to the story of an offender, who may have committed but one crime, and then, realizing his client's guilt, go forth and by the exercise of his wit and trickery and lying secure his release without expiation of his offense.

It should be the province of the lawyer to do that which tends toward the ultimate good of the offender. And, in the event of guilt, he should see to it that there would be no injustice of prosecution, and that any condition which might extenuate the offense should be laid before the judge. And the lawyer should be of such character that the judge would be willing to give due regard to whatever recommendation as to correction his intimate observation of his client had led him to believe would be best.

But the greater number of criminal lawyers have in the past been among the most active promoters of crime that we have observed. They have taught the professional criminal that he can "get away with anything short of murder" if he has the money. And they have assisted in the corruption of the judicial system, of juries, and of all those agencies which are supposed to repress or hold the criminal in check.

Fortunately there are now engaged in educating the members of their own profession a number of able and far-seeing lawyers who believe that defense, like prosecution, should be a public matter. One of these, John H. Wigmore, Dean of the Northwestern Law School, says:

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Another eminent lawyer, R. H. Gray, of San Francisco, says: "No scientific quest calls for more dispassionate and unselfish means than the quest for truth with respect to wrongs between fellow-men. Nevertheless, hugging self-deception to our hearts, we have persistently made the courts a prizering where litigants do, and most often must with such hired retainers as they can command, and without any real aid--and none or few are fairly matched-butcher their way through, with deceit and evasion, and every conceivable kind of injustice, to a 'judgment that is often a greater catastrophe, in criminal law at least, than the original wrong, while at least a very heavy portion of the cost is borne, in both civil and criminal cases, by those who have no direct relation to the controversy or the litigants."

To me, in the light of my prison experience, the suggestions of Mr. Wigmore and Mr. Gray do not appear as fantastic as they would seem to appear to a great number of those lawyers who have ridiculed them. They would do away with the tempter of the criminal in the form of the shyster lawyer; they would bring into connection with him a type of men who would recognize that their duty to the State, as to the offender, would be to bring him to a recognition that, not the easiest, but the right, thing was that which should be done. It would not appear altruistic to consider that this condition may one day come about. When it does, the criminal may be brought to have respect for the law rather than the contempt or hatred which he most commonly possesses. It would constitute protection for society from the rich offender and protection for the poor one. Experience has shown us that fear of punishment is not a deterrent of crime, but that certainty of prompt enforcement of law is.