supreme standard by which all legislation shall be judged, a considerable number of familiar laws will stand condemned; but the solution of the economic and political problems that threaten the peace and security of society will be simplified. The common acceptance of some such definite standard is necessary, as a safeguard not only against aggressions of power and ambition, but also against the benevolent but dangerous experiments of State Socialism.

The centralization of wealth and diffusion of poverty and dependence; the growth of corporate power and greed that is absorbing the fruits of labor, monopolizing and driving common individuals out of all the avenues of human effort, industry, and enterprise, and reducing the great majority of the people to the precarious and slavish condition of wage-workers, totally dependent upon the charity, fortunes, caprice, and disasters of the corporations that employ them-these things are the product of legislation and policies that transcend the limitations of just government.

Remedies should not be sought in the making of more laws, nor in making more experiments still further departing from the rightful domain of government. Remove from the path of individual life and liberty all meddlesome legislation that creates false conditions, narrows the opportunity and cripples the power of the individual, and the genius of man will peacefully, justly, and rapidly rise superior to all the evils that have come upon him, and with him society will rise to a higher and more secure state than ever before.

"Civilization" and "progress" are much abused terms. It is not civilization that degrades the many while it elevates the few. It is not progress that narrows the opportunities of and impoverishes the common people, while multiplying the aggregate wealth of the world. Civilization is measured by the moral elevation of the common people. Material progress is measured by the pecuniary independence of the common people and their opportunity for self-directed enterprise.

Geddes, S. D.

FRANK EXLine.

THE

THE CRIMINAL NEGRO.

VII. CHILDHOOD INFLUENCES.

The

HE remainder of the investigation presents the environmental conditions under which Southern negro criminals are reared. The cases already described are typical of the whole class. These results are more trustworthy than similar ones obtained from Northern white criminals. coöperation of both officers and convicts was most earnest, and the small communities from which the criminals came made it easy to trace the influences in families and among associates. From data gathered from prison populations aggregating nearly 10,000 and from minute observation of those measured, the evidence is clear that the negro criminal class is not an educated one. The ninety subjects measured were selected from about 300 women. Illiterate subjects were accepted only when others were not obtainable. From 42 offenders against the person, it was necessary to use II who were illiterate; of the remainder, 16 had attended country school, the average attendance being 3.7 years of about 3 months each-about one year of Northern training. In quality of education there is no comparison. Out of this number, 15 had attended city schools, the average attendance being 5.6 years. Thus the advantages in the city are greater. The education of the parents shows that in 7 cases both parents were illiterate; the fathers in 13 cases were illiterate, and in 21 cases had received some education, and 8 were unascertainable; of the mothers, 22 were illiterate, 14 had received some education, and 6 were unascertainable. The reasons given for leaving school at an early age included such as-work, 8; marriage, 4; moved away, 3; epilepsy and illness, 4 each. "Ran away from home," "got tired," and "didn't like it" were common reasons. The most favorable ages for attending school were, in order, 7-9, 9-11, and 11-13, only a very small number being in the last class.

The facts for offenders against property are slightly different. It is of interest to consider these separately, for this class is largely from the city districts and shows the superior advantages there. Out of 38, only 7 were illiterate and only 8 had also attended country schools. The average period of attendance was 4.4 years. The education of the parents was better than that of the class previously given. If a prison population possesses no higher average of education than this, and the parents are in a position to bequeath so little knowledge and educational culture to the children, there can be but little foundation for the assertions that the education of the negro does not decrease crime. Certainly the educated negroes are not found in the prisons, unless illiteracy and ability merely to read and write constitute these.

The methods used by parents in teaching right and wrong are of interest because they reveal something of the moral standards. Both persuasion and punishment were used, but the latter exceeded the former by a great majority. A number of the subjects declared they were not taught differences between right and wrong. They were punished for fighting, stealing, dipping snuff, lying, wanting others' things, card playing, dancing, or drinking. There is little or no evidence of the finer moral discriminations, and the method is training through punishment rather than through wise direction which avoids punishment. Restraints are shown in a few instances where parents objected to visits to saloons, dance-houses, etc. As among children who have been sent to Northern reformatories, the presence of stepfathers and stepmothers was often made evident by harsh and unusual punishments and by the children leaving home at an early age. Where the negroes had been brought up by whites, the training was generally lax. The punishments included: whipping with switch or strap, 62; sent to bed without food, 33; dark room, 31; locked up, 9; slapped (frequently), 9; tied up, 4; kneeling, 4. Other punishments were: head tied in a sack, standing on boxes, no food or water, frightened, holding bricks, silence, arms tied up, clothes tied over their heads, and kneeling on cracked

bricks or shelled corn. The punishment does not lack in severity but in certainty. It is usually administered spasmodically and during anger. Often the amount of injury caused by the child's act regulates the degree of punishment, as does also the amount of shock to the parents' feelings. To illustrate the latter, if a child falls into a few inches of water and soils its clothes it may receive a moderate punishment, but if the mother is frightened because it has been in danger of drowning it may receive a more severe one. Spasmodic, unsystematic, unsympathetic, and often unprincipled discipline is the practise.

The

The object in securing the number of books read was to determine to what use the education had been put, and if any educational influences existed outside the schoolroom. results show: Bible, 37; none, 27; novels, 22; Sunday-school books, 11; juvenile, history, and newspapers, 6 each; biographies, schoolbooks (as readers), and religious papers, 5 each; poems, 2; magazines, 1. One-third of the number had never read anything, and only I could describe a magazine clearly. The prominence of the Bible is of course due to the fact that it is often the only book owned, or obtainable. While its value is not questioned, the absence of every other kind of literature must often make it misunderstood, or lead to a narrow application of its precepts. Biographies and history were respectively those of Washington and Lincoln and of the United States. The preferences in reading show that the Bible was in favor with more than one-half. This is inaccurate for two reasons: many had no other literature from which to choose, and others thought, as a matter of duty, they should prefer it. The range of reading was so limited that but little preference could be expressed. In choice, George Washington was a close second to Jesse James, while Diamond Dick and Nick Carter won over all other dime novel heroes. Mrs. Holmes and Augusta Evans were the popular novelists, and "Mother Goose" and "Peck's Bad Boy" represented the juvenile reading. There are no opportunities for obtaining reading matter in the prisons or in the country districts, and only limited ones in the cities.

The number of children in a family throws light upon the

problem of crime, because in a crude way it reveals the probable chance of each child for training and care. A farmer with a small section of plantation can do better for one child than for ten. Food, clothing, and individual training and opportunities become more limited as the numbers increase. The number of children in the families from which these criminals came ranges from one to twenty-seven. The average is eight per family. It becomes apparent, then, that some of these children must enter the labor ranks at an early age. The chances for individual training were small because the mother was also a laborer on the plantation. This statement is based upon the supposition that both parents are living, but the results show that before they had reached the age of 15 (the estimated age at which a girl still needs parental care) 30 had lost their fathers and 29 their mothers, and in 6 instances both parents had died. This means that in nearly two-thirds of the cases there had been step-parents, and the girls had married or they had been forced into the world to work for themselves, and often for younger brothers and sisters. In case of death there is rarely any provision made for the family, the benefits of insurance and the millions of small savings in the North being unknown among the mass of negroes.

The greater number of subjects claimed occupations as follows: nurses, 21; servants, 15; cooks, 14; field hands, 12; laundresses, 9; none, 5; factory and dining-room employees, each 2. Sixteen had been taught dressmaking, and 9 followed it. In many cases immorality was preferred to these trades, because of low wages or inability to secure work. The wagerate is lower for negroes than for whites, and upon many plantations there is no regular price paid-exchange and barter still being resorted to. The average age at which they began work was 12.5 years, but there are a few instances where they have begun as nurse girls at ages ranging from 6 to 10 years. Without exception they belonged to the laboring classes.

There is one other interesting factor in the influences in the childhood of these criminals-the nature of their play. This was almost entirely out-of-doors and their games were of a