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for not more than ten years. For counterfeiting paper currency the punishment is still more severe.

The highest crime known to the law is treason, which may be broadly defined as an attack upon government itself. Under this broad definition in England and in other countries much injustice has been wrought. Men who have committed no crime other than to earn the displeasure of rulers have been charged with treason and put to death. To guard against evils of this sort the framers of the Constitution took the precaution of precisely defining what acts should be regarded as treasonable. To commit treason against the United States one must wage war against them (112) or give aid or comfort to their enemies.1 If there be an actual assemblage of men whose purpose is to proceed with force against the authority or property of the United States each member of such an assemblage may be adjudged a traitor. If a citizen-and no one but a citizen can be a traitor-sells a public enemy provisions or arms, he gives that enemy aid and comfort and is guilty of treason. As an additional safeguard against the abuse of power the Constitution provides that at least two witnesses must testify to the treasonable act of which the accused is charged (113). The punishment of treason against the United States (114) is death, or, at the discretion of the court, five years of hard labor and a fine of not less than ten thousand dollars. A civil officer of the United States found guilty of treason by the process of impeachment is deprived of his office.

The Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Criminals. Crime in the United States costs the government about two hundred million dollars annually-an amount almost as large as that expended for education, and quite as large as that expended upon the army and navy. The financial

1 Treason against a State is defined in the State constitutions, and the definition is usually identical with that given in the Constitution of the United States.

loss which criminals inflict upon society is estimated to be four hundred million dollars. The total cost of crime is, therefore, six hundred million dollars annually, and the burden is not growing lighter. The criminal class consists of more than one per cent. of the population, and it cannot be shown that this proportion is decreasing; indeed, able authorities assert that the proportion is increasing. This small but persevering and dangerous class has been present in all ages and in all countries and governments have tried in vain to extirpate it. Law-makers, appealing to the emotion of fear, for a long time endeavored to decrease crime by making punishments for all kinds of offenses extremely severe, but they found that severity of penalty would not solve the problem. Then the law-makers attempted to apply the principle of justice in the punishment of criminals; they adapted the punishment to the crime, affixing a slight penalty to a petty offense and ordaining a more severe punishment for a more flagrant deed. Still this did not solve the problem; no scheme of punishments, however nicely adjusted, has as yet had the effect of decreasing crime.

In recent years we have been trying to prevent crime by removing its causes. It is recognized that crime is due in a large measure to an unfavorable environment, to bad company, to poverty, to the enervating influence of wealth and luxury, to crowded tenements, to the evil influences of cities, and philanthropists and statesmen are bending their efforts toward improving the environment which is responsible for crime.

Furthermore, the mental attitude of the public toward criminals is changing. Formerly it was the universal opinion that a criminal was a foe to society, and that in meting out punishment to this foe the welfare of society alone should be regarded. Now in the adjustment of punishments there is a disposition to regard the welfare of the criminal as well as the welfare of society. It is contended that a criminal is a person who is afflicted with a disease,

the disease of criminality, and that government ought to heal this disease if it can do so. If the criminal cannot be healed government must prevent him from running at large. If, however, the criminal is curable he must be restored to society as soon as he recovers. A penitentiary, according to this doctrine, is simply a moral hospital where criminals are confined until they are cured of the disease of criminality. In conformity with this view industrial schools, reformatories and asylums are, for many offenses, taking the place of jails and penitentiaries, and indeterminate sentences-sentences which detain the criminal only so long as he remains unreformed-are being substituted for commitments for arbitrary definite periods. Whether the new methods are better calculated to diminish crime than were the old can be determined only by experience.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. How was crime punished in the earlier stages of social development?

2. Why is it necessary that the law should be constantly designating new crimes?

3. When affixing a punishment to a crime what purpose does the lawmaker have in view? What are the usual forms of punishment?

4. Give an account of the functions of the State government in reference to crime. What are common law crimes?

5. Illustrate how punishment for crime varies from State to State. 6. What crimes are punishable by the federal government? What is treason? How is it punished?

7. What is the money cost of crime in the United States?

8. What are some of the causes of crime?

9. What new policy is being adopted in reference to the treatment of criminals?

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

1. Arrange the following causes of crime according to the percentage of criminals produced by each: bad company, drink, poverty, temper, lack of moral principle, mental incapacity. If you are unable to secure the statistics use your judgment as to an arrangement.

2. How much would be saved in money per voter in the United States if everybody would do right?

3. Are you inclined to support the doctrine that the State in dealing with a criminal should entertain no idea of punishment; that it should simply treat the criminal as a sick person? Give reasons for your

answer.

4. Does the constitution of this State say anything about crime? about punishments? What does the Constitution of the United States say about punishments (142) Are those who have been convicted of crime in this State permitted to vote?

5. What industrial schools, reformatories and asylums are supported in this State? What is a juvenile court?

6. What notable persons have been accused of treason in the United States? Has there ever been a conviction for treason?

7. Prepare a five-minute paper on The Elmira Reformatory.

Topics for Special Work.-The Treatment of Crime: 4, 130–147. Causes of Crime: 29, 237-261.

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CHARITIES

Charity a Function of Government. Society always has its poor and unfortunate, and the problem of dealing with poverty is hardly less perplexing than the problem of dealing with crime. Poverty and crime are often found together, but they are not related as cause and effect, for pauperism may decrease while crime is increasing, and vice versa. The causes of poverty, like the causes of crime, are to be sought largely in social and economic conditions, and the true cure for poverty consists in the betterment of those conditions.

That it is the function of government to care for the dependent class has long been recognized. Among the ancients a portion of the tithes was by law devoted to the In ancient Rome corn-laws provided for the distribution of grain from the public granaries to those who could not afford to buy. Throughout the middle ages charity was for the most part administered by the church, but in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the governments of Europe began to legislate for the poor. In the reign of Elizabeth England passed a law requiring each parish to support its own poor, and this law served as a model for poor-laws in the colonies, and later was imitated by the several States.

The Care of the Poor a Function of Local Government. The federal government has no charitable functions. It maintains homes for its worn-out sailors and soldiers, and

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