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The President:

This invitation will also go to the Executive Committee.

W. B. Swaney, of Tennessee:

On behalf of Tennessee I desire to extend an invitation to the Association to meet at the famous Lookout Mountain. We have erected on top of that magnificent mountain a convention hall, and there are ample accommodations for all.

The President:

That invitation also will be referred to the Executive Committee.

I will call for the report of the Committee on Indian Legislation.

Everett E. Ellinwood, of Arizona:

I have the honor to be the representative of the committee to day. The report of the committee is printed and need not be read.

Willis Van Deventer, of Wyoming:

I move that the report be received and filed.

The motion was seconded and was adopted.

The Committee on Penal Laws and Prison Discipline. John H. Stiness, of Rhode Island, is chairman of that committee.

In the absence of the Chairman, the report was read by Martin Dewey Follett, of Ohio.

(See the Report in the Appendix.)

Martin Dewey Follett:

I move that the recommendation of the committee, that we endorse the proposition of the continuance of the professional study of delinquents, be approved.

Joseph R. Edson, of the District of Columbia:

I second that motion.

The President:

The question is on the filing of the report and the adoption of the specific resolution recommended by the committee.

Joseph R. Edson, of the District of Columbia:

I understand that this resolution has been adopted by ninety or more associations of either a state or national character. These associations are of a legal, religious or educational character. Now I desire to state that the main purpose of the work to which this resolution has reference is the study of the causes of crime, pauperism, defectiveness and other forms of abnormality with a view to lessening or preventing them, such study to be conducted by the best methods known to science and sociology. The work is fundamentally humanitarian. Our country pays out hundreds of thousands of dollars for the erection of monuments and for the study of rocks, plants and animals. It would seem proper that it pay out a few thousand dollars to study in a rigid, scientific way its greatest enemiesthe criminal and other abnormal classes. The abnormal classes cost this nation more than five times as much as the total expenses of the federal government, yet the government gives little or nothing for scientific investigation of the causes and conditions of the evils involving this enormous expense with a view to lessening this expense by lessening these evils. In addition to the general scope of the work a few things might be mentioned desirable to find out: (1) What physical and mental characteristics may be common to reformatory inmates and unruly children in schools? (2) What physical characteristics may be common to the feeble-minded and dull children in schools? (3) The physical and mental differences between habitual criminals and criminals in general. Such a knowledge would make it possible to know about children in advance and better protect them from evils. In the case of the criminals such knowledge in advance would enable us better to protect the community. Exhaustive study of single typical criminals is valuable because they represent a large number. The more exact knowledge we have of inmates the better we can manage them in the institutions. Such work will bring more men of education and training into the service. As most of the inmates of reformatories and prisons are normal, any

knowledge gained about them will be useful to the community at large. Any system of training or education that will help inmates of penal institutions to become good citizens is needed in the community at large.

Proper and full statistics of the abnormal classes would alone justify this work. This requires not only a knowledge. of statistics, but first-hand knowledge of the subject matter. The statistics must be interpreted; a pile of bricks does not make a house. This is the main reason so many statistics are useless. The work naturally falls under government control, as the institutions for the abnormal classes are already under such control. The university cannot properly do such work as the study of the large numbers which are necessary for sage conclusions, nor can private endowment gather matter of a more or less confidential nature from public institutions.

The following statements as to the criminal are not based upon experimental research so much as upon the experience of those who have studied criminals directly or who have had practical control of large numbers in prisons or reformatories:

First. The prison should be a reformatory and the reformatory a school. The principal object of both should be to teach good mental, moral and physical habits. Both should be distinctly educational.

Second. It is detrimental financially, as well as socially and morally, to release prisoners when there is probability of their returning to crime, for in this case the convict is much less expensive than the ex-convict,

Third. The determinate sentence permits many prisoners to be released who are morally certain to return to crime. The indeterminate sentence is the best method of affording the prisoner an opportunity to reform without exposing society to unnecessary dangers.

Fourth. The ground for the imprisonment of the criminal is, first of all, because he is dangerous to society. This principle avoids the uncertainty that may rest upon the decision as to the degree of freedom of will, for upon this last prin

ciple some of the most brutal crimes would receive a light punishment. If a tiger is in the street, the main question is not the degree of his freedom of will or guilt. Every man who is dangerous to property or life, whether insane, criminal or feeble-minded, should be confined, but not necessarily punished.

Fifth. The publication in the newspapers of criminal details and photographs is a positive evil to society on account of the law of imitation, and in addition it makes the criminal proud of his record and develops the morbid curiosity of the people, and it is especially the mentally and morally weak who are . affected.

Sixth. It is admitted by some of the most intelligent criminals and by prison officers in general that the criminal is a fool, for he is opposing himself to the best, the largest and the strongest portion of society and is almost sure to fail.

In connection with this resolution it may not be out of place. to make a few remarks as to the gentleman who has planned and developed the work embodied in the resolution. Mr. MacDonald has for several years been endeavoring to have established at Washington and in some of the state capitals a laboratory to study the abnormal classes. For the last ten years he has carried on the work in the Bureau of Education at Washington under many difficulties. He is the author of some ten works on criminological and other patho-social subjects, six of which have been published by the government.

These works are used as reference or text books in our universities and some have been translated into several languages. I might mention "Abnormal Man," "Experimental Study of Children," "A Plan for the Study of Man" and "Statistics of Crime, Suicide and Insanity." In brief, his work has been well received in the scientific world, both in Europe and this country, though it be of a pioneer nature and therefore liable to encounter special difficulties in the way of prejudice and misinterpretation, and in addition the unavoidable mistakes to which all pioneer work is subject. Mr. MacDonald has had a

very extensive education and preparation for such work. After being graduated from college, he spent two years as post graduate at Harvard in philosophical and psychological lines; was then appointed Fellow in Psychology at Johns Hopkins University. Subsequently he spent four years in Europe in medical and sociological studies, especially in so-called pathosocial investigations. He is now recognized as the pioneer in this country. After being under specialists in different universities, he was appointed Docent in Criminology in Clark University of Worcester, Massachusetts, where he first began to develop the work. After two years of lecture and seminary work here, he was called to the United States Bureau of Edueation to continue this line of inquiry.

William L. January, of Michigan:

I rise to the point of order that the gentleman has exceeded. his time.

Joseph R. Edson :

I am just through, sir.

The President:

The question is on the adoption of the resolution that has been read.

The resolution was adopted.

The President:

Is the Committee on Patent Law ready to report?

Robert S. Taylor, of Indiana:

I am the only member of the committee present; two of the members being detained at home by illness and two others being absent abroad. I did not know that until I came here. The committee therefore has no written report ready, but there is a word that I want to say. At the last meeting of of the Association the committee was directed to present to Congress two bills, which were considered and approved by the Association at that time. One was a bill providing for the creation of a Court of Patent Appeals; the other was a bill amending the Trade-Mark Law. Those bills were referred to

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