{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_76531/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_76531","id":"gutenberg_76531","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76531","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Law & Criminology","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Politics","Category: Sociology","Criminal law","Evil, Non-resistance to","Punishment"],"text":"OTHER PUBLICATIONS BY CLARENCE S. DARROW\n\n\nA PERSIAN PEARL AND OTHER ESSAYS\n\n    A volume of essays beautifully printed and bound. $1.50 net;\n    postage, 10 cents.\n\nTHE WOODWORKERS\u2019 CONSPIRACY CASE\n\n    The argument of Mr. Darrow in the famous Kidd case. 10 cents.\n\nTHE RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF IRELAND\n\n    10 cents.\n\nADDRESS AT THE GRAVE OF JOHN P. ALTGELD\n\n    5 cents.\n\nREALISM IN LITERATURE AND ART\n\n    5 cents.\n\nCRIME AND CRIMINALS\n\n    An address delivered to the prisoners in the Chicago County\n    Jail. 10 cents.\n\nRESIST NOT EVIL\n\n    A startling and vivid arraignment of the doctrine of force and\n    punishment. In press. 75 cents.\n\nTALES FROM THE COURTS\n\n    A volume of short stories. Illustrated. In press.\n\n                                FOR SALE BY\n                         CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY\n                                PUBLISHERS\n                         56 FIFTH AVENUE, CHICAGO\n\n\n\n\n                             _Resist Not Evil_\n\n                                    _BY\n                            CLARENCE S. DARROW_\n\n                              [Illustration]\n\n                                 _CHICAGO\n                         CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY\n                                  MCMIII_\n\n                              Copyright 1902\n                                    By\n                            CLARENCE S. DARROW\n\n                               TYPOGRAPHY BY\n                  MARSH, AIKEN & CURTIS COMPANY, CHICAGO\n\n                  PRESS OF THOS. P. HALPIN & CO., CHICAGO\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n    Judge not, that ye be not judged.\n\n                                                      _Matthew 7:1._\n\n    Ye have heard that it hath been said: An eye for an eye, and a\n    tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil,\n    but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him\n    the other also.\n\n                                                 _Matthew 5:38, 39._\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nIt is not claimed that the following pages contain any new ideas. They\nwere inspired by the writings of Tolstoy, who was the first, and in\nfact the only, author of my acquaintance who ever seemed to me to place\nthe doctrine of non-resistance upon a substantial basis. After reading\nTolstoy I determined to make a careful study of the subject, but on a\nthorough search of book stores and libraries could find next to nothing\ndealing with the question, while the shelves were crowded with literature\nextolling the glories of war and the beneficence of patriotism.\n\nThe first part of this volume which deals with the state is very\nfragmentary, and in no wise so complete as can be found in many other\nvolumes, but in the portion which deals with crime and punishment, I have\nfound a much newer field, and one which has generally been discussed by\nthose who have little practical knowledge of the machinery of courts of\njustice.\n\nIt has been my purpose to state the reasons which appeal to me in support\nof the doctrine of non-resistance, rather than to give authorities to\nsustain the theories advanced. Still, I believe that the student who\nis interested in the subject of criminology, and wishes to carefully\ninvestigate crime and punishment, will find that most of the great\nhistorians, philosophers, and thinkers will amply corroborate the\nviews herein set forth, as to the cause of crime, and the evil and\nunsatisfactory results of punishment.\n\n                                                       CLARENCE S. DARROW.\n\nCHICAGO, November 1, 1902.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  Chapter                                             Page\n\n     I. THE NATURE OF THE STATE                         11\n\n    II. ARMIES AND NAVIES                               20\n\n   III. THE PURPOSE OF ARMIES                           33\n\n    IV. CIVIL GOVERNMENT                                41\n\n     V. THEORY OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT                  51\n\n    VI. REMEDIAL EFFECTS OF PUNISHMENT                  59\n\n   VII. CAUSE OF CRIME                                  77\n\n  VIII. THE PROPER TREATMENT OF CRIME                   92\n\n    IX. IMPOSSIBILITY OF JUST JUDGMENT                  98\n\n     X. THE JUDGE OF THE CRIMINAL                      106\n\n    XI. THE MEASURE OF PUNISHMENT                      112\n\n   XII. WHO DESERVES PUNISHMENT                        127\n\n  XIII. NATURAL LAW AND CONDUCT                        131\n\n   XIV. RULES GOVERNING PENAL CODES AND THEIR VICTIMS  141\n\n    XV. THE MACHINERY OF JUSTICE                       153\n\n   XVI. THE RIGHT TREATMENT OF VIOLENCE                165\n\n\n\n\nResist Not Evil\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE NATURE OF THE STATE\n\n\nIn this heroic age, given to war and conquest and violence, the precepts\nof peace and good will seem to have been almost submerged. The pulpit,\nthe press, and the school unite in teaching patriotism and in proclaiming\nthe glory and beneficence of war; and one may search literature almost in\nvain for one note of that \u201cPeace on earth, and good will toward men\u201d in\nwhich the world still professes to believe; and yet these benign precepts\nare supposed to be the basis of all the civilization of the western world.\n\nThe doctrine of non-resistance if ever referred to is treated with\nderision and scorn. At its best the doctrine can only be held by\ndreamers and theorists, and can have no place in daily life. Every\ngovernment on earth furnishes proof that there is nothing practical or\nvital in its teachings. Every government on earth is the personification\nof violence and force, and yet the doctrine of non-resistance is as old\nas human thought\u2014even more than this, the instinct is as old as life upon\nthe earth.\n\nThe doctrine of non-resistance to evil does not rest upon the words of\nChrist alone. Buddha, Confucius, Plato, Socrates, show the evil and\ndestruction of war, of conquest, of violence, and of hatred, and have\ntaught the beneficence of peace, of forgiveness, of non-resistance to\nevil. But modern thought is not content to rest the conduct of life upon\nthe theories of moralists. The rules of life that govern men and states\nmust to-day be in keeping with science and conform to the highest reason\nand judgment of man. It is here that non-resistance seems to have failed\nto make any practical progress in the world. That men should \u201cturn the\nother cheek,\u201d should \u201clove their enemies,\u201d should \u201cresist not evil,\u201d has\never seemed fine to teach to children, to preach on Sundays, to round\na period in a senseless oratorical flight; but it has been taken for\ngranted that these sentiments cannot furnish the real foundation for\nstrong characters or great states.\n\nIt is idle to discuss \u201cnon-resistance\u201d in its effect upon life and the\nworld without adopting some standard of excellence by which to judge\nresults. Here, as elsewhere in human conduct, after all is said and done,\nmen must come back to the fundamental principle that the conduct which\nmakes for life is wise and right. Nature in her tireless labor has ever\nbeen developing a higher order and a completer life. Sometimes for long\nperiods it seems as if the world were on the backward course, but even\nthis would prove that life really is the highest end to be attained.\nWhatever tends to happiness tends to life,\u2014joy is life and misery is\ndeath.\n\nIn his long and toilsome pilgrimage, man has come to his present estate\nthrough endless struggle, through brutal violence administered and\nreceived. And the question of the correctness of non-resistance as a\ntheory, like any other theory, does not depend upon whether it can be\nenforced and lived now or to-morrow, but whether it is the highest ideal\nof life that is given us to conceive. In one sense nothing is practical\nexcepting what is; everything must have been developed out of all the\nconditions of life that now exist or have existed on the earth. But to\nstate this means little in the settlement of ethical questions, for man\u2019s\nfuture condition depends quite as much upon his mental attitude as upon\nany other fact that shapes his course.\n\nEverywhere it seems to have been taken for granted that force and\nviolence are necessary to man\u2019s welfare upon the earth. Endless volumes\nhave been written, and countless lives been sacrificed in an effort to\nprove that one form of government is better than another; but few seem\nseriously to have considered the proposition that all government rests on\nviolence and force, is sustained by soldiers, policemen and courts, and\nis contrary to the ideal peace and order which make for the happiness and\nprogress of the human race. Now and then it is even admitted that in the\nfar distant ages yet to come men may so far develop toward the angelic\nthat political governments will have no need to be. This admission, like\nthe common concept, presumes that governments are good; that their duties\nundertaken and performed consist in repressing the evil and the lawless,\nand protecting and caring for the helpless and the weak.\n\nIf the history of the state proved that governing bodies were ever formed\nfor this purpose or filled this function, there might be some basis for\nthe assumption that government is necessary to preserve order and to\ndefend the weak. But the origin and evolution of the political state\nshow quite another thing\u2014it shows that the state was born in aggression,\nand that in all the various stages through which it has passed its\nessential characteristics have been preserved.\n\nThe beginnings of the state can be traced back to the early history of\nthe human race when the strongest savage seized the largest club and\nwith this weapon enforced his rule upon the other members of the tribe.\nBy means of strength and cunning he became the chief and exercised this\npower, not to protect the weak but to take the good things of the earth\nfor himself and his. One man by his unaided strength could not long keep\nthe tribe in subjection to his will, so he chose lieutenants and aids,\nand these too were taken for their strength and prowess, and were given a\ngoodly portion of the fruits of power for the loyalty and help they lent\ntheir chief. No plans for the general good ever formed a portion of the\nscheme of government evolved by these barbarous chiefs. The great mass\nwere slaves, and their lives and liberty held at the absolute disposal\nof the strong.\n\nAges of evolution have only modified the rigors of the first rude states.\nThe divine right to rule, the absolute character of official power, is\npractically the same to-day in most of the nations of the world as with\nthe early chiefs who executed their mandates with a club. The ancient\nknight who, with battle-ax and coat of mail, enforced his rule upon the\nweak, was only the forerunner of the tax-gatherer and tax-devourer of\nto-day. Even in democratic countries, where the people are supposed to\nchoose their rulers, the nature of government is the same. Growing from\nthe old ideas of absolute power, these democracies have assumed that some\nsort of government was indispensable to the mass, and no sooner had they\nthrown off one form of bondage than another yoke was placed upon their\nnecks, only to prove in time that this new burden was no less galling\nthan the old. Neither do the people govern in democracies more than\nin any other lands. They do not even choose their rulers. These rulers\nchoose themselves and by force and cunning and intrigue arrive at the\nsame results that their primitive ancestor reached with the aid of a club.\n\nAnd who are these rulers without whose aid the evil and corrupt would\ndestroy and subvert the defenceless and the weak? From the earliest time\nthese self-appointed rulers have been conspicuous for all those vices\nthat they so persistently charge to the common people whose rapacity,\ncruelty and lawlessness they so bravely curb. The history of the past\nand the present alike proves beyond a doubt that if there is, or ever\nwas any large class, from whom society needed to be saved, it is those\nsame rulers who have been placed in absolute charge of the lives and\ndestinies of their fellow men. From the early kings who, with blood-red\nhands, forbade their subjects to kill their fellow men, to the modern\nlegislator, who, with the bribe money in his pocket, still makes bribery\na crime, these rulers have ever made laws not to govern themselves but to\nenforce obedience on their serfs.\n\nThe purpose of this autocratic power has ever been the same. In the early\ntribe the chief took the land and the fruits of the earth, and parceled\nthem amongst his retainers who helped preserve his strength. Every\ngovernment since then has used its power to divide the earth amongst\nthe favored few and by force and violence to keep the toiling, patient,\nsuffering millions from any portion of the common bounties of the world.\n\nIn many of the nations of the earth the real governing power has stood\nbehind the throne, has suffered their creatures and their puppets to be\nthe nominal rulers of nations and states, but in every case the real\nrulers are the strong, and the state is used by them to perpetuate their\npower and serve their avarice and greed.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nARMIES AND NAVIES\n\n\nHow is the authority of the state maintained? In whatever guise, or\nhowever far removed from the rudest savage tribe to the most modern\ndemocratic state, this autocratic power rests on violence and force\nalone. The first great instrument which supports every government on\nearth is the soldier with his gun and sword. True, the army may be but\nrarely used. The civil power, the courts of justice, the policemen and\njails generally suffice in civilized lands to maintain existing things;\nbut back of these, to enforce each decree, is the power of armed men with\nall the modern implements of death.\n\nThousands of church organizations throughout the Christian world profess\nthe doctrine of non-resistance to evil, of peace on earth and good will\nto men, and yet each of these Christian lands trains great bodies\nof armed men to kill their fellows for the preservation of existing\nthings. Europe is made up of great military camps where millions of men\nare kept apart from their fellows and taught the trade of war alone.\nAnd democratic America, feeling the flush of victory and the glow of\nconquest, is turning her energies and strength to gathering armies and\nnavies that shall equal those across the sea. Not only are these trained\nsoldiers a living denial of the doctrines that are professed, but in\nobedience to an eternal law, deeper and more beneficent than any ever\nmade by man, these mighty forces are working their own ruin and death.\nThese great armies and navies which give the lie to our professions of\nfaith exist for two purposes: first, to keep in subjection the people of\ntheir own land; second, to make war upon and defend against the other\nnations of the earth. The history of the world is little else than the\nstory of the carnage and destruction wrought on battlefields; carnage\nand destruction springing not from any difference between the common\npeople of the earth, but due alone to the desires and passions of the\nrulers of the earth. This ruling class, ever eager to extend its power\nand strength, ever looking for new people to govern and new lands to\ntax, has always been ready to turn its face against other powers to\nsatisfy the ruler\u2019s will, and without pity or regret, these rulers have\ndepopulated their kingdoms, and carried ruin and destruction to every\nportion of the earth for gold and power.\n\nNot only do these European rulers keep many millions of men whose only\ntrade is war, but these must be supported in worse than useless idleness\nby the labor of the poor. Still other millions are trained to war and\nare ever ready to answer to their master\u2019s call, to desert their homes\nand trades and offer up their lives to satisfy the vain ambitions of the\nruler of the state. Millions more must give their strength and lives\nto build forts and ships, make guns and cannon and all the modern\nimplements of war. Apart from any moral question of the right of man to\nslay his fellow man, all this great burden rests upon the poor. The vast\nexpense of war comes from the production of the land and must serve to\nweaken and impair its industrial strength. This very force must destroy\nitself. The best talent of every nation is called upon to invent new\nimplements of destruction\u2014faster sailing boats, stronger forts, more\npowerful explosives and more deadly guns. As one nation adds to its\nmilitary stores, so every other nation is also bound to increase its army\nand navy too. Thus the added force does not augment the military power,\nbut only makes larger the burden of the state; until, to-day, these great\narmies, aside from producing the moral degradation of the world, are\nsapping and undermining and consuming the vitality and strength of all\nthe nations of the earth. Cost of labor and strength means cost of life.\nThus in their practical results these armies are destroying millions of\nlives that a policy of peace and non-resistance would conserve and save.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut when these armies are in action how stands the case? Over and over\nagain the world has been submerged by war. The strongest nations of the\nearth have been almost destroyed. Devastating wars have left consequences\nthat centuries could not repair. Countless millions of men have been used\nas food for guns. The miseries and sufferings and brutality following\nin the wake of war have never been described or imagined, and yet the\nworld persists in teaching the glory and honor and greatness of war. To\nexcuse the wholesale butcheries of men by the governing powers, learned\napologists have taught that without the havoc and cruel devastation of\nwar the human race would overrun the earth; and yet every government in\nthe world has used its power and influence to promote and encourage\nmarriage and the rearing of children, to punish infanticide and abortion,\nand make criminal every device to prevent population; have used their\npower to heal the sick, to alleviate misery and to prolong life. Every\nmovement to overcome disease, to make cities sanitary, to produce and\nmaintain men and women and children has received the sanction and\nencouragement of all governments; and still these glorious rulers have\nruthlessly slaughtered in the most barbarous and cruel way tens of\nmillions of their fellow men, to add to their glory and perpetuate their\nnames. And philosophers have told us that this was necessary to prevent\nthe over-population of the earth!\n\nNo single ruler, however cruel or ambitious, has ever yet been able to\nbring the whole world beneath his sway, and the ambitions and lusts of\nthese separate chiefs have divided the world into hostile camps and\nhostile states. Endless wars have been waged to increase or protect the\nterritory governed by these various rulers. In these bloody conflicts\nthe poor serfs have dumbly and patiently met death in a thousand\nsickening ways to uphold the authority and prowess of the ruler whose\nsole function has ever been to pillage and rob the poor victims that\nfate has placed within his power. To these brutal, senseless, fighting\nmillions the boundaries of the state or the color of the flag that they\nwere taught to love could not in the least affect their lives. Whoever\ntheir rulers, their mission has ever been to toil and fight and die for\nthe honor of the state and the glory of the chief.\n\nBut, to-day, even national preservation demands that the rule of peace\nshall give place to the rule of war. In the older countries of the earth\nthe great drains made upon industry and life to support vast armies and\nequip them for slaughter is depopulating states and impoverishing the\nlands. And besides all this, so far as external power is concerned, no\nnation adds to its effectiveness to battle with the others by increasing\nits army and navy. This simply serves to increase the strength of the\nenemy\u2019s guns and to make new combinations between hostile lands, until\nthe very strength of a nation becomes its weakness and must in turn\nlead to its decay and overthrow. The nation that would to-day disarm\nits soldiers and turn its people to the paths of peace would accomplish\nmore to its building up than by all the war taxes wrung from its hostile\nand unwilling serfs. A nation like this would exhibit to the world\nsuch an example of moral grandeur and true vitality and worth that no\nnation, however powerful, would dare to invite the odium and hostility\nof the world by sending arms and men to conquer a peaceful, productive,\nnon-resistant land. If the integrity and independence of a nation\ndepended upon its forts and guns the smaller countries of Europe would at\nonce be wiped from the map of the world. Switzerland, Holland, Greece,\nItaly, and Spain are absolutely powerless to defend themselves by force.\nIf these nations should at once disarm every soldier and melt every gun\nand turn the worse than wasted labor into productive, life-saving work,\nthey could but greatly strengthen themselves amongst the other nations of\nthe earth. Not only this, their example would serve to help turn the tide\nof the world from the barbarous and soul-destroying path of war toward\nthe higher, nobler life of peace and good will toward men.\n\nBut not alone are these small nations made still weaker by war, but\nevery battleship that is built by England, Russia, France, Germany, or\nthe United States really weakens those nations too. It weakens them\nnot alone by the loss of productive power but by the worse than wasted\nenergy which is required to support these implements of death, from the\ntime their first beam is mined in the original ore, until scarred and\nworthless and racked by scenes of blood and violence and shame, they\nare thrown out upon the sands to rot. But every battleship weakens a\nnation by inviting the hostility of the other peoples of the earth, by\ncompelling other rulers to weaken their kingdoms, to build mighty ships\nand powerful guns. Every preparation for war and violence is really a\nviolation of the neutrality under which great nations profess to live.\nThey are a reflection upon the integrity and humanity of their own people\nand an insult to every other land on earth. The building of a man of war,\nthe rearing of a fort, or the planting of a gun can be likened only to a\nman who professes to live in peace and quiet with his neighbors and his\nfriends and who goes about armed with pistol and with dirk.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut these patent evils and outrages are after all the smallest that\nflow from violence and strife. The whole pursuit of war weakens the\naspirations and ideals of the race. Rulers have ever taught and\nencouraged the spirit of patriotism, that they might call upon their\nslaves to give their labor to the privileged class and to freely offer up\ntheir lives when the king commands. Every people in the world is taught\nthat their country and their government is the best on earth, and that\nthey should be ever ready to desert their homes, abandon their hopes,\naspirations, and ambitions when their ruler calls, and this regardless\nof the right or wrong for which they fight. The teaching of patriotism\nand war permeates all society, it reaches to the youngest child and even\nshapes the character of the unborn babe. It fills the soul with false\nambitions, with ignoble desires, and with sordid hopes.\n\nEvery sentiment for the improvement of men, for human justice, for the\nuplifting of the poor, is at once stifled by the wild, hoarse shout for\nblood. The lowest standard of ethics of which a right-thinking man can\npossibly conceive is taught to the common soldier whose trade is to\nshoot his fellow man. In youth he may have learned the command, \u201cThou\nshalt not kill,\u201d but the ruler takes the boy just as he enters manhood\nand teaches him that his highest duty is to shoot a bullet through his\nneighbor\u2019s heart,\u2014and this unmoved by passion or feeling or hatred,\nand without the least regard to right or wrong, but simply because his\nruler gives the word. It is not the privilege of the common soldier to\nask questions, to consider right and wrong, to think of the misery and\nsuffering his act entails upon others innocent of crime. He may be told\nto point his gun at his neighbor and his friend, even at his brother or\nfather; if so he must obey commands.\n\n    Theirs not to reason why,\n    Theirs but to do and die,\n\nrepresents the code of ethics that governs a soldier\u2019s life.\n\nAnd yet from men who believe in these ideals, men who sacrifice their\nright of private judgment in the holiest matter that can weigh upon the\nconscience and the intellect, the taking of human life,\u2014men who place\ntheir lives, their consciences, their destinies, without question or\nhesitation, into another\u2019s keeping, men whose trade is slaughter and\nwhose cunning consists in their ability to kill their fellows,\u2014from such\nmen it is expected to build great states and rear a noble humanity!\n\nThese teachings lead to destruction and death; the destruction of the\nbody and the destruction of the soul. Even on the plea of physical\nevolution in the long sweep of time, these men must give way to the\npatient, peaceful, non-resistants, who love their brothers and believe in\nthe sacredness of life. Long ago it was written down that \u201cHe who takes\nthe sword shall perish by the sword.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE PURPOSE OF ARMIES\n\n\nBut the great armies and navies are not really kept to-day for foreign\nconquest. Now and then, in obedience to the commercial spirit that rules\nthe world, these vessels of destruction are sent to foreign seas. But\nthe rulers of the earth live on fairly friendly terms. Long since, the\nmost ambitious have abandoned their dreams of world power and are content\nto exploit a portion of the earth. When warships are sent to foreign\nseas they usually fire a salute rather than train their guns for death.\nMonarchs the world over respect each other. They are bound together by\nties of common interest, if not of common love. When a ruler dies, even\nthough the most tyrannical and despotic, every other ruler promptly sends\ncondolences to the sorrowing court; their own subjects may die unwept,\nbut a touch of common feeling moves them to mourn a ruler\u2019s death.\nNations are bound by many ties to preserve peace among each other. Scions\nof royal families are handed round in marriage from court to court,\ntreaties of all sorts are made and ratified in most solemn form; and\neven more than this, the real owners of the world, those who possess the\nstocks and bonds which rest upon the wealth that the poor have labored to\ncreate, these real rulers who make war or peace by giving or withholding\nfunds, these own the great bulk of the property of the various nations of\nthe world, and will not lightly suffer their possessions to be destroyed.\nAnd yet these same real rulers, who stand behind the thrones of all the\nworld, approve of this preparation for war, approve of taking millions\nof men from their homes and training them to kill, approve of every fort\nand gun and battleship. More than this, they contribute largely of their\nprivate funds to build batteries and equip militia, especially in the\ngreat cities of the earth. Through the speeches of their agents and the\nvoice of their press, all this grim visage of war is for the stranger\nwithout their gates. But in reality the prime reason for all the armies\nof the world is that soldiers and militia may turn their guns upon their\nunfortunate countrymen when the owners of the earth shall speak the word.\nAnd these unfortunate countrymen are the outcast and despised, the meek\nand lowly ones of the world, the men whose ceaseless toil and unpaid\nefforts have built the forts and molded the cannon and sustained the\nsoldiers that are used to shoot them down.\n\nTo say that these armies and frowning forts and gatling guns are needed\nto maintain peace and order at home is to admit at once that the great\nmass of men are held captive by the more powerful few. Organized soldiers\nand policemen, courts and sheriffs, with guns and forts and jails,\nhave the greatest advantage over the disorganized mass who cannot act\ntogether, and who know not which way to turn to keep outside the meshes\nof the law. Not one in a thousand need be trained to arms and authority\nto keep the unorganized mass in the place reserved for it to live. The\npurpose of guns and armies is to furnish the few an easy and sure way to\ncontrol the mass. Neither are these armies made of the ruling class. The\nofficers, it is true, are generally taken from the favored ones, but the\nregular soldier is the man too poor and abandoned to find his place in\nany other of the walks of life. He is only fit to be an executioner of\nhis fellow man. No ruler can love his subjects when he takes their money\nand their labor to buy cannon and train men to shoot them down. That this\nis the real purpose of standing armies and warlike equipments is plain\nto all who have eyes to see. More and more the rulers have learned to\nbuild their barracks and mass their troops not on the borders of their\nland but convenient to great cities, in the midst of districts thickly\npopulated by working men. As nations grow older the opportunities of the\nmasses grow less. More men are called to serve the state, and greater\npreparations are made to preserve the possessions of the rich. These\nsoldiers are moved from place to place, are massed at time of need, not\nin accordance with the petition of the citizens from whose ranks the\nsoldiers come, but in response to the request of the ruling class.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nQuite apart from the question of the rights of capital on one hand and\nlabor on the other, what must be the effect of this policy of force and\nviolence when reaching over long periods of time? A nation is really\ngreat and possessed of the lasting elements of strength in proportion\nas her people are strong, intelligent, and free. The rulers of a nation\nshould owe their subjects some duty in return for the homage and taxes\nthey receive. The ruler who deliberately governs his subjects by\nviolence and force, and through tyranny and fear, must find in time\nthat this policy of hatred and outrage is destroying and sapping the\nfoundations of the state; the more strength and vitality that he draws\nfrom the poor and the more soldiers required to support arbitrary power,\nthe greater the chasm that yawns beneath his feet. The loyalty that is\nkept through fear is lost with opportunity. The rulers of Rome before\nher destruction, and of France before the Revolution, had drawn all the\nsoldiers from the people that the fields and shops could spare, and\nused these to support their tottering power. Kings can gain nothing by\ngoverning soldiers alone. They must have farmers, artisans, all sorts\nof producers, or their conquest is not worth the price. The policy of\nhatred and violence must in the end destroy the state. It can breed only\nhatred in the hearts of the outcast and the poor. If their subjection is\nincomplete, the throne is resting upon the shifting sands. If perfect\nand complete, their subjects are lifeless machines and their empires\ncrumbling to decay. It is really idle to speculate as to whether love\nand brotherhood could accomplish more; it is certain they could not do\nless. To disband the armies and destroy the forts, to diffuse love and\nbrotherhood, and peace and justice in the place of war and strife, could\ntend only to the building up of character, the elevation of the soul, and\nthe strength and well-being of the state. True, the class lines would\ndisappear. Brotherhood would have neither ruler nor ruled, would have no\nauthority of man over man, would treat all as brothers and co-equals, and\nfrom it would grow a stronger state and a higher manhood than the world\nhas known. Peaceful industry relieved from the burdens of soldiers and\narms would inevitably increase, and life, rendered less burdensome by the\nexactions of authority, would lengthen and sweeten through the beneficent\ninfluence of love. No nation can be really great that is held together\nby gatling guns, and no true loyalty can be induced and kept through fear.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nCIVIL GOVERNMENT\n\n\nAfter the evolution of society through brute force and the first\nstages of militarism, comes civil government. In its forms and methods\ncivil government differs from military government, but in its essence,\nits real purpose and effect, it is the same. Civil government, like\nmilitary government, rests on violence and force. As society reaches the\nindustrial stage, it is easier and costs less waste of energy for the\nruling class to maintain its supremacy through the intricate forms and\nmazes of civil government, than through the direct means of soldiers and\nguns.\n\nCivil governments, like military governments, are instituted and\ncontrolled by the ruling class. Their purpose is to keep the earth and\nits resources in the hands of those who directly and indirectly have\ntaken it for themselves. This can only be done by the establishment and\nmaintenance of certain rules and regulations concerning the disposition\nof property and the fate of men. A vast army of officials, governors,\nlegislators, tax-gatherers, judges, sheriffs, policemen, and the like are\nmaintained by the governing class to enforce these rules and regulations\nand keep the exploited in their place. The decrees of courts and the\nvarious orders of civil government are enforced by violence, differing\nonly in kind from the general\u2019s commands. The decrees of courts, whether\nrightful or wrongful, must be obeyed, and the penalty of disobedience is\nthe forcible taking of property, the kidnapping and imprisoning of men,\nand if need be, the taking of human life. If it shall ever occur that\nthe civil authorities have not sufficient force to compel obedience, the\nwhole power of the army and navy may at once be made subservient to the\ncivil power.\n\nThe vast army which is charged with enforcing and maintaining civil\nlaw is drawn largely from the ruling class and those who contribute as\ntheir willing tools. This class must be supported and maintained in\ngreater luxury than that enjoyed by the ordinary man, and the support\nentails ceaseless and burdensome exactions from the producing class.\nThese exactions are a portion of the price that the worker pays for the\nprivilege of being ruled. It is true that a portion of the money forcibly\ntaken through the machinery of government is used for those co\u00f6perative\ncommercial purposes that are incident to a complex social life, but it\nhas never yet been shown that an autocratic power like a political state\nis needed to provide the common resources incident to social life.\n\nPractically the whole army of officials, with its wastefulness, its\nextravagance and its endless peculation, is supported and kept in worse\nthan idleness for the purpose of ruling men through violence and force.\nEven in so-called democracies the civil law, with its ponderous and\ncostly machinery, serves the same purpose as in monarchical states. It is\neasy to understand that when the decrees of a ruler are absolute it can\nmatter little whether these decrees are issued to an army and carried out\nby force of the bayonet and gun, or whether they are crystallized into\nlaw and carried out by the orders of courts to be enforced by consigning\ntroublesome and rebellious subjects to the prison or the block. In either\nevent the will of the sovereign is law, and the law is made for the\nbenefit of the ruler, not the ruled.\n\nIn democracies, the form is somewhat changed, but the results are not\nunlike. Every democracy begins with a great mass of regulations inherited\nfrom the autocratic powers that have gone before. These laws and customs\nare originally the same decrees that have gone forth from the absolute\nrulers of the earth, and every change in forms and institutions is based\nupon the old notions of property and rights that were made to serve the\nruler and enslave the world.\n\nThen, too, authority has the same effect on human nature whether in an\nabsolute monarchy or a democracy, and the tendency of authority is ever\nto enlarge its bounds and to encroach upon the natural rights of those\nwho have no power to protect themselves. The possession of authority\nand arbitrary power ever tends to tyranny, and when autocratic orders\nmay be enforced by violence, liberty and life depend upon sufferance\nalone. A close community of interest naturally springs up between those\ncircumstanced alike. The man who possesses one sort of power, as, for\ninstance, political privilege, is very friendly to the class who possess\nanother sort, as, for instance, wealth, and this community of interest\nnaturally and invariably arrays all the privileged classes against the\nweak. The laws and regulations of a democracy tend no more to equality\nthan those of a monarchy. Under a democratic government inequality\nof possession, of opportunity, of power, is quite as great as under\nabsolute monarchies. Given the right to use force of man over man and\nthe strongest force will succeed. You may forbid it in one direction,\nit will but find a new method to accomplish the same result, like the\npent-up torrent that will find its outlet, in however circuitous a route\nit is obliged to move. The legislators who make laws come either from\nthe ruling class or draw their honors, rewards, and emoluments from this\nclass; and the statutes of the most democratic state are not unlike the\ndictates of the absolute monarch, and the decrees of both alike may\nbe enforced by all the power and violence of the state. But laws do\nnot execute themselves, and every official appointed or self-chosen to\nenforce the law either comes from or naturally gravitates toward the\nruling class. Here again power grows by what it feeds on. Order is more\nimportant than liberty, and at all costs order must be enforced upon the\nmany. The few have little need for law. Whatever is, is theirs, and may\nthey not use their own to suit themselves? The business of the courts and\nofficials is to enforce order upon the great mass who must depend upon\nthe few for the means of life. To enforce order upon them means that they\nmay only live in certain ways.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut admitting the orthodox view of government to be correct, then how\nstands the case? The great majority of mankind still believe in the\nutility of the state. They not only believe that society could not\nexist without the state, but likewise that this political institution\nexists and is maintained for the public good; that all its functions and\nactivities in some mysterious way have been conferred upon it by the\nweaker class of society, and that it is administered to save this class\nfrom the ravages of the vicious and the strong. Of course, there are many\nhumane officials, men who use their power to promote the public good,\nas they see and understand the public good. These, in common with the\ncommunity, look upon the endless provisions of our penal code as being\nthe magical power that keeps the state from dissolution and preserves\nthe lives and property of men from the vicious and the bad. The idea of\npunishment, of violence, of force, is so interwoven with all our concepts\nof justice and social life that but few can conceive a society without\nforce, without jails, without scaffolds, without the penal judgments of\nmen. The thought never suggests itself to the common mind that nature,\nunaided by man\u2019s laws, can evolve social order, or that a community\nmight live in measurable peace and security moved only by those natural\ninstincts which form the basis and render possible communal life. To be\nsure, the world is full of evidence that order and security do not depend\non legal inventions. From the wild horses on the plains, the flocks\nof birds, the swarming bees, the human society and association in new\ncountries amongst unexploited people, suggestions of order and symmetry\nregulated by natural instincts and common social needs are ample to show\nthe possibility at least of order or a considerable measure of justice\nwithout penal law. It is only when the arrogance and the avarice of\nrulers and chiefs make it necessary to exploit men that these rulers must\nlay down laws and regulations to control the actions of their fellows.\nAnd the more fixed the caste, the better settled the community; the more\ncomplete the private appropriation of land, and the longer the penal\ncode, the greater the number of victims that are caught within its snares.\n\nTurning from the examples everywhere present of the naturalness of order\nand system to what we observe of the daily acts of men, the thought\nthat right conduct has little relation to penal laws is still further\nconfirmed. In the myriad acts of men it is only rarely that one is\ndone directly because of law. To turn to the right when you meet your\nneighbor on the street; to imperil your happiness and even your life\nto help in dire need; to protect the helpless; to defend the weak; to\ntell the truth; in fact, to obey all that natural morality or right\nconduct requires, is the first instinct of man, and ever prevails, not\nonly regardless of human law but in spite of human law, and this, too,\nfor the best and most abiding reason that can influence the life of man.\nNature provides that certain conduct makes for life, and in the sweep of\ntime, those who conform to this conduct live and their offspring populate\nthe earth when they are gone; those who violate the laws of communal\nlife will die or leave no descendants or weak offspring to be the last\nsurvivors of their line. The unschooled child and the uncivilized race\nalike tell the truth; they obey the laws of nature and the laws of life.\nIt is only after the exploiter appears with his rules for enslaving man\nthat he must needs build jails in which to pen those who defy or ignore\ntheir power.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHEORY OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT\n\n\nThose who believe in the beneficence of force have never yet agreed\nupon the crimes that should be forbidden, the method and extent of\npunishment, the purpose of punishment, nor even its result. They simply\nagree that without force and violence social life cannot be maintained.\nAll conceivable human actions have fallen under the disfavor of the\nlaw and found their place in penal codes: Blasphemy, witchcraft,\nheresy, insanity, idiocy, methods of eating and drinking, the manner of\nworshiping the Supreme Being, the observance of fast days and holy days,\nthe giving of medicine and the withholding of medicine, the relation of\nthe sexes, the right to labor and not to labor, the method of acquiring\nand dispensing property, its purchase and sale, the forms of dress and\nmanner of deportment, in fact almost every conceivable act of man. On the\nother hand, murder, robbery, pillage, rapine, have often been commended\nby the ruling powers, not only permitted, but under certain conditions\nthat seemed to work to the advantage of the ruler, this conduct has been\ndeemed worthy of the greatest praise. The punishment for illegal acts\nhave been as various as the crimes. Death has always been a favorite\nvisitation for the criminal, but the means of death have varied with\ntime and place: Boiling in oil, boiling in water, burning at the stake,\nbreaking on the wheel, strangulation, poison, feeding to wild beasts,\nbeheading, and in fact every conceivable way down to the humane method of\nelectrocution and hanging by the neck until dead. Death, too, has been\nmade the punishment for all sorts of crimes, always for the crimes of\ndenying your Maker, or killing your ruler. After death, has come public\nflogging, standing in the stocks, ducking, maiming, down to the humane\nmethod of penning in a cage. No two sets of rulers have ever agreed upon\nthe relative enormity of the various crimes, the sort of punishment\nthey merited, the extent and duration of punishment, or the purpose to\nbe accomplished by the punishment. One age has pronounced martyrs and\nworshiped as saints the criminals that another age has put to death. One\nlaw-making body repeals the crimes that another creates. Some judges with\nvenerable wigs have pronounced solemn sentence of death upon helpless,\ndefenceless old women for bewitching a cat. Grave judges have even\nsentenced animals to death after due and impartial trial for crime. The\njudges who pronounced sentence of death on women for witchcraft were as\nlearned and good as those who to-day pronounce sentence for conspiracy\nand other crimes. It is quite as possible that another generation will\nlook with the same horror on the subjects of our laws as we look upon\nthose of the years that are gone. It is but a few years since a hundred\ndifferent crimes were punishable with death in England, and the wise men\nof that day would not have believed that the empire could hold together\nhad these extreme statutes been limited to one or two.\n\nBut however drastic the laws at different periods of civilization, they\nhave never been so broad but what a much larger number of blameworthy\nacts were outside than inside the code. Neither have they ever been\nenforced alike on all. The powerful could generally violate them with\nimpunity, but the net was there to ensnare the victim whom they wished to\ncatch.\n\nNeither has the method of determining the victim for these various laws\nbeen as accurate and scientific as is generally presumed. Sometimes it\nhas been by torturing until the victim is made to confess; sometimes by\nwager of battle; sometimes by tying the feet and hands and throwing them\ninto a pond, when if they sank they were innocent, if they swam they\nwere guilty and promptly put to death. The modern method of arraying a\ndefendant in court, prosecuted by able lawyers with ample resources,\ntried by judges who almost invariably believe in the prisoner\u2019s guilt,\ndefended as is usually the case by incompetent lawyers, and without\nmeans, is scarcely more liable to lead to correct results than the\nancient forms. From the nature of things it is seldom possible to be sure\nabout the commission of the act, and never possible to fix the moral\nresponsibility of the person charged with crime.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFor ages men have erected scaffolds, instruments of torture, built jails,\nprisons and penal institutions without end, and through all the ages a\nlong line of suffering humanity, bound and fettered, has been marching\nto slaughter and condemned to living tombs; and yet human governments\ncharged with the responsibility of the condition and lives of these weak\nbrothers, have never yet been able to agree even upon the purpose for\nwhich these pens are built. All punishment and violence is largely mixed\nwith the feeling of revenge,\u2014from the brutal father who strikes his\nhelpless child, to the hangman who obeys the orders of the judge; with\nevery man who lays violent unkind hands upon his fellow the prime feeling\nis that of hatred and revenge. Some human being has shed his neighbor\u2019s\nblood; the state must take his life. In no other way can the crime be\nwiped away. In some inconceivable manner it is believed that when this\npunishment follows, justice has been done. But by no method of reasoning\ncan it be shown that the injustice of killing one man is retrieved by\nthe execution of another, or that the forcible taking of property is\nmade right by confining some human being in a pen. If the law knew some\nmethod to restore a life or make good a loss to the real victim, it might\nbe urged that justice had been done. But if taking life, or blaspheming,\nor destroying the property of another be an injustice, as in our short\nvision it seems to be, then punishing him who is supposed to be guilty\nof the act, in no way makes just the act already done. To punish a human\nbeing simply because he has committed a wrongful act, without any thought\nof good to follow, is vengeance pure and simple, and more detestable and\nharmful than any casual isolated crime. Apologists who have seen the\nhorror in the thought of vengeance and still believe in violence and\nforce when exercised by the state, contend that punishment is largely for\nthe purpose of reforming the victim. This, of course, cannot be held in\nthose instances where death is the punishment inflicted. These victims\nat least have no chance to be reformed. Neither can it be seriously\ncontended that a penal institution is a reformatory, whatever its name. A\nprisoner is an outlaw, an outcast man, placed beyond the pale of society\nand branded as unfit for the association of his fellow man; his sentence\nis to live in silence, to toil without recompense, to wear the badge\nof infamy, and if ever permitted to see the light to be pointed at and\nshunned by all who know his life.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nREMEDIAL EFFECTS OF PUNISHMENT\n\n\nThe last refuge of the apologist is that punishment is inflicted\nto prevent crime. No one can speak from experience as to whether\npunishment prevents what is called crime or not, for the experiment of\nnon-resistance has never yet been fairly or fully tried. To justify\nkilling or penning a human being upon the theory that this prevents crime\nshould call for the strictest proof on the part of those who advocate\nthis course. To take the life or liberty of a fellow man is the most\nserious responsibility that can devolve upon an individual or community.\nThe theory that punishment is a preventive to unlawful acts does not\nseriously mean that it is administered to prevent the individual from\ncommitting a second or a third unlawful act. If this were the case\nthe death penalty should never be inflicted, as life imprisonment\naccomplishes the same results. Neither would it be necessary to restrain\nmen in the way that is done in our penal institutions, to deprive them of\nall pleasure and the income of their labor. All that would then be needed\nwould be to keep men safely locked from the world. But most unlawful acts\nare committed hastily in the heat of passion or upon what seems adequate\nprovocation, or through sore need. Such acts as these would almost never\nbe repeated. Genuine repentance follows most really vicious acts, but\nrepentance, however genuine, gives no waiver of punishment.\n\nThen, too, many men who commit no act in violation of the law are\nknown to be more likely to commit such acts than others who through\nsome circumstances may have violated a criminal statute. Men of hasty\ntemper, of strong will, of intemperate habits, often with no means of\nsupport, all of these are more liable to crime than one who has once\noverstepped the bounds. But it is obvious that this is not the real\nreason for punishment; if it were it would be the duty of judge and jury\nto determine, not whether a man had committed a crime, but whether he was\nliable to commit one at some future time, an inquiry which is never made\nand which it is obvious could not be made.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe safety aimed at through punishment is not meant the safety for the\nindividual, but it is contended that the fact that one person is punished\nfor an act deters others from the commission of similar unlawful acts;\nit is obvious that there is a large class who are not deterred by these\nexamples, for the inmates of prisons never grow less, in fact prisons\ngrow and increase in the same proportion as other institutions grow.\nBut here, too, the theories and acts of rulers have been as various and\ncontradictory as in relation to other matters concerning crime and its\npunishment. If the purpose of punishment is to terrorize the community\nso that none will dare again to commit these acts, then the more terrible\nthe punishment the surer the result. This was generally admitted not many\nyears ago, but in its treatment of crime the world ever prefers to be\nillogical and ineffectual rather than too brutal.\n\nIf terrorism is the object aimed at, death should again be substituted\nfor the various crimes, great and small, which ever justified taking\nhuman life. Death, too, should be administered in the most cruel way.\nBoiling, the rack, wild beasts, and slow fires should be the methods\nsought. It should be steadfastly remembered by all squeamish judges\nand executioners that one vigorous punishment would prevent a thousand\ncrimes. But more than all this, death should be in the most public way.\nThe kettle of boiling oil should be heated with its victim inside, out\nupon the commons, where all eyes could see and all ears could hear. The\nscaffold should be erected high on a hill, and the occasion be made\na public holiday for miles around. This was once the case even within\nthe last half century. These public hangings in Europe and America have\ndrawn great crowds of spectators, sometimes reaching into the tens of\nthousands, to witness the value that the state places on human life.\nBut finally, even stupid legislators began to realize that these scenes\nof violence, brutality and crime bred their like upon those who came to\nsee. Even governments discovered that many acts of violence followed a\npublic hanging. The hatred of the state which calmly took a human life\nengendered endless hatred as its fruit. And in all countries that claim a\nsemblance of civilization, public hangings are now looked back upon with\nhorror and amazement. Hangings to-day take place inside the jail in the\npresence of a few invited guests, a state doctor who watches carefully\nto see that the victim is not cut down before his heart has ceased to\nbeat, a chaplain who calls on the Creator of life to take back to his\nbosom the divine spark which man in his cruelty and wrath is seeking to\nsnuff out. Even the state is not so cruel but that it will officially\nask the Almighty to look after the soul that it blackens and defiles\nand does its best to everlastingly destroy. A few friends of the jailer\nare present to witness the rare performance, and the newspapers too are\nrepresented, so that the last detail, including the breakfast bill of\nfare, may be graphically set before the hungry mob to take the place of\nthe real tragedy that they had the right to witness in the good old days.\nMany states to-day have provided that executions shall be inside the\npenitentiary walls, that the victim shall be wakened, if perchance he is\nasleep, in the darkness and dead of night; that he shall be hurried off\nalone and unobserved and hastily put to death outside the gaze of any\ncurious eye; that this barbarism shall be done, this unholy, brutal deed\ncommitted in silence, in darkness, that the heavens and earth alike may\ncover up the shocking crime, from which a sensitive public conscience\nstands aghast. The ever-present public press in many cases is allowed to\nprint only the barest details of the bloody scene, so that oblivion may\nthe more quickly and deeply cover this crowning infamy of the state.\n\nThe abolition of public hangings may speak something for the\nsensitiveness, or at least, the squeamishness of the state. But it is\nevident that all of this is a terrible admission of guilt upon the part\nof those who uphold this crime. It is possible that one might believe at\nleast in the sincerity of those who argue that punishment prevents crime,\nif these terrible scenes of violence were carried out in open day before\nthe multitude, and fully understood and discussed in all their harrowing,\nshocking details of cruelty and blood. If the sight of punishment\nterrorizes men from the commission of crime then, of course, punishment\nshould be as open as the day. In so far as the state is successful in\nkeeping secret the execution of its victim, in this far does it abandon\nevery claim of prevention and rests its case for punishment on vengeance\nand cruelty alone. The rulers of this generation, who are ashamed of\ntheir deeds, may be wiser and more sensitive than those of the last,\nbut our ancestors, although less refined, were much more logical and\ninfinitely more honest than are we.\n\nThe whole question of punishment is not only proven but fully admitted by\nour rulers in their dealings with the death penalty. It is now everywhere\nadmitted that the brutalizing effects of public executions are beyond\ndispute. It was only after the completest evidence that the believers in\nthe beneficence of punishment and violence abandoned public executions,\nfor to abandon these was to utterly abandon the principle on which all\npunishment is based.\n\nIt would, of course, be impossible to prove the exact result of a public\nexecution. Somewhere in a quiet rural community, growing out of sudden\npassion or some unexplained and temporary aberration, a man takes the\nlife of his fellow man. To the shock incident to this fatal act is added\na long public trial in the courts where every detail is distorted and\nmagnified and passed from tongue to tongue until even the lisping babe\nis thoroughly familiar with every circumstance of the case with all its\nharrowing details iterated and reiterated again and again. There grows up\nin the public mind a bitter hatred against the unfortunate victim whose\nantecedents, life and motives they can in no way understand or judge. It\nis really believed that no one has the right to look upon this person\nwith any feeling save that of hatred, and the least word of pity or sign\nof sympathy for the outcast is set down as sickly sentimentalism and the\nmark of mental and spiritual disease. Weeks and months, sometimes even\nyears, elapse in the slow and unending process of the courts. The whole\ntragedy has been well nigh forgot, at least it no longer has any vital\neffect upon the community. Finally it is announced that on a certain day\na public hanging will take place. Once more every detail of the tragedy\nis recalled to the public mind; once more each man conjures up a monster\nin the place of the hunted, weak, doomed victim whose act no one either\nfathoms or seeks to understand. A sightly spot is chosen perhaps upon\nthe village green. For several days men are kept busy erecting a strange\nand ominous machine; the old men and women, the middle aged, the boys\nand girls, the little children, even the toddling babes, filled with\ncuriosity watch the work and discuss every detail of the weird and fatal\ntrap. At length the day arrives for the majesty of the law to vindicate\nitself. From every point of the compass comes a great throng of both\nsexes, all conditions and ages, each to witness the most startling event\nof their lives; children are there, babes in arms, and even the unborn.\nA rope is tied around a beam, a noose is formed of the other end, a\ntrembling, helpless, frantic, friendless victim is led up the steps,\nplaced on a trap, his hands and feet are bound, a black cap is pulled\ndown to hide his face, the noose is securely fastened around his neck\nbelow his ears. The crowd watches breathless with suspense, the signal\nis given, the trap opens, the man falls through space, he is caught in\nmid-air by the rope tightening about his neck, and strangling him to\ndeath. His body heaves, his legs and arms move with violent convulsions,\nhe swings a few minutes in mid-air before the crowd, a ghastly human\npendulum moving back and forth, the mortal body of a man created in the\nimage of God whom the state has led out and killed to show the glory and\nmajesty of law!\n\nThe advocate of punishment is right in the belief that such a scene\nwill produce a profound impression upon all who see or hear or know.\nThe human being does not live who can witness such a tragedy or even\nknow its details and not receive some impression that the rest of life\ncannot efface. The impression must be to harden and brutalize the heart\nand conscience, to destroy the finer sensibilities, to cheapen human\nlife, to breed cruelty and malice that will bear fruit in endless ways\nand unknown forms. No parent who loved his child and who had any of the\nhuman sentiments that should distinguish man from the brute creation,\nwould ever dare to trust that child to witness a scene like this. Every\nintelligent loving mother carrying an unborn babe would close her eyes\nand stop her ears and retire to the darkest corner she could find lest\nthe unborn babe marked by the baleful scene should one day stand upon the\nsame trembling trap with a rope about his neck.\n\nThe true morality of a community does not depend alone upon the number of\nmen who slay their fellows. These at most are very few. The true morality\ndepends upon every deed of kindness or malice, of love or hatred, of\ncharity or cruelty, and the sum of these determine the real character\nand worth of a community. Any evil consequences that could flow from a\ncasual killing of a human being by an irresponsible man would be like a\ndrop of water in the sea compared with a public execution by the state.\n\nIt would probably not be possible to find a considerable number of men\nto-day who would believe that a public hanging could have any but bad\nresults. This must be true because the knowledge of its details tends\nto harden, embitter and render cruel the hearts of men. Only in a less\ndegree does the publication of all the details affect the characters and\nlives of men, but unless they are at least published to the world, then\nthe example is of no effect. The state which would take life without any\nhope or expectation that the community would in any way be bettered could\nnot rank even among savage tribes. Such cruelty could only be classed as\ntotal depravity.\n\nBut the effect of other punishment is no whit different save in degree\nfrom that of hanging. Cultivated, sensitive people have long since\ndeplored the tendency of newspapers to give full and vivid accounts\nof crimes and their punishment, and the better and humaner class of\ncitizens shun those journals which most magnify these details. All of\nthis has a tendency to familiarize man with violence and force, to\nweaken human sensibilities, to accustom man to cruelty, to blood, to\nscenes of suffering and pain. What right-thinking parent would place\nthis literature before his child and familiarize his mind with violence\npracticed either by the individual or the state? And yet if punishment is\na deterrent, the widest publicity should be given to the story of every\ncrime and the punishment inflicted by the state.\n\nThat men even unconsciously feel that punishment is wrong is shown by\ntheir attitude toward certain classes of society. A hangman would not be\ntolerated in a self-respecting body of men or women, and this has been\nthe case for many years, in fact since men made a trade of butchering\ntheir fellow man. A professional hangman is really as much despised\nas any other professional murderer. A detective, jailer, policeman,\nconstable and sheriff are not generally regarded as being subjects of\nenvy by their fellows. Still none of these are as much responsible for\ntheir acts as the real rulers who make and execute the law. The time will\ncome when the public prosecutor and the judge who sentences his brother\nto death or imprisonment will be classed with the other officers who lay\nviolent and cruel hands upon their fellows.\n\nIf the imprisonment of men tended to awe others into obedience to law,\nthen the old ideas of penal servitude are the only ones that can be\nlogically sustained. A prison should be the most horrible, grewsome,\npainful place that can be contrived. Physical torture should be a common\nincident of prison life. The victim himself is beyond the pale of\nsociety. His life should be used to aid the community by the frightful\nexample: Dark dungeons, noxious smells, vermin, rats, the hardest, most\nconstant toil, long terms of imprisonment, and the red mark to be branded\non his brow, when he at last is turned loose to the light of day. Prisons\nshould be open to the public, so that the old and young can constantly\nwitness the terrible effects of crime. Prisons and jails should be in\nevery community and in the most conspicuous place. The young should not\nbe left to casually hear of public punishments or to imagine a penal\ninstitution. The living horrible example in all its loathsome, sickening\ndetails should be ever kept before their eyes. Most men now regard these\npublic exhibitions of the malice of the state exactly as they now look on\npublic hangings, as tending to degrade and debauch and harden the hearts\nof those who become familiar with the sight. But if the open sight and\nknowledge of a penal institution tends to degrade and harden the heart,\nthen the secret, imperfect, covert knowledge produces the same effect\nonly in less degree.\n\nAll communities and states are in reality ashamed of jails and penal\ninstitutions of whatever kind. Instinctively they seem to understand that\nthese are a reflection on the state. More and more the best judgment and\nbest conscience of men are turned toward the improvement of prisons, the\nintroduction of sanitary appliances, the bettering of jail conditions,\nthe modification of punishment, the treatment of convicts as men. All\nof this directly disproves the theory that the terrible example of\npunishment tends to prevent crime. All these improvements of prison\nconditions show that society is unconsciously ashamed of its treatment\nof so-called criminals; that the excuse of prevention of crime is really\nknown to be humbug and hypocrisy, and that the real motive that causes\nthe punishment of crime is malice and hatred and nothing else. The\ntendency to abrogate capital punishment, to improve prisons, to modify\nsentences, to pardon convicts is all in one direction. It can lead to but\none inevitable result, the abolition of all judgment of man by man, the\ncomplete destruction of all prisons and the treatment of all men as if\neach human being was the child of the one loving Father and a part and\nparcel of the same infinite and mysterious life.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nCAUSE OF CRIME\n\n\nIf the punishment of so-called crimes tended in any way to prevent\nviolent acts, this tendency would be manifest in some conclusive way.\nWhether brotherhood love and non-resistance would lessen crime may be\na matter of debate, but that punishment does not lessen it, seems to\nbe as well established as any fact that cannot be absolutely proved.\nThe death penalty was for years drastically enforced for the crime of\nsmuggling, but its enforcement in no way tended to prevent the practice\nwhich flourished in spite of executions without number,\u2014the common\nconsciousness would not accept this punishment as just and finally rulers\nwere forced to modify the punishment in self-defence. The punishment of\ndeath for larceny did not prevent the crime. Nearly every religion has\nmade its way in the face of the severest penal statutes. Its converts\nhave all been criminals and they have accepted and taught their faith\nat the risk of life. Every organization of working men has grown up in\nviolation of human laws, and the jails, prisons and scaffolds have been\nbusily engaged in suppressing this species of crime; but in spite of\nthe fact that judges still imprison and execute for this crime, these\nassociations are now almost as firmly established as any institution of\nthe world. All new political ideas, democracy, socialism, nihilism have\nmet the same fact and have made their way regardless of scaffolds and\njails. Even in the common crimes, like burglary and larceny, prisons have\nhad no effect. From the dawn of civilization an endless procession of\nweak and helpless victims, handcuffed, despised and outlawed, have been\nmarching up to prison doors and still the procession comes and goes.\nTime does not stay nor punishment make it less. In fact the older the\ncommunity and the better settled and undisturbed its life, the greater\nthe number of these unfortunates whom, for some mysterious reason,\nthe Infinite has decreed a life of shame and a death of ignominy and\ndishonor. If scaffolds and prisons and judges and jailers have no effect\nto prevent and lessen crime, common wisdom, to say nothing of humane\ninstincts, ought to seek some other plan.\n\nIntelligent men have long since ceased to believe in miracle or chance.\nWhatever they may think of ancient miracles and the original chance that\nbrought the universe into being, still most people now believe that the\nworld\u2019s affairs, be they small or great, physical, intellectual, or\nmoral, come within the realm of law.\n\nIn the ordinary affairs of life, men everywhere seek the causes that\nproduce effects. Men are called into being, live their lives and pass\naway in obedience to natural laws which are as immutable as the movement\nof the tides. In our half civilized condition we partially comprehend\nthis fact. The defect of the born cripple, the idiot, the insane is no\nlonger charged to the poor victim who, unhampered by the world, still has\na burden as heavy as should be given to mortal man to bear. The physician\nwho would treat fever or measles or diphtheria without considering\nthe cause would be considered the veriest bungler and responsible for\nhis patient\u2019s death. It is not so very long ago that a world about as\nintelligent as our own believed that disease, deformity, and sin came\nfrom the same cause,\u2014some sort of an evil spirit that found its abode\nin man. The way to destroy the evil spirit was generally to destroy the\nman. The world will perhaps grow wise enough to not only believe that\ndisease, deformity, and sin have a common cause, but perhaps so wise as\nto find their common cause. No skilful physician called to the bedside of\na child suffering with scarlet fever would upbraid the child for the evil\nspirit that caused its pain; no more would he punish the consumptive for\nhis hacking cough; he would understand perfectly well that the physical\ncondition of each was due to some natural cause, and that the disease\ncould be cured in these patients and avoided with others only when the\ncause was destroyed, or so well known that no one need fall a victim\nto the malady. Even in diseases of the most contagious sort, where the\nisolation of the patient is necessary to protect the lives and health of\nothers, this isolation would be accomplished not in hatred or malice but\nin the greatest tenderness and love, and the isolation would last only\nfor the purpose of a cure and a sufficient time for cure; and every pains\nwould be taken to destroy and stamp out the cause which produced the\ndisease.\n\nThe theory of disease is so well understood to-day that our physicians\nclearly recognize mental disease as well as physical. Insanity is no\nlonger punished as a crime as in the days gone by, and even kleptomania\nis now a well classified and recognized disease. No intelligent person\ndoubts the disease of kleptomania; its symptoms are too well established.\nWhen a person steals a thing he does not need, it is an evidence of\nkleptomania, an ungovernable will. When a poor person takes a thing he\nneeds and cannot live without, there is no evidence of an ungovernable\nwill.\n\nMany facts have been classified concerning physical disease and our\nknowledge of its nature, cause, and cure grows year by year. Malignant\nspirits and accident are no longer considered in reference to disease;\nwhile the origin of all bodily ailments is not yet known, so many have\nbeen ascertained as to make it sure that with sufficient knowledge, all\ncould be traced to their natural cause. And while the means have not yet\nbeen found to cure each disease, still so much is known as to warrant\nthe belief that there is no physical ailment that will necessarily cause\ndeath.\n\nAnd intelligent research is constantly adding to the known and ever\nnarrowing the realm of the mysterious and unexplained. In physical\ndisease long observation has shown that certain climates and certain\nlocalities are favorable to this disease or that; some places naturally\nbreed malaria, and the mind of man is turned to discovering methods to\novercome the conditions which produce the disease. If fevers abound, the\nconditions are carefully observed to find what breeds the infectious\ngerm. It is not difficult to imagine that if the medical profession\nshould ever labor purely to cure disease, instead of to make money for\nitself, and should continue its research and investigation, that few\nwould die until old age should terminate life as simply and naturally as\nbirth ushers it in.\n\nBut in the realm of the mental and the moral, the law has been content\nfor centuries to rest at ease. Our practical dealings with crime are\nbased on the same theories of evil and evil spirits that made wise\nphysicians drive the devils into swine and swine into the sea. If any\nprogress has been made it has been in believing that, instead of one\nbeing possessed of a devil, he really is a devil. When the physical\ncondition of a man is sufficiently far removed from the physical\ncondition of the average which is supposed to represent the normal man,\nhe is treated for the disease. When the mental condition sufficiently\nvaries from that of the ordinary man, the normal man, he is promptly\nimprisoned or put to death. Judges and juries debate and ponder over the\nquestion of whether a man has done some act that is not commonly done by\nhis fellows, and if they determine that he is guilty of doing the act,\nthe judgment follows that he must have wilfully and perversely chosen to\ndo wrong. No one then inquires why he did the act and whether there are\nconditions of disease present in the community that will lead others to\ndo like acts. There is but one thing to do. The man is evil. The state\nmust lay violent hands upon him\u2014must meet evil with evil, violence with\nviolence. There is but one cure for malice and that is malice.\n\nBut however ignorant the law and its administrators, some of the rules of\nconduct have been brought to light; while judges have been sentencing,\nand hangmen and jailers plying their grewsome trades, there have been\nthinkers and students and historians, who did not believe in the old\ntheory of witchcraft and evil spirits on which human punishment really\nrests. These students and scholars have labeled and classified facts and\nhave at least learned something as to the cause and origin of what men\ncall crime. Enough at least has been discovered to prove that punishment\nhas absolutely no effect to lessen crime.\n\nThe ancients believed in the existence of the body and the soul as\nindependent entities. Each had its own sphere of action and neither one\nhad any relation to the other. This idea has come down to us and is\npresent in all our dealings with our fellow man. Particularly is this\nthe view of government in its tender care of those who are the subjects\nof its laws. The care and treatment of the body come within the province\nof the physician. The care and treatment of the soul belong to the priest\nand the hangman. Whether man has a soul that ever existed or can exist\nindependent of the body may be a question that will remain forever open\nto occupy our thoughts. But this at least is true: that the condition of\nthe body has the greatest influence over the mental and so-called moral\nnature of man. The body and mind grow together and decay together. Health\nin one generally indicates health in the other. The overfeeding or the\nstarvation of the one means the disease of the other. It is doubtful if\nany mental characteristic or abnormal condition could not be traced to\nits physical cause either in the individual or his ancestors, if science\nwere far enough advanced.\n\nEveryone who is familiar with the inmates of jails and penal institutions\nhas learned to know the type of man that is confined as a criminal. In\nnearly every case these are inferior physically to the average man. In\nnearly every case they are also inferior mentally to the average man.\nOne needs but visit our criminal courts day after day to find that the\naverage criminal is a stunted, starved, deficient man. More than this,\nalmost universally they come from the poorer class\u2014men and women reared\nin squalor and misery and want, surrounded from youth by those who have\nbeen compelled to resort to almost any means for life; people who,\nwhatever their own code of ethics, have not been able in their growth\nto maintain those distinctions in conduct which to the common mind\nconstitutes the difference between lawful and unlawful acts. Here and\nthere, of course, one finds some one in jail who has been differently\nreared; but these are the exceptions which in no way disprove the rule.\nThese cases too can be traced to their cause like all the rest. There are\ncertain moral diseases like speculation, for instance, that seize on men\nexactly as the measles or the mumps. These diseases generally flourish in\ngreat cities and are not indigenous to country life. Not only are these\nprisoners deficient in stature and intellect, but the shape of their\nheads shows them different from other men. As a class their heads are\nmuch less symmetrical and what are known as the higher faculties are much\nless developed than with the ordinary man.\n\nIf it were established even that the criminal type is inferior mentally\nand physically and that they have all misshapen heads, this alone ought\nto be sufficient to raise the inquiry as to who was responsible for their\nacts. Long ago a wise man said that no one could by taking thought add a\ncubit to his stature, and yet we hang and pen because these unfortunates\nhave not grown as tall, as large, or as symmetrical as the ordinary\nman. But the mental actions of man have been shown to be as much due to\nlaw and environment as his physical health,\u2014certain sections of the\nworld are indigenous to men who kill their fellows; and more than this,\ncertain portions produce men who kill with guns, others who kill with\na knife, others still who administer poison. In certain sections, the\nchief crime is horse stealing; in others, running illicit distilleries;\nagain, burglary; in some places, poaching; sometimes, robbery; and\nagain, smuggling. A study of conditions would reveal why each of those\ncrimes is indigenous to the particular soil that gives them birth, and\njust as draining swamps prevents the miasma, so a rational treatment\nof the condition caused by the various crimes would cure them, too. If\nour physicians were no more intelligent than our lawyers, when called\nto visit a miasmic patient, instead of draining the swamp they would\nchloroform the patient and expect thus to frighten all others from taking\nthe disease.\n\nObservation as to so-called crime has gone much further. The number of\ninmates of our jails is much larger in winter than in summer, which\nought to show that there is something in the air that produces a wicked\nheart in the winter, or that many persons directly or indirectly go to\njail because in winter, food and warmth are not easily obtained and\nwork is hard to get. For many years it has been observed that jails are\nvery much more crowded in hard times than in good times. If work were\nsufficiently plenty or remunerative both jails and almshouses would\nbe compelled to close their doors. Long ago it was ascertained from\nstatistics that the number of crimes rose and fell in exact accord with\nthe price of bread. All new communities, where land is cheap or free and\nlabor has ample employment, or, better still, a chance to employ itself,\nare very free from crime. England made Australia its dumping ground for\ncriminals for years, but these same criminals when turned upon the wide\nplains with a chance to get their living from the soil, became peaceable,\norderly citizens fully respecting one another\u2019s rights. England, too,\nused certain portions of her American colonies where she sent men for\nher country\u2019s good. These criminals like all the criminals of the world\nwere the exploited, homeless class. When they reached the new country,\nwhen they had an opportunity to live, they became as good citizens as the\npilgrim fathers who were likewise criminals themselves. As civilization\nhas swept westward through the United States, jails have lagged behind.\nThe jail and the penitentiary are not the first institutions planted\nby colonists in a new country, or by pioneers in a new state. These\npioneers go to work to till the soil, to cut down the forests, to dig\nthe ore; it is only when the owning class has been established and the\nexploiting class grows up, that the jail and the penitentiary become\nfixed institutions, to be used for holding people in their place.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nTHE PROPER TREATMENT OF CRIME\n\n\nReason and judgment as well as an almost endless array of facts has\nproven that crime is not without its cause. In showing its cause, its\ncure has been made plain. If the minds and energies of men were directed\ntoward curing crime instead of brutally assaulting the victims of\nsociety, some progress might be made.\n\nIt is often difficult to trace results, because their relations are not\nalways direct and plain. Even in the realm of physical facts it is always\neasy to stray from the straight path between cause and effect. When we\nobserve the conduct of men and seek to find its cause the problem is\nstill more complex. Each human being is an entity made up of all that\nis and of all that has gone before. It may not be possible to tell from\nwhence he obtained every quirk or peculiarity of his brain, but one\nthing is sure, he did not form his own skull and could have but little\npart in arranging the brain cells within the bone. This portion came\nfrom his father, this his mother gave, this was bequeathed by a bloody\nancestor who died long generations since; but all who went before did\ntheir part, and gave their little mite to make the composite brain that\ndrives its possessor here and there.\n\nWhile the exact cause of any act may not be ascertained, still the\ngeneral causes are beyond dispute. A stunted body means that either\nits owner or its ancestor has almost surely been starved and that want\nand hunger have left their traces on the brain. An inferior mind means\nsome incapacity, disease or disadvantage, either in the individual\nor his ancestor, that has left him different from his fellow men. An\nunsymmetrical head may reach back to the early ape, and account for any\npossible seeming deficiency or peculiarity in the brain, which after\nall must be molded in the shape that the bone allows it to assume.\nStarved bodies can be cured by food. True, it may take more than one\ngeneration to cure them as it may have taken several to produce them,\nbut, after all, they can be cured by food; and a rational humane world\nwould commend itself more to thinking men and to the posterity which\nwill judge us, by feeding these starved bodies rather than imprisoning\nthem in pens. An inferior mind or an ill-shaped head can be reached in a\ngeneration or more by feeding the body that supports it, by treating it\nwith tenderness, charity and kindness, rather than ruling it with hatred,\nbitterness and violence.\n\nNearly every crime could be wiped away in one generation by giving the\ncriminal a chance. The life of a burglar, of a thief, of a prostitute,\nis not a bed of roses. Men and women are only driven to these lives\nafter other means have failed. Theirs are not the simple, natural lives\nof children, nor of the childhood of the world; but men and women can\nlearn these professions or be bred to them. After other resources are\nexhausted they will be chosen for the simple reason that life is sweet.\nWith all its pangs and bitterness, it is the nature of life to send its\npoor tendrils deep into the earth and cling with all its force and power\nto this poor, fleeting, transitory world.\n\nMen are slow to admit that punishment is wrong and that each human\nsoul is the irresponsible, unconscious product of all that has gone\nbefore; and yet every kind and wise parent in the world proves by his\nevery relation with his child that he knows that he is the author of\nhis being and the molder of his character, and that he, the parent, is\ninfinitely more responsible for the soul he launches than is the child\nhimself. There might be some measure of justice in trying and punishing\nthe parent for the conduct of the child, but even this does not reach\nback. The source of every life runs back to the Infinite itself. Every\nright thinking father does his best to have his child reared in those\ninfluences and surroundings which will best contribute to his physical,\nmental and moral growth. Even then he feels that the future is doubtful\nenough; that man is weak and finite and blind; that he sees but a little\nway into the dim, uncertain future; that he is filled with passions,\nemotions and desires; that he must travel a path beset with all sorts of\ntemptations and promises; that his weak sight will look upon beautiful\ncities and fair prospects which are only mirages and sent to beguile and\ninsnare his soul. Few judges, if called upon, would not sooner slay their\ninnocent sleeping child with their own loving hands, than abandon him to\ngrow up in the streets or make his way unaided through the tangled mazes\nthat confront the homeless and the poor; and yet these same judges will\ncoolly arraign men who all their lives have walked in the shadows through\na tangled maze beset with passion and fear, and sentence them to death\nand ask God to have mercy on their souls. Every man who loves his child\nand seeks to surround him with what is best for his physical, mental and\nmoral needs denies in his very life the right of man to judge and punish\nhis fellow man.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nIMPOSSIBILITY OF JUST JUDGMENT\n\n\nNatural laws rule the world. It is a mistake to believe that the conduct\nof man is outside of natural law. The laws of being that move all the\nsentient world rule him. His first impulse is to preserve his life, and\nhis next to preserve the species. Nature planted these instincts so\ndeeply in his being that no civilization can root them up. To destroy\nthese instincts would be to destroy the human race. The first instinct of\nman is to preserve his life. To do this he must obtain the food, shelter\nand raiment that enable him to live. His constant effort has been ever\nto get these at the smallest expenditure of time and strength. In a\nsemi-co\u00f6perative state like ours the strongest choose the easiest, most\nremunerative occupations society can bestow. The less fortunate the\nnext best, and so on down the scale. At the lowest place some are forced\nto abject toil, to practical slavery, to beggary, to crime. Men would\nnot steal sheep if they had land on which to raise mutton. Men would\nnot explore their neighbor\u2019s houses at dead of night, if their own were\nfilled; and women would not sell their bodies if society left them any\nother fairly decent and pleasant way to live.\n\nEven if punishment by the state could ever be justified, no man is wise\nenough or good enough to administer that punishment. It is the theory of\nthe law that by means of its magical wisdom it is enabled to fix a code\nenumerating the acts that are sufficiently evil to constitute a crime;\nand for each of these enumerated acts it sets a penalty which it presumes\nis sufficiently severe and drastic to in some mysterious way atone for,\nexcuse, absolve or at least in some way make right, or certainly make\nbetter the commission of the act. Punishment must proceed upon the\ntheory that some are wilfully bad, possessed of devils, and the bad must\nbe punished when found bad, to prevent others who are bad from committing\ncrime. Men could only be punished because they were wilfully bad. If men\nare part good and part bad it will not do to punish. How could the law\nor courts fix the exact line as to how bad a man might be to deserve\npunishment, and how good to excuse it? Neither is it the act that should\nbe punished, for it would be a hard and cruel and strange code of\nnegative ethics that should say that a man should be punished for an evil\nact and not be rewarded for a virtuous one; and even judges might find\ndifficulty in balancing the good and bad; and besides, does not the law\nin its wisdom say that an evil act shall be punished regardless of its\nconsequences? I may steal my neighbor\u2019s horse at night and return it in\nthe morning. I am none the less a thief and my home is the prison. I may\nburglarize a safe and find it empty, but the crime has been completed and\nit deserves the penitentiary. In each case I deserve the penitentiary\nbecause my heart is bad. Thus the old theory is the only one on which the\nbeliever in punishment could rest for a moment, that some men are bad and\nsome are good\u2014at least some are bad.\n\nThe law is not concerned with the good. Its business is not rewarding,\nbut punishment; not love but hate. How can human judgment determine what\nheart is bad? Men\u2019s lives are a strange mixture of thought, motive and\naction; an infinite mixture of good and evil, as it is given to finite\nman to know good and evil. No life is wholly good, and no life is wholly\nbad. A life of great virtues may here and there be interspersed with an\nevil act. The law picks out the evil and ignores the good. A life barren\nof real affirmative goodness may still be free from serious positive\nsin, and thus escape the condemnation of man and his courts. The conduct\nwhich falls under the observation of others is not so much due to the\ngoodness or badness of the heart as to the emotion or placidity of the\nnature. In balancing the evil of a life against the good, no one can give\nthe exact weight to each for no two men weigh moral worth or turpitude\nwith the same scales. Neither can a man\u2019s standing be determined until\nhis life is done. Acts which seem evil if left to develop character are\noften the means of softening the heart, of developing love and charity\nand humanity, of really building up the moral worth of man. But no person\ncan be judged even by his conduct. Goodness and evil are both latent\nin man and this fact shows the evil of resistance and force. One may\nbe intrinsically good and live a long life and still never be touched\nupon the proper side to develop character and reveal to the world the\nreal self. It requires circumstance, opportunity and the proper appeal\nto develop the best in man, the same as to develop the worst in man.\nTo judge the character of a human soul from one isolated act, would be\nas impossible as to judge his physical health by testing his sight or\nhearing alone. Every person\u2019s first impressions show how often these\nare really wrong, and how much they depend upon the circumstances of\ntime and place. To really judge another\u2019s character requires almost\ninfinite knowledge, not of their acts alone, but of their thoughts and\naspirations, their temptations, and environment, and every circumstance\nthat makes up their lives. But if the administration of punishment is to\ndepend on the good or evil of the man, then each person must be judged\nfrom his own standpoint. One\u2019s merit or demerit depends not on what he\ndoes but on his purpose and intent, upon his desire to do good or evil.\nIn short, upon the condition of his heart, which can only be told in part\nfrom his isolated acts.\n\nEach person has his own rule of conduct and of life. The highest that\ncan be done by any human soul is to live and strive according to his\nbest conception of the highest life. To one man an act appears harmless\nwhich to another is a heinous crime. One man would blaspheme, but under\nno circumstances would beat a dog or kill a fly. One might commit larceny\nor even murder by the very strength of his love. Again, real character,\nmerit and demerit cannot be judged except in view of the capacity, the\nopportunity, the teaching of the life. No honest judgment of the worth of\nany soul can be measured except with full knowledge of every circumstance\nthat made his life, and with this knowledge the man who would accuse\nwould but condemn himself. But even if every act of every life were open\nto the sight of man, this could furnish no guide to true character.\nThe same temptation does not appeal alike to all. One man may not be\ntempted by strong drink and may never fall. Another with an appetite\nborn in a remote ancestor may struggle manfully and fail. The temptation\nto take property by force does not appeal to one who can get it by\ninheritance or gift or fraud. The desire to kill never moves the soul\nof the placid man. To know what it means requires an intimate, infinite\nknowledge of every emotion of the soul, of every fiber of the body, and\nthe understanding, not of how the temptations or inducements that he met\nwould affect the judge, but how they would affect the man. Science has\ndetermined a way to measure the height, and the girth of an individual,\nto tell the color of his eyes and hair, to determine the shape and\ncontour of his skull. It has not yet found a way to look beneath the\nskull and weigh the actions and responsibilities of that hidden involved\nmystery\u2014the human brain, or to look at the real man,\u2014the human soul, and\njudge whether the Infinite Maker made it white or black. If every man who\npassed an unjust judgment on his fellow should be condemned, how many\njudges would be found so vain and foolish as to review and condemn their\nMaker\u2019s work?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE JUDGE OF THE CRIMINAL\n\n\nBut even if some men deserve punishment, who is to judge? The old\ninjunction still comes back and ever will return when man arraigns his\nfellow, \u201cLet him who is without sin cast the first stone.\u201d To find a\njudge without sin in the ordinary meaning of the world is necessarily\nout of the question. They must of course pretend to be holier than the\nrest, and organized society helps out the farce and fraud. At the best,\none guilty man is set up to judge another,\u2014one man filled with his\nweaknesses, his infirmities, his shortcomings, sets himself up to judge\nnot only that his fellow man is a criminal but that he himself is better\nthan his fellow. And yet all the past and the present has conspired to\nmake him good, to keep him from temptation, that he might the better\npass judgment on another, while all the world has conspired to place the\nvictim where he is. Verily, in the light of infinite justice, no greater\ncrime could be committed than to judge and condemn your fellows, and if\nthere shall ever be a final day when the crooked is made straight and\nthe purpose of all shall be revealed and understood, safer far will be\nthe man who has received the sentence than the one who has dared to pass\njudgment on another\u2019s life and pronounce it bad.\n\nBut how is this judge to determine the guilt or innocence of his fellow?\nHe cannot know his life and does not seek to know. To understand fully\nanother\u2019s life would require infinite pains and such research as no\njudge could give or pretend to give. The judge cannot balance up the\ncharacter of his victim; he simply seeks in a poor, clumsy, imperfect\nway to ascertain whether he did a certain act. Whatever else he did, his\nattitude of mind, his necessities, his early training, his opportunities\nand temptations, the number of temptations resisted before one proved\ntoo much\u2014all of this is beyond the power of a human judge to know; yet\nall of it bears upon the real character of the man and should go to show\nwhether, on the whole, he deserves blame or praise, and the extent of\neach.\n\nIn the light of all this, how many human souls could be guiltily cast\nout as bad? It requires infinite pains and almost infinite knowledge to\njudge one\u2019s physical condition. A man is suffering from some ailment and\na doctor is called to treat him. The disease may be of long standing and\nlocated in some organ beyond the reach of sight and hearing; he patiently\nwatches every symptom to know the real condition of the physical man and\nthe cause that made him ill. He calls the wisest surgeons to consult and\nthese may never be able to locate the disease, or the cause that made the\npatient as he is. But twelve untutored jurors and a judge wantonly and\ncarelessly set themselves up to pass on the condition of a human soul\u2014a\nsoul no man has seen or by any chance can ever see,\u2014a life they do not\nknow and could not understand and do not even seek to understand. They\ntake this soul and, with their poor light, which at the best is blackest\ndarkness, they pronounce it bad, and in violence and malice deny it the\nright of fellowship with its human brothers, each equally a portion of\nthe great Infinite which takes all of good and all of bad and makes of\nthese one great, divine, inclusive whole.\n\nThe judge must and does view the conduct of his victim according to\nhis own ideas of right and wrong. At his best he takes with him to the\njudgment tribunal every prejudice, bias and belief that his education,\nsurroundings and heredity have left on him. He measures the condemned\nby the ideal man, and the ideal man must be himself, or one made from\nhis weak, fallible concepts of right and wrong. Naturally he places\nlittle weight or value upon those vices which are a portion of his own\ncharacter, or those virtues which he does not possess, or especially\nadmire. A judge can see no character or virtue in an accused man, who\nwould rather suffer imprisonment or death than to betray his fellows.\nIn the judgment of the courts the betrayer is rewarded, the man of\ncharacter and worth condemned. A judge reads the code, \u201cThou shalt not\nsteal.\u201d He cannot understand how a so-called thief should have forcibly\ntaken a paltry sum. He cannot conceive that he, himself, could under any\ncircumstances have done the like. Such conduct must come from a depraved\nand wicked heart\u2014a devil that dwells within the culprit. The common\nthief looks at the judge arrayed in fine linen and living in luxury and\nease, with nothing to do but pass judgment on his fellowman. He dimly\nunderstands how much easier it is for the judge to obtain his large\nsalary than for him to get the poor wages of his hazardous and shifting\ntrade. But the judge does not begin to comprehend that, if he could\nnot have received his salary or obtained a tolerable life in any of the\nendless grades of activity between his profession and the thief\u2019s, very\neasily he might have been the victim with some other fortunate man to\npronounce him bad. Human judgments are not passed in view of all the\ncircumstances of the case. If this was the condition of human judgments,\nno man could be condemned.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nTHE MEASURE OF PUNISHMENT\n\n\nBut admitting the right to punish, where is there a man with the wisdom\nto inflict punishment? By what magical scales can he weigh the guilt of a\nhuman being, and by what standard can he determine the judgment that is\nproportionate to his guilt? It must be evident that the wit of man never\ndid invent or can invent a measure that shall determine the just amount\nof punishment for any human act. The punishment administered does not in\nany way indicate the extent of the culprit\u2019s transgression, but simply\nshows the degree of brutality of the law, and of those who are given the\npower of fixing the extent of punishment to be imposed. The victim whom\nthe law catches in its net is at the mercy of the judge. His fate depends\nnot upon his life, not upon what society has done for him, nor upon how\nhe has repaid the debt. Nor does it depend upon the intrinsic value of\nhis soul, for no human judgment can reach this. Neither does it depend\nupon the ratio between the brain he had, and the temptation he resisted,\nor the ratio between the overpowering force he met and the weak will and\nintellect which heredity had bequeathed to him. His fate rests with the\nhumanity or inhumanity displayed, the point of view, the experience,\nthe prejudice, the social surroundings, the physical condition, the\nappetite or the breakfast of the judge, whose light and easy duty it is\nto pronounce judgment on the life or liberty of a fellow man.\n\nGiven the best equipment and the greatest knowledge and sense of\nresponsibility on the part of the judge, how then will stand the case?\nA prisoner is arraigned for forcibly taking a pocketbook on the public\nstreet. The instinct to do the act may have come upon him in a moment\u2019s\ntime, as the opportunity seemed suddenly present and the need seemed\ngreat. Under the peculiar circumstances of the time and place, he may\nhave been impelled to act when a moment\u2019s reflection would have stayed\nhis hand. In a hundred cases the opportunity for the reflection was\npresent, and he passed through unscathed, and then there came a time when\nthe judgment had no chance to speak and he was lost. The crime even at\nits worst differs only in degree, perhaps not in that, from the actions\nof our daily lives. We look at another\u2019s pocketbook and covet it, or\ncovet his home or coat or wealth\u2014the case presents the same evil heart.\nOur action, however, is tempered and controlled by judgment and the power\nof will.\n\nAssuming the man is bad, where is the judge who can measure the\npunishment he ought to have? How many endless, silent, shameful days,\neach made of hours that seem eternities, should he be confined for\nthis? How many days should drag their endless weary length into months\nand years before the act should be atoned? And is justice done when the\nvictim, old and bent, and silent, and gray, with health destroyed and\ncharacter and hope forever gone, is once, more led out into the strange,\nbewildering light of day?\n\nThere can be no measure for human conduct. All scales, rules and measures\nare valueless when used to judge the soul. Even time cannot be counted.\nThe judge upon the bench lightly consigns his victim to a prison pen. He\nmeasures the victim\u2019s years by the swiftly gliding days that pass like\nmagic in his joyous life. To the judge, time strides with seven league\nboots; even the grim specter at the end, the one skeleton at his feast,\neven this ever-present shadow but hastens the magic flight of years. But\nthe clock that ticks away the joyous wasted moments at the banquet hall\nis not the same time-piece that hangs upon the penitentiary walls. One\npendulum leaps gladly back and forth; the other moves with the weight and\ngravity of human life, of human death, of endless agony, of unmitigated\npain. Time is the most obstinate of the delusive gifts that fate\nbequeathes to man. When we would have her speed she moves with leaden\nfoot. When we would have her halt she flies with magic wings.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nRulers have invented and used all sorts of punishments and constantly\nalternated from one to the other; each one in use seeming to be inferior\nto some one hitherto untried. Corporal punishment has respectively come\nand gone. Public floggings and private floggings, tortures, and death\nin various ways, have met the approval and then the disapproval of\nthe governing power. But with all of them, crime has gone on and on,\nunmindful alike of the form or extent of the punishment in vogue.\n\nThe effect of an act of cruelty and violence can never be measured or\nunderstood. No one can tell the full consequences that occur to every\nhuman being when the state puts one to death, or flogs, or maims, or\nimprisons, or even fines. A violent act produces injury, hardship and\nsuffering to the victim who is powerless in the strong grasp of the law.\nBut the evil does not end with him.\n\nIn ever-widening circles the results of cruelty move on and on until to\nsome degree or part they reach every member of society. Unless punishment\nlessens the sum of human suffering, increases the measure of human joy,\nand thus lengthens and adds to life, it has no right to be.\n\nPunishment brings positive evil. Any possible good that it may produce is\nat the best problematical and wholly impossible to prove. From the first\nvictim whom the state degrades with punishment, the evil and the hardship\nand suffering moves on to family and friends. In no theory of the law is\ncompensation, or recompense, or making good, any part of punishment. If\ntaking the life of the prisoner could bring to life the victim whom he\nkilled there might be some apparent excuse for the punishment of death.\nIf imprisoning in the penitentiary in any way retrieved a wrong or made\nup a loss, a prison might be tolerated, and some relation might be shown\nbetween punishment and crime. Even in cases where a fine is administered,\nin place of imprisonment, the fine does not go in any way to retrieve\nany loss, but goes to the state as pure punishment and nothing else.\nEverywhere in the theory and administration of punishment is the rule the\nsame. The one purpose is to injure, to harm, to inflict suffering upon\nthe individual whom society sets apart.\n\nWhen traced to the end, the sole theory on which punishment is based,\nis that a certain man has committed an act of violence and crime, and\nthat, therefore, in some mysterious way this is to be made right by\ninflicting an injury on him. That the original wrong will not be undone\nhas no bearing on the case\u2014that others entirely innocent may suffer more\ngrievously than the accused is not to be considered in the infliction\nof punishment. The father may be taken from the helpless children, and\nthese left to grow up as best they can, with their own hardships and\ntheir father\u2019s evil name to bear, but society stands unmoved. Though\nthe heavens fall, justice must be done, and justice can only be done by\ninflicting pain. The execution or imprisonment of the father may not\nunreasonably turn the children to follow in the path the state marked\nout for him. This is not the affair of government,\u2014not prevention or\nrecompense, or reward is the function of the state; but vengeance,\nvengeance sure and complete.\n\nJustice is not the function of the state; this forms no part of the\nscheme of punishment. Punishment is punishment. A wife and helpless babes\nmay be left in want when the state lays its hand in wrath upon the man.\nUnder the law of natural justice the child has a right to support and\ncare from the father, who is responsible for its life. Still, the state,\nnot with a prior right, but with a greater power, takes the father from\nhis child, kills him or pens him, and turns the child into the byways\nof the world, giving it only the heritage of the father\u2019s shame. It is\nno answer to say that such a father is of no value to the child. Many a\nkind, indulgent father has violated the penal codes of man. Many a father\nhas been sent to prison because he so loved his child that he committed\ncrime.\n\nFrom the nature of things there can be no justice in punishment. Justice\nimposes relation between act and consequence. The judgment of man is\nutterly powerless to pass upon the merits or elements of a human soul.\nBut justice from the state to its citizens imports some ratio between the\nrewards, opportunities and punishments meted out to each. As to rewards\nand opportunities, the state does nothing except to assist the strong to\ndespoil the weak. It furnishes no opportunity for its helpless, no chance\nfor development and life, and gives no rewards for meritorious conduct,\nand makes no allowance for resisting temptation from crime. But aside\nfrom all this, within the realm where the state pretends to do justice,\nthere is no equality meted out between its various members. The code is\nunyielding, the positive dead letter of the law is man\u2019s highest and\nprofoundest judgment as to the conduct of his fellows.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nEach human soul is a separate entity, with its own hopes, desires and\nfears; some impassive and stolid, some sensitive and shrinking. To be\naccused of crime means more to some natures than years of imprisonment to\nothers. The body is not alone the subject of punishment. Man, with his\ntortures and cruelties, seeks to reach the mind even more than the body.\nStriped clothes furnish the same warmth as other garments, but to some\nthe stripes are an ever-consuming flame. To others, properly educated and\nhardened by the state, this consciousness does not add to the punishment\ninvolved. One day of forced confinement, or one moment of the indignity\nof handcuffs, means more to some than a year of hard labor. The terms\nof imprisonment are not the same to all. To some a term, however short,\nmeans the blighting of a life, and the destruction of a family\u2014perchance\na wife and child, a father or a mother, whose sorrow and shame are\ngreater for being indirect. With a sensitive soul no punishment ends when\nthe prison gates are opened up. Its consciousness lives as long as life\nendures. No day is so bright, and no prospect so pleasing, but the black\nshadow is ever present, blighting life, and driving hope and sunshine\nfrom the soul.\n\nIn cases where fines are meted out those who can afford to pay escape\nwith comparative ease; others are forced to shift a burden of debt upon\nfather, mother, wife, children, or friends, who are thus punished for\nyears, not for crime, but for their loyalty and love. If, perchance,\nthrough any effort the money for a fine can be obtained, the state\ncruelly and brutally takes the unholy, ill-gotten cash, although it may\nmean that a home is scant of food and shivering in cold or darkness; or\na little child is forced from school to a factory or store. It may mean\na plundered girlhood and abandoned womanhood, that the vengeance of the\nstate may be appeased. The taking of money by the state in payment of\ncrime is infinitely more damnable than private theft. The evils of force\nand violence are unending\u2014bold and ignorant, indeed, is he, whether\nruler, official, or private citizen, who sets in motion bitterness and\nhate. It is an evil force set loose upon the earth to wander up and down,\ncankering, polluting and despoiling all it meets, augmented by every\nother force, to be conquered and subdued, if ever conquered and subdued,\nonly by infinite mercy and charity and love.\n\nEvery man, whether ruler, juror, judge or whosoever that is called\nupon or volunteers to pass judgment on the conduct of others, must do\nit according to his own flickering, feeble light, according to the\nexperiences that have made up his life. It is for this reason that good\nmen are so bad, and bad men so good. Life ordinarily means breadth.\nSome, of course, are born deaf and blind, and the longer they travel\nthe road the more contracted, cold and uncharitable they become; but to\nthe ordinary person life means suffering and, above all other lessons,\nit teaches charity. As the real man grows older, less and less does\nhe believe in or administer punishment, and more and more does he see\nthe extenuating circumstances that explain and excuse every act. The\nstern and upright judge is an impossibility. No one can be stern and\nupright. In proportion as he becomes truly upright, really just, the\nmore nearly he approaches the character of the ideal judge, the more\nnearly does he understand the injustice of violence and cruelty, and\nthe eternal unfailing righteousness of charity and love. Where is the\nman so wise or the judge so great and just that he could take any two\nhuman beings with their different ancestry, environment, opportunities,\npassions and temptations, and pronounce a judgment that would equalize\nthe two? Lawmakers, since the world began, have been busy undoing each\nother\u2019s wrongs. Courts have been established whose sole duty it is to\ncorrect other courts. Unjust judgments are necessarily incident to the\ninfirmities of man. The wise judge who looks back over a long career, the\njudge who knows human life and has a human heart, the judge who seeks to\nbe ruled by his conscience, will find much in his past career he would\nwish undone. He will look back on many unjust judgments, on many things\ndone in anger and hatred, cruelty and wrong, on blighted hopes and ruined\nlives. But in his whole career he will regret no act of charity, no deed\nof mercy that he has been moved to do. He will look back on judgments\nhe would reverse, but these are not judgments of love or forgiveness or\ncharity, but judgments of force, of violence, of hate.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nWHO DESERVES PUNISHMENT\n\n\nIf there is any justice in human punishment it must be based upon the\ntheory of intrinsic evil in the victim. Punishment cannot be justified\nbecause of the violation of human law. To violate law is often the\nhighest, most sacred duty that can devolve upon the citizen, and even\nwere it not, the condition of the heart is the test of the evil or\ngood purpose, not the good or evil of the act. The world worships and\nvenerates many of its dead because they violated human law. Every new\nreligion, every social advancement has been carried on in violation\nof human law. The criminals who, in the face of contumely, hatred or\nviolence, have led the world to a higher standard and brought humanity to\na diviner order, have so loved truth and righteousness as to defy the\nlaw, and in every age these men have met the life of outcasts, and the\ndeath of felons. Whatever may be said of the necessity of government to\nprotect itself, no one can believe that any human being merits punishment\nfor following his own highest ideal. Punishment can only be in any wise\ndefended upon the theory that the individual is untrue to himself, that\nhis heart is bad. But all schemes of human punishment seem specially\ncontrived to exempt this class of men. Those who are untrue to themselves\nfind no difficulty in obeying the state, or at least in seeming to be\nsubservient to its laws. The cunning man without strong convictions of\nright and wrong can always find ample room to operate his trade inside\nthe dead line the law lays down. Even Blackstone wrote that a man who\ngoverned his conduct solely by the law was neither an honest man nor a\ngood citizen. The penal code cannot pretend to cover all the vicious acts\nof men. If there is a distinction between vicious acts and righteous\nacts, each are so numerous that even to catalogue them would be beyond\nthe power of the state. The most that the penal code pretends to do is to\nchoose a number of fairly well classified acts and to set penalties for\nthese crimes. The men who really entail the most evil and suffering on\nmankind easily shape their conduct to avoid these acts. If perchance they\nwish in effect to do some things forbidden by the law, they are able by\ntheir wealth to have skilled lawyers who can show them how to accomplish\nthe same object by indirect means. The hollow hearted man, the whited\nsepulcher is the last to violate the law. To support the state and be\nnoisily patriotic is a large part of his stock in trade. As a rule it is\nonly the weak or the extremely conscientious or devoted that violate the\nlaw, and it does not follow that these or any other class really intend a\nwrong or consider it in any such light as their judge, when they commit\nan act forbidden by the law.\n\nA very large number of acts of individual violence come from sudden\nfeeling and passion, which is purely a physical, or more properly, a\nmechanical act. Certain motives or feelings operating upon a given brain\nproduce a given result; whereas operating upon another brain, they might\nproduce a very different effect. It is like a body in mechanics operating\nupon another smaller or larger body. The laws of the universe are not\nat work in one place and held in abeyance in another. In these cases\nreason and judgment have no opportunity to act. Reflection and conscience\nin no wise enter into the affair. Feeling, emotion, passion alone are\nresponsible for the deed. The human feelings as they sweep through that\nuncharted land the human soul, produce infinitely varied results, like\nthe moving wind, whose sound depends entirely upon the unconscious\ninstrument with which it toys.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nNATURAL LAW AND CONDUCT\n\n\nMany of the crimes fixed by law are purely arbitrary. To commit them\nor to refrain does not necessarily imply innocence or guilt. Of such\na character, for instance, are revenue laws, the observance of holy\ndays and the like. A large number of forbidden acts that are generally\nsupposed to imply moral guilt are also purely arbitrary. Most of the laws\ngoverning the taking and obtaining of property, which constitute the\ngreat burden of our penal code, are arbitrary acts, whose sole purpose\nis to keep the great mass of property in the hands of the rulers and\nexploiters and to send to jail those who help themselves and who have\nno other means within their power to sustain their lives. Most of the\nso-called thieves and other offenders against property dimly know this\nfact. Without being able to analyze or logically realize it, they, after\nall, feel that they have committed no wrong, and that they took the only\nroad life had left open for their feet.\n\nNearly our whole criminal code is made up of what may be called property\ncrimes, or crimes against property, if they may be so called. These\ncrimes are burglary, larceny, obtaining property by false pretenses,\nextortion, and the like. The jails and penitentiaries of every nation\nin the world are filled to overflowing with men and women who have been\ncharged with committing crimes against property. Probably nine-tenths of\nall the business of criminal courts come directly from property crimes.\nA very large proportion of the balance comes indirectly from this cause.\nNothing could more completely show the humbuggery, knavery and the\nabsolute hypocrisy of all punishment by the state than the patent facts\nwith reference to these crimes. From first to last these inmates of\njail and penitentiary, these suffering outcast men are utterly without\nproperty and have ever been. In the penal institutions of the world are\nconfined a motley throng charged with committing assaults upon property,\nand yet this whole mass of despised and outcast humanity have ever been\nthe propertyless class, have never had aught whereon to lay their heads.\nBut where is all the property that has been the subject of these dire\nassaults? No matter where you turn your eyes in the world, the whole\nproperty is in the hands of a chosen few, and the so-called owners of all\nthis wealth created by the labor of man and the bounty of nature\u2014these\nso-called owners have committed no crime against property. The statement\nof the fact is sufficient to show the inequality of the whole system\nunder which the fruits of the earth are kept in the possession of the\nfew. These despised and outcast ones have violated no law of conscience\nor justice, have committed no unrighteous assault on property. The plain\nfact that will one day stand clearly forth to explain the whole brutal\ncode which is used to imprison and enslave,\u2014the plain reason and object\nof these laws is the fact that the rulers who have forcibly seized the\nearth have made certain rules and regulations to keep possession of the\ntreasures of the world, and when the disinherited have reached out to\nobtain the means of life, they have been met with these arbitrary rules\nand lodged in jail.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe advocates of punishment believe that law controls the natural world.\nThe movement of the earth about the sun, the changes of the moon, the\nrising and falling of the tide, the change of seasons, all these depend\non natural law. It is even known that the distribution of animal life\nupon the earth is due to natural law. Certain climates and locations\nproduce certain animal life. Particular seasons of the year increase or\ndiminish insect life. The wild fowl flies north in summer and south\nin winter. The swarming of bees, the homes of ants, in short all the\nactivities, lives and deaths of the brute creation are surely seen to be\nthe subject of natural law. The distribution, growth and decay of plant\nlife is no less within the realm of law, than is the animal life, which\ndepends upon the same powers and forces, the same great source of life.\n\nBut when man is reached it would seem that the rule of law is at an end.\nHis life and death, his goings in and out, his myriad acts are due to\nno rule or system or law, but are the result of capricious will alone.\nTrue, in many of his acts man recognizes the great force in whose mighty\npower he is like the insect, or the grain of sand tossed by the angry\nsea. Here and there he seems to dimly understand the great laws of\nnecessity, of sequence, of consequence, that govern human life. Every\nfather who takes pains in the rearing of his child, who surrounds it with\nthe influences that build up character and develop judgment and reason,\nrecognizes the law of necessity, the controlling power of environment,\nthe strength of habit and circumstance. The life of tribes and races and\nnations show that fixed laws control in the actions of men, as everywhere\nelse within the realm of nature. Man is a part of nature, the highest\nevolution of all, but still a part firmly bound by law to every atom of\nmatter and every particle of force which the wide universe contains. The\nlife and death of man, his distribution over the earth, his permanency\nas an individual or a tribe, depend upon all other life. Man draws his\nsustenance from the animate and inanimate world. The lives of bees depend\nupon the flowers, their number and condition, their coming and going;\ntheir birth and death is due to this natural cause outside the control\nof the individual bee. The life of man depends upon his supply of food\nand shelter, upon his ability to obtain the necessities of life. It\nis true that in his progress he is no longer bound so closely to the\nearth as in his early stages. He has learned something of the laws of\nnature and is able to take some thought for the morrow; but yet famine\ndestroys him, disease overcomes him; severe droughts, protracted heat,\ngreat inundations of flood, all these affect his life, change population,\ndestroy vast numbers, always the weaker, those less able to provide\nfor themselves, those who, from circumstances, have taken the smallest\nthought for the morrow.\n\nEven in the most civilized, progressive lands man is dependent on nature.\nThe constant thought of much the largest portion of mankind is for the\nprocurement of those things that will sustain, prolong and render their\nlives more comfortable. The vast majority of men are closely bound to the\nsoil and their whole life is a struggle for the means to live. Even the\nlarge majority of those whose condition is the most tolerable, find life\nan endless struggle and anxiety their constant companion. Such a thing\nas a free choice of life is out of the question for the vast majority\nof men born upon the earth; their residence, occupation, hours of labor,\nmethod of life, are fixed almost irrevocably in obedience to the demands\nof their physical being. After those whose conditions of life are the\nmost tolerable, come a great mass whose existence is most precarious,\ndependent upon the condition of the harvest, the condition of trade,\nthe amount of rain or snow, the quantity of sunshine, and a thousand\ncircumstances far beyond their control.\n\nAs a consequence of his desire for life and the means that make it\ncertain and pleasant, man has ever turned his attention toward the\nconquest of nature, reducing vegetable and animal life to his control.\nBut his conquest does not end here. Not vegetables and animals alone must\nbe his slaves, but man as well. Ever has man enslaved his fellow; from\nthe beginning of his career upon the earth he has sought to make his own\nexistence pleasanter and more certain by compelling others to toil for\nhim. In its more primitive stages slavery was enforced by the ownership\nof the man. In its later and more refined stages it is carried on by\nthe ownership of the things from which man must live. All life comes\nprimarily from the earth and without access to this great first source of\nbeing, man must die. Passing from the ownership of individuals, rulers\nhave found it easier and more certain to own the earth\u2014for to own the\nearth is to fix the terms on which all must live. More and more does the\nmaster seek to control access to land, to coal, to timber, to iron, to\nwater\u2014these prime requisites to life. More and more certainly, as time\nand civilization move on, do these prime necessities pass to the few.\nEvery new engine of production makes it easier for the few to reduce the\nearth to their possession. Even land itself is of no value without the\nrailroads, the harbors, the mines and the forest. Everywhere these have\npassed into the hands of the few. From the private ownership of men, the\nrulers have passed to the private ownership of the earth and the control\nof the land. The rulers no longer have the right to buy and sell the man,\nto send him here and there to suit their will. They simply have the power\nto dictate the terms upon which he can stand upon the earth. With the\nmines, the forests, the oil, the harbors, the railroads, and the really\nvaluable productive land in the rulers\u2019 hands, the dominance and power\nof man over his fellows is absolute and complete. It is not necessary\nto show that it is the ruling class who own the earth\u2014the owners of the\nearth must be the ruling class.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nRULES GOVERNING PENAL CODES AND THEIR VICTIMS\n\n\nThe rulers make penal codes for the regulation and control of the earth\nand all the property thereon\u2014the earth which was made long ages before\nthey were evolved, and will still remain ages after they are dust. Not\nonly do they make these rules to control the earth for their brief,\nhaughty lives, but they provide that it may pass from hand to hand\nforever. The generations now living, or rather those that are dead and\ngone, fixed the status of unborn millions, and decreed that they shall\nhave no place to live except upon such terms as may be dictated by those\nwho then controlled the earth. To retain all the means of life in the\nhands of the few and compel the many to do service to support these few\nrequires the machinery of the state. It is for this that penal laws are\nmade, and the effort of the despoiled to reach out in their despair and\nobtain a small portion of the natural heritage of all, is directly and\nindirectly the basis of all property assaults.\n\nEvery person who has observed cattle knows that if the pasture is good\nthe animals are quiet, and will stay where they are placed; but let the\npasture grow thin until hunger comes and they will learn to jump. There\nwere never cattle so quiet and well behaved that they could not be made\nto jump, and never cattle so breachy that they could not be made tame.\nEven successive generations of starving and abuse will not so far pervert\ntheir nature but that successive generations of kind treatment will\nbring them back to a peaceful, gentle life. Human beings are like cattle\nin a field. They are cattle in a field. Give them a chance to live and\nprosper, and violent acts will be unknown; but bring them close to the\nline of starvation or want and their natural rights assert themselves\nabove the forms and laws that man has made to hold the earth and\nenslave his fellows. Of course here and there may be found cases where\ngenerations of outlawry and exploitation have left their marks upon men,\nuntil they seem to prefer this life; but in those cases fair treatment\nwould generally remove this in the first generation, and always before\nmany generations had come and gone.\n\nAll energy manifests itself along lines of least resistance, and the\nfirst energies of man are devoted to the procurement of the means of\nlife. It is only where organized tyranny has made violence and force the\nline of least resistance that men will deviate from the normal path,\nand so long as the cupidity and brutal selfishness of man shall make\nthis the line of least resistance, all the laws on earth cannot overcome\nthe primal instincts and feelings upon which life depends. A race that\nwould starve, or beg, or accept alms before violating the brutal laws\nthat fence the children of nature from their source of life, would\nquickly degenerate into abject slavery and finally into nothingness. All\nso-called criminals do not reason out the cause that placed them where\nthey are. Instinctively they feel that they are doing what they must.\nThis class have generally lived for years, sometimes for generations,\nso near the border line, have lived such precarious lives that their\ncallings and avocations have grown as natural and normal as monopolizing\nthe earth has grown to another class. They are fully aware of the dangers\nincident to their craft, of the scanty recompense that their lives\nafford, and, like all other men, would at once abandon their calling for\nan opportunity to lead more normal lives. They are in no sense devoid\nof these common instincts of humanity upon which nature rests all life.\nGiven a child falling into a river, an old person in a burning building,\na woman fainting in the street, and a band of convicts would risk their\nlives to give aid as quickly at least as a band of millionaires.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nNature takes little account of atoms, her operations are on a wide field,\na broad scale. She brings famine, a million men must die; she does not\nseem to pick out the individual men\u2014she draws a straight hard line, and\nthose who step across cannot return. Nature and man combine to make hard\nthe condition of human life for the great majority that live upon the\nearth. A very few choose the roads of luxury and ease; the vast mass\nare scattered in all the avenues of life; some serve by abject toil;\nsome enter the hazardous callings of the railroads and the mines; some\nthe extra hazardous of making gunpowder and nitro-glycerine; and some\nthe still more hazardous\u2014these are thieves or burglars or robbers or\nprostitutes, as the case may be. Conditions improve, and man moves up in\nthe scale; the toilers have greater luxury; those in hazardous callings\ntake an easier place; the extra hazardous rise to the hazardous; and\nthe still more hazardous to the extra hazardous. The conditions of life\nbecome more severe and the current flows the other way. It is then that\nthe jails and the penitentiaries are crowded to the utmost limit they\nwill hold.\n\nStatistics have shown that the number of inmates in our prisons increases\nwith every rise in the price of food. If a combination increases the\nprice of flour a cent a pound and ten thousand men are sent to jail\nthroughout the world, in the judgment of infinite wisdom and justice who\nwill be held responsible for the crime? Every time that the trust raises\nthe price of coal some poor victims are sent to jail, and at every raise\nin the price of oil some girls are sent out upon the streets to get their\nbread by a life of wretchedness and shame.\n\nThat these property laws are purely arbitrary is shown by the slightest\nthought. The criminal statutes forbid extortion and swindling, and\nyet the largest part of business is extortion, and much of the balance\nis swindling. When the law forbids extortion and swindling, it simply\nforbids certain forms and methods of these acts, and these forms and\nmethods are the ones not practiced by the ruling class. They are so\nsmall and insignificant as not to constitute business but only petty\nannoyance to the ruling class. To go directly to a victim and by threats\nof violence compel him to pay more for some commodity than it is really\nworth is generally extortion, but this is a very clumsy and infrequent\nact. Real extortion is taking for any service more than it is fairly\nworth by means of agencies created by the extorter to despoil his victim,\nand this is the business of the business world. Nearly every street-car\nline and every gas plant in the world operates its business by means\nof special privileges, and from one-half to three-fourths of the money\nthey receive is extorted from that portion of the community that has no\nredress. The railroad companies, who, through watered stocks and bonds\nand combinations, charge the consumer twice and more the value of the\nservice given, touch the pocket of everyone who lives in a modern state.\nThe production of iron, clothing, many kinds of food, in fact the largest\npart of what is used in daily life, is controlled by combinations whose\nsole purpose is extortion; they scheme to absolutely control the market\nand take from the consumers what they have. And yet for this extortion\nwhich reaches every home and despoils every fireside, the law furnishes\nno redress. Either it does not come within the provisions of the law or\nelse those who are charged with its enforcement do not care to reach this\nsort of extortion which is the only kind that really affects the world.\nIn either case it shows that the penal code is made and enforced by the\nruling class, not upon themselves, but to keep the weak at the bottom of\nthe social scale.\n\nThe law forbids swindling at least in certain ways, and yet a large part\nof business consists in making the public believe that they are getting\nmore value for what they give than the tradesman can possibly afford. The\ndaily papers are filled to overflowing with lying advertisements, each\ncontradicting the other. Our fences, rocks and buildings are defaced with\nvulgar, hideous lies in order to swindle men out of their much coveted\ncash. All our merchants and tradesmen frantically call out their lies in\nevery form, that they may sell their wares for a larger price than they\nare really worth. And yet, to all of this, the criminal code has no word\nto say. This is not the class of swindlers it was made to reach. The man\nwho can buy the space of a great paper to tell the wondrous qualities of\nthe wares he has to sell is not the sort of man to come within the meshes\nof the penal code.\n\nPeople in the jail and people out, when reproached for certain conduct,\nalmost invariably respond that they have done no worse than some one\nelse who stands uncondemned, and this retort is true when motives are\nfully analyzed and conduct thoroughly understood. The actions of men are\nwondrously alike. When we look at the criminal in the jail, or at our\nenemy in the street, we do not see the man. This is not due to him. It\ncomes from the malice, the hatred, the want of human charity that dwells\nin our own hearts. Through this fog and mist there can be no clear true\nsight. \u201cTo the pure all things are pure.\u201d To the just all souls are\nreally white.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe web of the law reaches so far that there are very few who have not\nin some way been touched by its meshes. One infallible proof as to\nthe real nature of crime and the character of the criminal is open to\nalmost everyone who wishes to observe. Few men are so poor and outcast\nas to have no friends. The victims who cluster around the corridors\nand entrances of our jails are as pitiable as those who dwell inside.\nTo those friends who know him the criminal is a man, a man for whom\nthey will sacrifice time, money, sometimes honor and even life. If it\nis nothing but a poor wife, or a helpless child who has known the kind\nheart of a husband or a father, these are there to prove that the wretch\nis not a monster, but a man\u2014these are the ones who knew him, who saw his\nlife, who touched him on the human side, the side that shows the real\ntrue kinship of man. Judges, lawyers, clergymen, physicians, all classes\nof men readily come forward and tell of the virtues of the criminal whom\nthey know, they tell of the extenuating circumstances that led to his\nact, or they show that, in spite of these, they understand the worth of\nthe man. The criminal is always the man we do not know or the man we\nhate\u2014the man we see through the bitterness of our hearts. Let one but\nreally love his fellow and he knows full well that he is not a criminal.\nHe sees his pulsing heart, he knows his weak flesh, his aspiring soul,\nhis hopes, his struggles, his disappointments, his triumphs and his\nfailings, and he loves the man for all of these.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nTHE MACHINERY OF JUSTICE\n\n\nThe state furnishes no machinery for arriving at justice. Even if it\nwere possible under any circumstances to judge, and even though men\nwere really criminals, the state has no way of arriving at the facts.\nIf the state pretends to administer justice this should be its highest\nconcern. It should not be interested in convicting men or punishing\ncrime, but administering justice between men. It is obvious to the most\ncasual observer that the state furnishes no machinery to accomplish this\nresult. The penal law simply takes a man into its hopper and grinds out\na criminal at the end. A force of able-bodied, well fed, well paid men\nare kept busy in their search for crime. These find pecuniary reward in\nthe crime of their fellows. An indictment is easily returned against\na friendless man\u2014a suspicion is enough in any case where the victim\nhas no friends. If he is poor he is at once lodged in jail. Later he\nis placed on trial in the courts. When he steps into the dock both\njudge and jurors look on him as a guilty man\u2014believe he has committed\ncrime. He is carefully guarded by officers, like a guilty, hunted thing.\nArrayed against him is an able prosecutor, well paid, and having personal\nand political ambitions dependent on the number of men he grinds into\ncriminals. The prosecutor has ample means for the conduct of the case.\nThe prisoner, helpless enough at best, is rendered absolutely powerless\nto prepare his case by being lodged in jail. Without money he has no\nadvocate with either the learning, influence or ability to help his\ncause. If he is silent he is convicted. If he speaks no one believes his\nwords. Innocent or guilty, it is a miracle if he escapes, and in this\nmiracle the fact of his innocence or guilt plays but the smallest part.\nGiven a few suspicious circumstances, a helpless prisoner, an indictment,\nand another victim is the sure result. And in the hands of a shrewd\nlawyer, or under the belief of guilt, any circumstances are suspicious\ncircumstances. Almost all acts are subject to various interpretations,\nand the guilt or innocence of a circumstance depends not upon the act\nbut upon the mind that passes judgment on the act. We look back with\nhorror at the criminal courts of England, of Spain, of Italy, even upon\nour own Puritan judges who sentenced witches to death. These judges were\ndoubtless as intelligent as our own. Their brutal, cruel judgments did\nnot grow from a wicked perverted heart, but from the fact that they were\npassing judgment on their fellow man. These unjust judgments are the\nfruit of the cruel system of force and barbarism which clothes one man\nwith the authority and power to condemn his fellow. All prosecutions are\nmalicious, and all judgments are meted out in anger and hatred. Our own\njudges are constantly showing this. In nearly every instance they condemn\na prisoner to a term of servitude, and when passion has fled and the sane\nand holy feelings of mercy, of charity, of humanity once more regain\ntheir sway, they call on the pardoning power to rescind their cruel\nacts. In all these cases of pardons reflection shows the judges that the\npunishment meted out was at least too severe. The difference is in the\nframe of mind of the judge when engaged in the business of administering\njudgment, and when in the mood for listening to those feelings of human\ncharity which are the diviner part of man.\n\nPunishment, to in any way be justified, should diminish the sum of human\nmisery, the result of the bitterness and hatred of men. But here, as\neverywhere else, punishment falls short. Wherever the judgment of courts\nenters it is to corrupt and to destroy. The misery and suffering entailed\non man by scaffolds, racks, blocks, dungeons and jails has never yet\nbegun to be told. Blood and misery and degradation has marked the\nadministration of punishment\n\n    Since man first penned his fellow men,\n    Like brutes, within an iron pen.\n\nLet any reasoning being consider the tens of thousands who have\nbeen burned, and hanged, and boiled, and otherwise put to death for\nwitchcraft; the millions for heresy; the thousands of noble victims who\nhave suffered for treason; the victims of fire, of torture, of scaffold,\nof rack and of dungeon, for all the conceivable crimes since time began.\nLet him consider the oceans of blood and rivers of tears shed by the\nforce and brutality of the rulers of the world; the cruelty, torture\nand suffering heaped upon the helpless, the weak, the unfortunate; and\nthen ask himself if he believes that punishment is good. Even could\nviolence ever prevent crime, the brutality, suffering, blood and crime\nof the rulers has towered mountain high above that of the weak and\nobscure victims whose wrongs they have pretended to avenge. And this\ncruelty does not abate. It is simple madness that doubts the justice of\npast condemnations and believes in the righteous judgments of to-day.\nNo condemnation is just, and no judgment is righteous. All violence and\nforce are cruel, unjust and barbarous, and cannot be sustained by the\njudgment of men.\n\nBut the evil of judgment and punishment does not end with the unfortunate\nvictim. It brutalizes and makes inhuman all who are touched with its\npower. Under the influence of punishments jailers, policemen, sheriffs,\ndetectives and all who deal with prisons are brutalized and hardened.\nThe iniquities produced upon helpless prisoners leave their effects upon\nthe captor as well as the captives. To witness the constant suffering\nand indignities of prison life is to destroy the finer sensibilities of\nthe soul. Men who are otherwise kind in the various relations of life do\nnot hesitate at cruelty to these despised prisoners whom the law has\nplaced outside its ban. To underfeed and overwork, to insult, degrade\nand beat are common incidents of prison life, and this, too, not because\njailers are naturally cruel and bad, but because prisons are prisons,\nand convicts are outcasts. Instead of approaching these unfortunates as\nbrothers in fellowship and love, their only concern is to make them feel\nthat the heavy hand of the state has been laid upon them in malice and\nviolence.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHowever thoroughly the futility, cruelty and injustice of punishment may\nbe shown, men will still persist that it must exist. The thought that\nsociety could live without prisons and policemen seems to be beyond the\nconception of the common man. If punishment has no effect to diminish or\nprevent crime, then no danger would be incurred to dismiss our jailers\nand jurors and close our prison doors. The results of this policy can,\nof course, not be proven absolutely in advance, but so sure as the\nexistence of man is consistent with justice, charity and love, so sure is\nthis policy right and would produce good results. It is not necessary to\nprove the theory of non-resistance to show that this policy is practical\nto-day. Society, as now organized, rests upon violence and wrong. The\nnon-resistant pleads for a better order, one in which the law of love\nand mercy will be the foundation of every relationship of man with man.\nThe present unjust system is supported by violence and force. The unjust\npossessions of the rich are kept in their place by soldiers, guns and\npolicemen\u2019s clubs. If these were withdrawn would the weak at once take\nthe earth and all its fullness from those who for ages have ruled the\nworld?\n\nNo violent and forcible readjustment of this sort could come. Force is\nwrong both to commit and to redress evil. In the rule of force the weak\nmust always fall. For the poor and oppressed to advocate the use of force\nmeans that they must still be the victims, for the strongest force must\nwin. All that can help the weak is the rule of brotherhood, of love.\nUnless this can be proved there is no way to destroy the injustice that\nis everywhere the rule of life. To make the weak strong, and the strong\nweak, could neither destroy injustice nor permanently change the wretched\norder of the world. A bayonet in the hand of one man is no better than in\nthe hand of another. It is the bayonet that is evil and all of its fruits\nare bad.\n\nThe world must learn that violence is wrong. Individuals who understand\nthis truth must take no part in violent acts, whether to enslave or to\nfree. The inherent cohering forces will hold society together and cause\nman to co\u00f6perate for his highest good. A large part of present society is\npurely voluntary and due to natural law. It is for force and violence and\ninjustice that the aid of the state is called. Society should not punish.\nThe great burden that rests upon production to support armies, courts\nand prisons with all their endless officers and staggering weight should\nbe taken from the shoulders of the poor. This of itself would so relieve\nindustry and add to the possibilities of life that the very hazardous\noccupations that we call criminal would almost wholly disappear. The\nclass from which these victims come is known to be the outcast and the\npoor. A small fraction of the vast sum squandered for violence and force\nwould easily place all these dangerous persons beyond the temptations\nof criminal activity. Even now, with all the injustice of to-day, the\nexpenditure of public money to relieve suffering, to furnish remunerative\nemployment, to rationally prevent crime by leaving men with something\nelse to do, would produce better results than all the imagined benefits\nthat follow in the wake of scaffolds and of jails.\n\nThe effort of the penal codes has never been to reach any human being\nbefore violence is done, except to awe him by the brief transitory show\nof force; but after the act is done the state must spend its strength\nand substance for revenge. Most men are driven to criminal acts from the\nnecessities of life and the hatred bred by the organized force they meet.\nRemove dire poverty, as could be easily done with a tithe of what is\nnow spent on force; let organized society meet the individual, not with\nforce, but with helpfulness and love, and the inducement to commit crime\ncould not exist. Let society be the friend not the tyrant, the brother\nnot the jailer, and the feeling will be returned a thousandfold. No man\nor no society ever induced love with clubs and guns. The emblem of the\nstate is the soldier, the policeman, the court, the jail. It is an emblem\nthat does not appeal to the higher sentiments of man\u2014an emblem that so\nlong as it exists will prevent true brotherhood and be a hindrance to the\nhigher sentiments that will one day rule the world.\n\nEven if now and then passion and feeling should gain control of\nman, this passion and feeling would be brief and transitory; if it\naccomplished destruction, no power could make it whole. The concern\nof society would then be to call back this soul to saner thoughts and\na truer, nobler life; not to blacken and destroy, nor to plant bitter\nhatred and despair in the soul of one who might be brought to a fine and\nhigh realization of human conduct and human life. Under this sort of\ntreatment a large proportion of those who commit violent deeds would be\nbrought to a full realization of their acts, and they themselves would\nseek in every way to repair the ill effects of their evil deeds.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nTHE RIGHT TREATMENT OF VIOLENCE\n\n\nSentimental and humane thoughts and purposes are often, perhaps\ngenerally, based on real life, and have a natural reason for their\nbeing. To \u201cturn the other cheek\u201d or to \u201cresist not evil\u201d may seem at\nfirst glance to have no support in the facts of life, but after all that\nwhich makes for a higher humanity, a longer life, and a more vigorous\ncommunity, is the true philosophy. To use violence and force upon the\nvicious and the weak must produce the evil that it gives. Like produces\nlike. Clubs, jails, harsh language, brutal force inevitably tend to\nreproduce the same state of mind in the victim of the assault. This is\nnot merely a fact in human nature. It is a fact in all nature, plant and\nanimal and man. So long as the gentle springtime rather than the cruel\nwinter brings vegetable and animal life to an awakening earth, just so\nlong will kindness and love triumph, produce joy and life, where force\nand violence bring only evil and death. Harsh treatment kills plant life,\nand kind treatment builds it up. Violence and brutality produce their\nlike in animal life, and kindness tames and subdues. With gentleness and\nkindness a swarm of wild bees may be handled and controlled, but approach\nthem with violence and force and each bee is converted into a criminal\nwhose only purpose is to destroy.\n\nWith all animal life the same rule exists; even those beasts whose nature\ncalls for a diet of flesh and blood may be subdued in time by gentleness\nand love. Man with his higher intellect and better developed moral being\nis much more susceptible to kindness and love. Likewise he more easily\nlearns to fear and hate. Man readily discerns the feelings and judgment\nof his fellows, and as readily renders judgment in return. The outcast\nand abandoned form not the slightest exception to the rule\u2014they know\nand understand the ones who meet them with gentleness and love, for\nthese they make sacrifices, to these they are faithful, to these they\nexhibit the higher qualities that show the possibilities of the soul.\nCases where one convicted of crime comes from a place of safety and risks\nhis liberty and life to help save his friend are not rare in the least.\nTrue comradeship and loyalty is met quite as often here as in the higher\nwalks of life. Nothing is more common in ordinary selfish society than to\nsee one man refuse all aid and help to another in financial need. Many\nconvicts and outcasts could teach a much needed lesson of loyalty and\ngenerosity to the exemplary man.\n\nNo amount of treatment can reclaim an evil heart if the treatment is\nadministered without love. As children at school we knew with our young\nnatural instincts the teacher who loved us and the teacher who despised\nus\u2014the one awoke feelings of love and kindness, the other hatred and\nrevenge. No heart is so pure that it may not be defiled and hardened\nby cruelty, hatred and force, and none so defiled that it may not be\ntouched and changed by gentleness and love. Unless this philosophy of\nlife is true the whole teaching of the world has been a delusion and a\nsnare. Unless love and kindness tends to love, then hatred and violence\nand force should be substituted and taught as the cardinal virtues of\nhuman life. The mistake and evil of society is in assuming that love\nis the rule of life, and at the same time that large classes of people\nare entirely outside its pale. No parent ever teaches his child any\nother philosophy than that of love. Even to quarrelsome playmates they\nare taught not to return blows and harsh language, but to meet force\nwith kindness and with love. The parent who did not depend on love to\ninfluence and mold the character of the child rather than force would be\nregarded not as a real parent but a brute. Force is worse than useless\nin developing the conduct of the child. It is true that by means of\nforce the little child may be awed by superior brute power, but he gives\nway only under protest, and the violence that he suppresses in his hand\nor tongue finds refuge in his heart. Violent acts are not evil\u2014they\nare a manifestation of evil. Good conduct is not goodness. It is but a\nmanifestation of goodness. Evil and goodness can only be conditions of\nthe inmost life, and human conduct, while it generally reflects this\ninmost life, may be so controlled as not to manifest the real soul that\nmakes the man.\n\nEvery child needs development, needs training to fit him to live in\npeace and right relations with his fellow man. Every intelligent and\nright-thinking person knows that this development must be through love,\nnot through violence and force. The parent who would teach his child to\nbe kind to animals, not to ruthlessly kill and maim, would not teach\nthis gentleness with a club. The intelligent parent would not use a\nwhip to teach a child not to beat a dog. The child is not made into the\ngood citizen, the righteous man, by pointing out that certain conduct\nwill lead to punishment, to the jail or the gallows. The beneficence of\nfear was once considered a prime necessity in the rearing of the child,\nand this theory peopled the earth with monsters and the air with spooks\nready to reach down and take the helpless child when he wandered from the\nstraight and narrow path; but this method of rearing children does not\nappeal to the judgment and humanity of to-day. The conduct of children\ncan only be reached for good by pointing to the evil results of hatred,\nof inharmony, of force, by appealing to the higher and nobler sentiments\nwhich, if once reached, are ever present, influencing and controlling\nlife. The code of hatred, of violence and force, too, is a negative code.\nThe child is given a list of the things he must not do, exactly as the\nman is furnished a list of the acts forbidden by the state. At the best,\nwhen the limits of this list are reached and the forbidden things are\nleft undone, nothing more is expected or demanded. But no code is long\nenough to make up the myriad acts of life. Kindness or unkindness can\nresult in a thousand ways in every human relationship. If the child or\nthe man observes the written code through fear, the unwritten moral code,\ninfinitely longer and more delicate, will be broken in its almost every\nline. But if the child or the man is taught his right relations to the\nworld and feels the love and sympathy due his fellow man, he has no need\nof written codes; his acts, so far as those of mortals can be, will be\nconsistent with the life and happiness of his fellow man. And this not\nthrough fear, but because he bears the highest attitude toward life.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWith our long heredity and our imperfect environment, even if the\norganized force of the state should disappear, even if the jails and\npenitentiaries should close their doors, force would only completely die\nin course of time. Evil environment and heredity may have so marked and\nscarred some men that kindness and love could never reach their souls.\nIt might take generations to stamp out hatred or destroy the ill effects\nof life; but order and kindness most surely would result, because nature\ndemands order and tolerance and without it man must die. No doubt here\nand there these so-called evil ones would arouse evil and hatred in\nreturn, and some sudden act of violence would for a time occasionally\nbe met with violence through mob law in return. But uncertain and\nreprehensible as mob law has ever been it is still much more excusable\nand more certain than the organized force of society operating through\nthe criminal courts. Mob law has the excuse of passion, of provocation,\nnot the criminal nature of deliberation, coldness and settled hate. Mob\nlaw, too, generally reaches the object of its wrath, while evidence is\nfresh and facts are easily understood and unhampered by those rules and\ntechnical forms which ensnare the weak and protect the strong. And unjust\nand unwise as the verdicts of mob law often are, they are still more\nexcusable, quicker, more certain and less erring than the judgments of\nthe criminal courts.\n\nBut neither civil law nor mob law is at all necessary for the protection\nof individuals. Men are not protected because of their strength or their\nability to fight. In the present general distribution of weapons, in one\nsense, every man\u2019s life is dependent on each person that he meets. If\nthe instinct was to kill, society as organized presents no obstacle to\nthat instinct. When casual violence results it is not the weakest or most\ndefenceless who are the victims of the casual violence of individuals.\nEven the boy at school scorns to war upon a weaker mate. The old, the\nyoung, the feeble, children and women, are especially exempt from\nviolent deeds. This is because their condition does not call for feelings\nof violence, but rather awakens feelings of compassion, and calls for aid\nand help. The non-resistant ever appeals to the courageous and the manly.\nWithout weapons of any kind, with the known determination to give no\nviolence in return, it would be very rare that men would not be safe from\ndisorganized violence. It is only the state that ever lays its hands in\nanger on the non-resistant.\n\nNeither would non-resistance in the state or individual indicate\ncowardice or weakness or lack of vital force. The ability and inclination\nto use physical strength is no indication of bravery or tenacity to life.\nThe greatest cowards are often the greatest bullies. Nothing is cheaper\nand more common than physical bravery. In the lower animals it is more\npronounced than in man. The bulldog and the fighting cock are quite as\nconspicuous examples of physical bravery as the prize-fighter or the\nsoldier. The history of all warfare shows either that physical bravery is\nnot an indication of great excellence or that supreme excellence is very\ncommon, in fact almost a universal possession. Under the intoxication\nof patriotism, or the desire for glory, or the fear of contempt, most\nmen will march with apparent willingness into the face of the greatest\ndanger. Often it requires vastly more courage to stay at home than to\nenlist\u2014more courage to retreat than to fight. Common experience shows\nhow much rarer is moral courage than physical bravery. A thousand men\nwill march to the mouth of the cannon where one man will dare espouse\nan unpopular cause. An army well equipped and ready for action has\nless terror for the ordinary man than the unfavorable comment of the\ndaily press. True courage and manhood come from the consciousness of\nthe right attitude toward the world, the faith in one\u2019s own purpose,\nand the sufficiency of one\u2019s own approval as a justification for one\u2019s\nown acts. This attitude is not that of the coward, for cowardice is\nreally disapproval of self, a consciousness of one\u2019s own littleness and\nunworthiness in the light of one\u2019s own soul, which cannot be deceived.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIntelligent men are willing to accept many truths that they believe\nare not fitted for the universal acceptance of mankind, and however\nthey may feel that punishment is wrong they still urge that it will not\ndo to teach this doctrine to the great mass of men and to carry its\npractice into daily life. But sooner or later all conduct and all life\nmust rest on truth. It is only fact that can form a basis for permanent\ntheories that tend to the preservation of the race. No one is too poor,\nor too young, or too vicious to know the truth, for the truth alone is\nconsistent with all the facts of life, and this alone can furnish any\nrule of life. The truth alone can make free. When society is taught the\ntruth that it is wrong to punish, to use force, to pass judgment on man,\nit will have no need for jails. The man who really knows and understands\nthis truth can have no malice in his heart, can use no force and violence\nagainst his fellow, but will reach him with love and pity. The man or\nsociety that understands this truth will know that so-called crime is\nonly so-called crime; that human conduct is what the necessities of life\nmake of the individual soul. Then in reality, as now only partially, men\nwill turn their attention to the causes that make crime. Then will they\nseek to prevent and cure, not to punish and destroy. Then man will learn\nto know that the cause of crime is the unjust condition of human life;\nthat penal laws are made to protect earth\u2019s possessions in the hands of\nthe vicious and the strong. Man will learn that poverty and want are\ndue to the false conditions, the injustice which looks to human law and\nviolence and force for its safeguard and protection. Man will learn\nthat crime is but the hard profession that is left open to a large class\nof men by their avaricious fellows. When new opportunities for life are\ngiven, a fairer condition of existence will gradually be opened up and\nthe need for violence and the cause of violence will disappear.\n\nInstead of avenging a murder by taking a judge, sheriff, jurors,\nwitnesses, jailer, hangman, and the various appendages of the court,\u2014by\ntaking these and staining their hands with blood and crime, the world\nwill make the original murder impossible, and thus save the crimes of\nall. Neither will the vicious control without the aid of law. Society\never has and must ever have a very large majority who naturally fall\ninto order, social adjustment and a rational, permissible means of life.\nThe disorganized vicious would be far less powerful than the organized\nvicious, and would soon disappear.\n\nPunishment to terrorize men from violating human order is like the threat\nof hell to terrorize souls into obedience to the law of God. Both mark\nprimitive society, both are degrading and debasing, and can only appeal\nto the lower instincts of the lower class of men. Most religious teachers\nhave ceased to win followers by threats of hell. Converts of this sort\nare not generally desired. The religion that does not approach and appeal\nto men along their higher conduct is not considered worthy to teach\nto man. And those souls who cannot be moved through the sentiments of\njustice and humanity, rather than threats of eternal fire, are very, very\nrare, and even should such a soul exist the fear of hell would cause it\nstill further to shrivel and decay.\n\nHatred, bitterness, violence and force can bring only bad results\u2014they\nleave an evil stain on everyone they touch. No human soul can be rightly\nreached except through charity, humanity and love.","title":"Resist not evil","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":28209}