ERNEST HAMLIN ABBOTT, Editor-in-Chief and Secretary LAWRENCE F. ABBOTT, Contributing Editor

D

R. FRANK MOORE, Superintendent of the New Jersey Reformatory, at Rahway, since 1909, has recently published at the Reformatory print-shop "A Study of the Character of the Offender, and Society's Duty Toward Him," including besides sundry suggestions for the betterment of the criminal's condition. It reveals some interesting side-lights of convict character. To many criminals crime is a form of entertainment. Describing a choice specimen of this class, Dr. Moore observes: "Crime appealed to him because of the fun there was in it. It was an adventure that thrilled him, and it did not concern him how much any one else suffered, so long as he had the fun that was in it. The love of fun drove him to go as long as the going was good, and even the certainty that he would sooner or later be caught was not sufficient to stop him." In proper apposition, the criminal dislikes work: "Work interferes with his self-indulgence. When he is working he cannot be carousing; he cannot be out all night and be able to work the next day. Work tires him. It takes

they can outwit other men. "They delight," says the Doctor, "to pose as braver, bolder, and shrewder than the rest of us, upon whom they look down as weaklings and simpletons, who do not know any better than to be fools enough to work for our living, and be decent." It is the hero-worship instinct that produces the gang leader. The type is proud of its craftiness and cunning and glories in its ability to deceive: "They count with pride the many times their smooth tongues have gotten them out of trouble" and "look upon themselves as wise guys, exceedingly cunning and able to get away even with murder."

The writer thinks that in braggadocio there may be some saving element of character, but "the sly, furtive, sullen, stubborn offender presents an objective most difficult to capture; while the stubbornness that is concealed under "a smile, and by pleasant words," is a "hidden mine" that may explode any time "with serious consequences."

ONE

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so that he may be on hand when things are doing. Thus laziness becomes one of the habits of his life. The thought of labor as a legitimate means of getting pleasure is not in his thinking. He loves ease, and figures that by stealing he can have enjoyment and still get other pleasures."

Dr. Moore finds the bad young men who come under his care in New Jersey to be hero-worshipers. Perusal of the life of Jesse James so fired the blood of one half-baked youth that he took to the road with a shotgun. The farmer whom he undertook to hold up proved the more valorous of the two, and the budding bandit landed in the Reformatory. One unrepentant scamp boasted: "There isn't anything we can't beat. All we have to do is to put on a pair of gloves, and then where are your finger-prints? We are always just one jump ahead of anything they can devise to beat

us."

This idea of being a superman, bolder and braver than other men, fills them with a conceit that breeds the belief that

"I have never

they laugh much in prison-laugh at the least little thing out of the ordinary, at stupidities in others and at mistakes of the common sort. Mirth is considered a good quality. It does not seem to be such with the convict. Ingratitude is his ruling characteristic. known the real criminal to be thankful for anything that has ever been done for him," is Dr. Moore's conclusion, who finds "in the dark picture of the criminal world there is a type of violator who seems to be entirely without any moral nature at all," who "can no more live straight than one born without a palate can talk straight" and in whom "the instinct to do right seems to be wholly absent." absent." They are "really moral imbeciles whom no treatment that has yet been discovered has ever been able to change." This sort of individual presents "a very difficult entity to deal with and, as a class, a very dangerous problem to society."

How great and costly is this problem is seen from the fact cited by Dr. Moore that there are about 500,000 prisoners

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in the United States, the cost for the apprehension, conviction, and care of whom, judged by the New Jersey standard, averages $2,000 each. This brings the cost of the human junk heap to $1,000,000,000 for every turnover. Add to this the price of police protection, and the criminal becomes a very expensive form of waste.

R. MOORE does not regard the prison

DR.

as a place for remaking men. It only preserves society from the presence of the evil-doer for a term. If more is to be done, society must do it itself. The prison must always turn out damaged goods. That some repent and are saved is true, but the greater number continue unregenerate and unreformed.

To a poor form of intellect the early life of most criminals has added to it ill-usage at home. Brutal treatment of children is still all too prevalent among our people. They are beaten and scolded into becoming liars and starved into thievery in all too many low-grade families. Here is where society can and must do the work of redemption if it wishes to curtail the output of criminals. But few convicts come from early decent surroundings. Those that fall from aloft are very scarce. The mass comes from the disregarded, common herd. Moore does not minimize the difficulties in the paths of removing the causes of crime, plus trying to reform the criminal. "It must be remembered," he urges, "that these lives have become what they are after a lifetime of evil habit has woven itself into a cable that cannot be broken all at once, even though the criminal and citizen together are at one in an honest effort to break it. But no matter what the results, the citizen who undertakes this work must never be discouraged. What is needed is men who are not shaken of their purpose, no matter how much they may seem to fail, who will do their duty because it is their duty; who look for results and are glad if they come, but will not stop even if they do not appear."

In prison-reform planning Dr. Moore thinks the classification of the criminal will play a most important part. The selective system is almost disregarded, with the result that the lowest minds are allowed to dominate the standards of ruling convicts, moral simpletons coming under the same rules that govern hardened sinners. To bring about the desired change "co-operation and not criticism" must be employed. "Laws must be made, money must be spent, taxpayers must be enlightened, science must be enlisted, judges must co-operate."

Volume 144

The Dictatorship of the People

A

MAN shyly entered a building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Approaching a woman seated at a table, he asked whether he would have to show a tax receipt or would have to sign his name to something. He was assured that he would not. Receiving a piece of paper, he went cautiously into the curtained booth, remained there a few moments, and, emerging, dropped the paper into a box. This diffident man is one of the most powerful figures in the world to-day, the American Secretary of the Treasury. He was one of millions who on November 2 were casting their ballots.

From the Atlantic across the North American Continent to the Pacific, in city, village, and open country, by seaside and lakeside, on the plains and in the mountains, men and women were registering their will concerning the government of the Nation, the State, and the locality in which they dwelt.

In contrast to such a land as Greece where one dictator succeeds another, or Italy where the dictator in power has had no rival, or Russia where the masses are subject to the dictatorship of an oligarchy, the United States has learned how to practice the art of self-government. The people of this country make mistakes, but they can correct them. At least they know that when government fails them it is their own fault. Under the dictatorship of the people government becomes a process by which the dictator is self-educated.

An Off Year

A

LTHOUGH in the election on Novem

ber 2 the people of the United States chose their National legislatureor at least all of the lower house and the control of the upper house-this year is in American political parlance known as an "off year." In practically all European countries the most important, if not the only, national election is that in which the voters choose their national legislators. It is significant of the relative importance of the executive and legislative branches in America that the most important National election in the

November 10, 1926

Keystone

David I. Walsh, a Wet, Senator-Elect,
of Massachusetts

United States is that of the President. Americans rarely become excited over the question whether their Congress shall be Republican or Democratic.

On November 2 forty-seven out of the forty-eight States chose all their Representatives in Congress. The one State not voting, Maine, had chosen its Representatives on September 13. As a result of the election on Tuesday of last

Keystone

Robert F. Wagner, a Wet, Senator-Elect, of New York

Number II

week the House of Representatives remained definitely Republican.

Whether the Senate would be organized by the Republicans or Democrats was still in doubt twenty-four hours after the ballots had been cast. Every two years a third of the Senators reach the end of their terms. Consequently, as each State has two Senators, twothirds of the States that is, thirty-two -normally choose Senators in each biennial election. This year because of vacancies, one State not normally voting this year, Massachusetts, chose a Senator for a short term, and two States, Indiana and Iowa, chose two Senators each. On the day after election the Republicans seemed to have elected eighteen Senatorial candidates and the Democrats fourteen. The control of the Senate seemed to depend upon the outcome of the two States then in doubtNevada and Oregon. The control of the Senate, however, means virtually only the power to organize the committees. Party lines are so broken that legislation does not seem likely to be vitally affected whether the Senate is nominally Democratic or Republican.

The election of Walsh to the Senate in place of Butler in Massachusetts displaces the President's right-hand man, Chairman of the Republican National Committee. The election of Wagner in place of Wadsworth in New York displaces the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs and brings to the Senate a Tammany man long an associate of Governor Smith in the New York Legislature and in State politics. It also means a revolt against the management of the Republican Party in the State. The election of Watson and Robinson in Indiana means the defeat of a bi-partisan protest against a scandal in Republican politics in Indiana in which the Ku Klux Klan was involved. The election of Gooding in Idaho was in spite of the division of the Republican voters by the candidacy of a Progressive who incidentally was opposed to the attempt of Idaho to grab a part of Yellowstone National Park for an irrigation reservoir. The election of Smith in Illinois ends for this year the attempt of Brennan, the Democratic machine leader, to win a

Underwood & Underwood

Charles C. Young, of California, a Progressive and a Dry, Elected Governor Senatorial seat and indicates that the protest against the campaign contributions of a traction leader to Smith's funds in the primary was not strong enough to overcome the strength of the Republican Party organization. On the whole, the Senatorial elections, which incidentally bring Vare of Pennsylvania into the Senate among others, do not raise the Senate's tone.

Governor Smith's Triumph

OF

F all the candidates for Governor elected in various States, Alfred E. Smith stands out because of his prominence as a Presidential candidate. This is the fifth time that he has been a candidate for Governor of New York and the fourth time that he has been elected. His personal popularity apparently was enhanced somewhat rather than injured by the attacks of his Republican opponent, Mr. Mills. That Governor Smith is a stanch Tammany man did not seem to weigh heavily even with "up-State" voters except to lead them to believe that Tammany itself had improved under his leadership. He has been a pronounced wet, perhaps the most vigorous and persuasive single force in leading voters of New York State to become dissatisfied with the Volstead Act. That he is experienced in the special administrative problems of New York State Government is unquestioned. By Constitutional amendment the State Government was recently simplified and reorganized.

By Mr. Smith's re-election the work of putting that reconstruction into practical effect is intrusted to the Democratic Party of New York as dominated by Tammany Hall. Never before has the claim that Tammany has been reformed from within been put to such a test as that to which this vote of confidence in Governor Smith has subjected it. Undoubtedly Governor Smith's re-election has greatly enhanced his prestige as a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1928.

The discussion of other elections we shall have to postpone until next week.

Referendums

THE

HE Count on State referendums is always slower than the count on candidates. Next week The Outlook will be able to give a fuller report on the final results in the States which gave their voters an opportunity to express an opinion on the prohibition question.

It did not need a referendum to prove that the sentiment of New York State was against the present system of liquor control. Sentiment was indeed all that the voters in New York State could express, for the referendum submitted to them dealt with an impractical proposal and did not clearly offer a chance to vote in favor of the return of the saloon as an alternative to the present system. Undoubtedly almost all the voters who are in any way dissatisfied with the Volstead Act voted yes in the New York referendum. Undoubtedly many voters who do not want a return of the saloon either voted yes or did not vote at all. On the referendum vote alone the wets appear to have carried the State by three to one. If the drys were credited with the ballots of those who voted for Governor, but did not cast any vote in the referendum, the wets still carried the State by one and a half to one.

In Illinois a referendum similar in form to that in New York State was carried by the wets. A popular referendum in Nevada seems also to have been carried by a large wet majority. Missouri defeated a proposal to repeal all State enforcement measures. Montana has apparently voted to repeal its enforcement code. As we go to press the results of the Colorado referendum providing that intoxicating liquors may be manufactured if such manufacture does not conflict with the Federal statutes seems

International

Frank L. Smith, of Illinois, Chosen
Senator Against a Wringing Wet

to be in doubt. The returns from California are still too incomplete to warrant a final conclusion as we go to press. Wisconsin has voted for 2.75 per cent beer to be sold under Government supervision and not consumed on the premises where sold.

In Massachusetts it is to be noted that Governor Alvan T. Fuller beat his Democratic opponent, Mr. Gaston, in a campaign in which Governor Fuller took the dry end of the fight.

Adv.

No

o one has ever summed up the place of advertising in our economic system and in our social life better than the President of the United States. Speaking before the Convention of Advertising Agencies in Washington recently, President Coolidge said:

When we stop to consider the part which advertising plays in the modern life of production and trade, we see that basically it is that of education. It informs its readers of the existence and nature of commodities by explaining the advantages to be derived from their use and creates for them a wider demand. It makes new thoughts, new desires, and new actions. By chang ing the attitude of the mind it changes the material condition of the people.

Somewhere I have seen ascribed to Abraham Lincoln the statement that "In this and like communities public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed; consequently he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or