The bars against Asiatics call for a special word.
224. ASIATIC IMMIGRATION.—By Asiatic immigration is here meant Chinese and Japanese immigration, immigrants from other parts of Asia being relatively unimportant.
The discovery of gold in California in 1849 caused a large number of Chinese coolies to migrate to this country. This immigration grew steadily until 1882, in which year the entrance of Chinese laborers into the United States was forbidden. Our exclusion policy has been repeatedly reaffirmed, as the result of which there are to-day fewer than 70,000 Chinese in this country. The majority of these are found on the Pacific Coast, engaged as small tradesmen, truck farmers, or personal servants.
Japanese immigration to this country did not become noticeable until about 1900. After that date, however, the volume of Japanese immigration so alarmed the Pacific Coast states that a Japanese exclusion policy was formulated as early as 1907. At present the only classes of Japanese that are allowed to reside in this country permanently are "former residents," "parents, wives or children of residents," or "settled agriculturists," the latter being Japanese already in possession of land here. There are at present fewer than 120,000 Japanese in this country. Most of them are found on the Pacific Coast, engaged in occupations similar to those of the Chinese in the same area. [Footnote: Chinese and Japanese students desiring to study in this country are allowed to enter the United States by special arrangement.]
Those most familiar with the situation are practically unanimous in declaring for the continued exclusion of Chinese and Japanese immigrants. In the case of both races, the standard of living is so much lower than that of native Americans that open competition between the newly arrived Asiatic and the native American would result in the latter being driven from the labor market. The most important social reason for the exclusion of these two races is that the differences of race and religion existing between Asiatics and native Americans render assimilation of the Chinese and Japanese extremely difficult, if not impossible.
225. THE FUTURE OF IMMIGRATION.—A half century ago the belief was current that an immigration policy was unnecessary, since the sources of immigration would eventually dry up. The sources of the "old" immigration have dried up somewhat, but new sources have been opened up in southern and southeastern Europe. Immigration is a pressing social problem, and it is likely that it will be even more pressing in the future. The American frontier has disappeared and our boundaries are fixed. Urbanization is proceeding at a rapid rate, industry is becoming more complex, public opinion is more insistent that such social problems as immigration shall be solved.
226. WHAT SHALL BE OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD IMMIGRATION?—There is no good reason why immigration should be absolutely prohibited. On the other hand, the most public-spirited students of the question believe that the careful restriction of immigration is imperative. Clearly, it is our duty to accept only such immigrants as show promise of becoming capable and efficient American citizens. It is also clearly our duty to accept even this type of immigrant only in such numbers as we can conveniently assimilate. We must not be selfish with America, but we should not be misled by the statement that anyone in Europe has a "right" to make his home in this country. Those who come to this country are personally benefited, no doubt, but unrestricted immigration may lower the tone of American life and permanently injure our social and political institutions. America is for the present generation, but is also for posterity. The millions of unborn have as much right to be considered as have the millions now clamoring at our gates. For this reason, the "right" of an individual to migrate to America must be interpreted in the light of what he will mean to the future of this country.
227. HELPING THE IMMIGRANT IN HIS NEW HOME.—The readjustment, assimilation, or "Americanization" of the immigrant is a problem of vital importance. The term "Americanization" is variously interpreted, and must be used with care. Americanization ought not to force the immigrant to give up his native tongue, or his old-country customs. It ought to be a mutually helpful process, whereby native Americans would help the immigrant in adjusting himself to his new environment, while, in turn, the immigrant would be permitted and encouraged to make his own contribution to American life. Since the immigrant has little or no opportunity to contribute to American life until he has become adjusted to his new home, it follows that the most fundamental part of an Americanization program is one of helping the immigrant solve his problems.
In carrying out this part of the Americanization program it is essential that the newly arrived alien be protected against unscrupulous persons who seek to exploit him. Adequate laws ought to be supplemented by the work of immigrant aid societies and other private organizations whose duty it would be to protect immigrants against dishonest boarding houses, swindlers, unreliable banks, and other forms of imposition. Friendly help of this type will do much toward encouraging and inspiring the alien in his new life.
Improvement in the immigrant's economic status is an important part of an Americanization program. Not only does the undue concentration of immigrants in cities spell ill-health and a great temptation to crime and vice, but immigrant laborers sometimes secure lower wages in cities than they would receive in the more sparsely settled parts of the country. Of considerable interest, therefore, is the recent development of plans for redistributing immigrants into the rural and sparsely populated districts. [Footnote: The movement to transfer immigrants to the rural districts is not unqualifiedly good; indeed, it may do more harm than good. For the dangers of this movement, see Chapter XXV.] Since 1907 the Division of Information in the Bureau of Labor Statistics has done valuable work in finding employment for immigrants in rural districts. Much remains to be done, however.
The school, of course, is an important agent of Americanization. Whether or not the immigrant retains his old-country language, he ought to learn to speak, read and write English. The school is likewise an important means of instructing the newcomers and their children in the essentials of American history and government. Where the school is being used as a real community center, the institution becomes truly a method of introducing the foreign-born to the everyday activities of American life. The increasing emphasis upon the racial traits of different immigrant groups, with a view to encouraging unique contributions to the culture of the community, deserves special notice.
Americanization measures of the type touched upon in this section help to build the nation on a sound foundation of friendly and intelligent co÷peration.
1. What proportion of our population is foreign-born? What proportion is native?
2. Distinguish between the "old" and the "new" immigration.
3. Describe the increasing volume of immigration.
4. Outline the distribution of immigrants in this country.
5. What are the economic effects of immigration?
6. Explain the relation of immigration to the wages and standard of living of American workmen.
7. What are the social effects of immigration?
8. What factors impede the assimilation of the "new" immigrants?
9. What classes of aliens are excluded from this country? What is "contract labor"?
10. What is the nature of Asiatic immigration? Why are Asiatics excluded?
11. Does it seem likely that the immigration problem will be more or less acute in the future? Why?
12. What should be our attitude toward immigration?
13. What is the chief aim of a good Americanization program?
1. Williamson,Readings in American Democracy, chapter xx.
Or all of the following:
2.Annalsof the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. xciii, pages 134-138, 156-161.
3. Burch and Patterson,American Social Problems, chapters ix and x.
4. Ellwood,Sociology and Modern Social Problems, chapter x.
5. Roberts,The Problem of Americanization, chapters iii and iv.
1. Define a foreigner. (Annals, page 135.)
2. What is Professor Walker's theory of immigration? (Burch and Patterson, pages 95-96.)
3. Compare the "old" and the "new" immigration in 1882. (Ellwood, page 217.)
4. Compare the "old" and the "new" immigration in 1907. (Ellwood, page 218.)
5. What are the three most important groups of immigrants at the present time? (Burch and Patterson, pages 108-111.)
6. What is the extent of illiteracy among the immigrant population? (Burch and Patterson, pages 115-116.)
7. Discuss the occupational distribution of immigrants. (Ellwood, pages 223-224.)
8. What is the "racial" argument against unrestricted immigration? (Ellwood, pages 234-235.)
9. How can the average citizen help in the Americanization movement? (Roberts, pages 45-47.)
10. Why should the Americanization worker make himself familiar with the condition under which the immigrant works? (Roberts, pages 48-53.)
11. What is the significance of the club life of immigrant groups? (Roberts, pages 57-61.)
12. What is the importance of the "advisory council" in Americanization work? (Roberts, pages 86-87.)
1. Classify the residents of your community according as they are (a) Foreign born (b) Native-born children of foreign-born parents, or (c) Natives.
2. Study your community with the aim of determining whether or not the character of its immigrant class has changed within the last twenty- five years.
3. Classify the immigrant groups of your community on the basis of occupation. Notice in particular the proportion of immigrants engaged in agriculture and in the trained professions.
4. Make a visit to a near-by foreign colony, and report to the class upon your observations.
5. Interview the officials of a trade union on the effect of Unrestricted immigration upon wages.
6. Draw up a workable plan for the redistribution of immigrants in your state.
7. Draw up a plan for an Americanization survey in your state. (Write to the Bureau of Education in the U. S. Department of the Interior, for Bulletin, 1919, No. 77, on State Americanization.)
8. Race elements in the population of the American colonies. (Commons,Races and Immigrants in America, chapter ii.)
9. History of immigration to the United States. (Any standard text on immigration.)
10. The journey to America. (Abbot,The Immigrant and the Community, chapter i; Steiner,On the trail of the Immigrant; Antin,They Who Knock at Our Gates. See also Miss Antin'sThe Promised Land.)
11. Assisted immigration. (R. Mayo Smith,Emigration and Immigration, chapter ix.)
12. Geographical distribution of immigration. (Semple,American History and its Geographic Conditions, chapter xv.)
13. Economic aspects of immigration. (Consult any standard text on immigration.)
14. "Birds of passage." (Consult any standard text on immigration.)
15. Immigration and the trade unions. (Carlton,History and Problems of Organized Labor, chapter xi. See also any standard text on immigration.)
16. Social aspects of immigration. (Consult any standard text on immigration.)
17. Political aspects of immigration. (Consult any standard text on immigration.)
18. Chinese immigration. (Coolidge,Chinese Immigration; Hall,Immigration, chapter xv; Jenks and Lauck,The Immigration Problem, pages 231-237;Annals, vol. xciii, pages 7-13; Gulick,American Democracy and Asiatic Citizenship.)
19. Japanese immigration. (Annals, vol. xciii, part i; Jenks andLauck,The Immigration Problem, pages 241-252; Steiner,TheJapanese Invasion; Gulick,American Democracy and AsiaticCitizenship.)
20. Americanization. (Annals, vol. xciii, part in; Woods,Americans in Process; Steiner,From Alien to Citizen; Bogardus,Essentials of Americanization; Roberts,The Problem of Americanization)
21. Is assisted immigration an evil?
22. Can immigrants be redistributed effectively by governmental agencies?
23. Should we retain the literacy test as part of our immigration policy?
24. At the present time many aliens journey across the Atlantic only to find that, for various reasons, they cannot be admitted to this country. How might the resulting disappointment and loss of time and money be avoided?
228. THE NATURE OF CRIME.—A crime is an act which is punishable by law because it is considered injurious to the community. If the average man were a hermit, living entirely alone, his actions would affect only himself, and he would be subjected to little or no control by any community. But the average man is a member of a highly civilized community, and what he does, or what he fails to do, often profoundly affects other individuals. Members of the community therefore agree upon standards of conduct, to which individuals must conform. [Footnote: Where democracy does not exist, or is only partially developed, laws may be imposed upon the group from without. In such a country as the United States, however, legal standards of conduct are preeminently the result of mutual agreements, freely entered into.] It is the failure to conform to these standards which constitutes a crime, and which entails punishment by law.
What constitutes a crime depends, of course, upon the level of civilization reached by a community, and upon the interpretation which it places upon right conduct. A deed considered heroic in one age may be considered a crime in a later century. In the days of chivalry, for example, it was sometimes considered heroic to rob or even kill wicked nobles in order to distribute their wealth to the poor. At the present time, of course, such acts would constitute a crime.
229. THE CAUSES OF CRIME.—The causes of crime are so various and so complex that their accurate classification is impossible. But some light may be thrown upon the subject if we think of crime as influenced by economic, social, personal, and political factors.
Looking at crime from an economic point of view, it is obvious that poverty often accompanies crime. In many cases, it is claimed, such crimes as larceny, forgery, and robbery are directly traceable to poverty. Similarly, it is said that unemployment and industrial accidents may incite individuals to crime. Many authorities claim, however, that while bad economic conditions accompany and often encourage crime, such conditions alone are not a direct cause of crime. According to this latter view, poverty, for example, will not cause a person to commit a crime unless he is feeble-minded, depraved in morals, or otherwise defective in character.
While there is a good deal of dispute as to whether or not poverty is a direct cause of crime, it is quite generally agreed that a bad economic situation gives rise to social conditions which can be definitely connected with criminality. The strain and artificiality of urban life, together with the difficulty of obtaining inexpensive and wholesome recreation in the poorer sections of large cities, has a close connection with crime. The overcrowding so common in tenement districts renders difficult or impossible the maintenance of high moral standards. Where mother or children are habitually employed outside the home, the young are often denied proper home training. Divorce, desertion, or the death of the bread-winner may break up the family and indirectly give rise to illiteracy, vice, and crime.
Often indistinguishable from the social causes are the personal causes of crime. Where alcoholism or vicious habits are given as the cause of crime, it may be impossible to say whether social or personal defect is primarily to blame. Illiteracy, superficially apersonalcause of crime, may often be traced to a badsocialenvironment. Thus an individual may be illiterate because his parents were unwilling or unable to send him to school, or because evil companions discouraged him from study. Such personal causes as mental defect are extremely important, indeed, many students maintain that bad economic and social conditions are negligible causes of crime, unless found in connection with low mentality and a depraved moral sense.
Last among the causes of crime we may consider defects in government. The laws of a community may be so numerous, or so unwisely worded, that even responsible individuals violate them without understanding the nature of their act. After children have committed petty offenses through carelessness or a sense of mischief, the harshness of the police may so embitter or antagonize the culprits that their criminal tendencies are intensified. An important cause of crime is the custom, still common in many states, of imprisoning young and first offenders in county jails, where they are allowed to mingle with, and learn about crime from, hardened and depraved criminals.
230. THE REMEDIES FOR CRIME.—The causes of crime suggest the nature of its remedies. Wherever bad economic conditions either directly or indirectly encourage crime, the remedy is, of course, the relief or abolition of poverty. This problem has already been discussed.
Since bad social conditions are often the result of poverty, any measures which will lessen poverty will also remove many of the so- called social causes of crime. Education, the safeguarding of the home, constructive charity, and similar measures will also help to remove the social causes of crime. These questions are discussed elsewhere in this text, and need not be gone into here.
The improvement of economic and social conditions will ultimately help to eliminate bad heredity, vice, and other of the personal causes of crime.
With the understanding, then, that the eradication of the economic, social and personal causes of crime is discussed elsewhere, we may here confine ourselves to the question of preventing crime by remedying the defects of government.
231. JUSTICE AS AN IDEAL.—Justice has constituted one of the basic ideals of the English-speaking peoples since the days of Magna Charta. "To no one will we sell, and to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice," declared that great document. This conception was later glorified into an ideal which, after having persisted for four centuries in England, was brought to the New World by the English colonists. The first ten amendments to the Federal Constitution and the Bill of Rights contained in the constitutions of the several states have been called by Lord Bryce "the legitimate children of Magna Charta." Since the beginning of our history, thus, a great cornerstone of American democracy has been the concept of sound and equitable law, impartially and effectively administered.
232. THE DENIAL OF JUSTICE.—Within the last decade we have come to realize that in many of the criminal courts of this country justice is an ideal rather than a fact. "The administration of criminal law in all the states of this Union," said Chief Justice Taft a few years ago, "is a disgrace to civilization."
Our criminal law is administered unjustly in two ways.
First, it sometimes allows the rich, the cunning, and the powerful offenders to escape the penalty for their crimes. In many states the court dockets are so crowded that influential offenders are not convicted for years, if at all. Rich prisoners may be released on bail, and consideration of their case so delayed that the evidence disappears. Public interest is diverted to new cases, and eventually the case may be quietly dismissed. Mr. Taft points out that we lead the world in the number of serious crimes which go unpunished. Appeals are allowed almost as a matter of course, so that in many serious criminal trials the original verdict is only the beginning of the case.
Second, the law which often allows the powerful and crafty to avoid punishment may operate to deny justice to the poor. Ignorant prisoners are in many cases so bewildered by cumbersome and technical court procedure that they allow their cases to be disposed of without adequate protection of their rights. Often they have no one to advise them as to their constitutional rights and privileges. If they are not only ignorant but poor, they find themselves unable to employ proper counsel. The Constitution indeed recognizes the right of an accused person to have counsel, but in many states if a man is too poor or too ignorant to secure a lawyer, he is obliged to stand trial without anyone to represent or advise him. In some states, the court appoints a lawyer to represent such defendants. Sometimes the assigned counsel is dishonest, and too often his primary object is to get a fee rather than to secure justice for his client. Generally the counsel so appointed is inexperienced, and consequently no match for an able and experienced prosecuting attorney, whose reputation may depend upon the number of convictions that he secures.
233. THE REFORM OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.—The reform of criminal procedure is assuming great importance as a problem of American democracy. In many states there is a demand for a wider and more energetic use of the Bertillon and finger print systems for the identification of criminals. Because of the fact that in our large cities a heavy percentage of crimes are committed without the subsequent arrest of the culprit, there is a growing demand for the improvement of our police systems. Our criminal law needs to be simplified, so that justice may not be delayed by technicalities, long arguments on the admissibility of evidence, and the abuse of the right of appeal. Probably a good many of the delays and technicalities of legal procedure could be avoided if at the trial the judge were to exercise a greater amount of control over the proceedings.
The reform of criminal procedure has a double aim. First, it aims to reorganize and perfect criminal procedure so that persons who have committed an offense will be apprehended and always made to pay the penalty for their crimes. Toward the achievement of this ideal we have as yet done very little. We are still woefully behind such a country as England, where justice is administered with relative rapidity and sureness. Second, the reform of criminal procedure aims to prevent the law from bearing with undue weight upon the poor and ignorant. Here we are making greater progress. Let us notice what is being done to guarantee justice to persons who are unable adequately to safeguard their own legal rights.
234. THE LEGAL AID SOCIETY.—A valuable institution is the legal aid society, which originated in New York City in 1876, and which has since spread to other parts of the country. Of the forty legal aid societies now in existence in this country, some of the better known are located in New York City, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Boston, and Chicago. The legal aid society is generally a private organization, created and maintained by public-spirited citizens who believe that the poor and ignorant ought to be given legal advice free of charge, or upon the payment of a nominal fee. These societies extend advice on both civil and criminal matters. The legal aid society helps materially to secure justice by acquainting the individual with his legal rights, and by acting as his counsel in court. Such organizations are especially valuable in safeguarding the rights and privileges of immigrants in large cities. The total number of persons helped annually by legal aid societies in the United States is over 100,000.
235. THE PUBLIC DEFENDER.—The Public Defender movement is an outgrowth of the feeling that it is unfair for the court to assign an inexperienced and sometimes unreliable lawyer to defend a penniless prisoner, while the case is prosecuted by a skilful district attorney. In spite of the presumption that the prisoner is innocent until he is proved guilty, such practices as this have operated as though the prisoner were presumed to be guilty.
In 1912 Oklahoma attempted to remedy this evil by appointing a Public Defender whose duty it should be to aid in the defense of persons unable to employ counsel. The next year the city of Los Angeles appointed a Public Defender who, as a sworn public counsel of experience and integrity, makes it his business to defend poor prisoners without charge. A few years later, Portland, Oregon, and Omaha, Nebraska, appointed similar officers. Since 1916 many other cities, and a few states, have provided for a Public Defender of some kind, although in many cases the provision is as yet inadequate. In all cities in which the plan has been given a trial, the Public Defender has been instrumental in securing justice for the poor, and in raising the moral tone of the criminal trial. By eliminating much unnecessary delay from the criminal trial, the Public Defender has also helped to reduce court expenses.
236. CHANGING IDEALS IN PENOLOGY.—In the early stages of society the spirit of revenge seems to have been a chief motive in the punishment of criminals, although the desire to prevent crime must also have been a factor. With the progress of civilization revenge declined in importance, and the punishment of the criminal seems to have been undertaken chiefly for the purpose of preventing future crimes. Long periods of imprisonment, inhuman punishments, and the frequent use of the death penalty were characteristic of this attitude toward crime. Curiously enough, punishments were imposed according to the seriousness of the crime committed, without regard to the character and needs of the criminal.
Of recent years the theory of punishment has been still further modified. In the first place, we have begun to doubt if punishment always serves a useful purpose. Punishment does not always deter criminals, and for this reason it is likely that the death penalty and other cruel and inhuman methods of punishment may be dispensed with, without a resultant increase in the amount of crime. In the second place, punishment has taken on a new aim. More and more we are coming to believe that it should be imposed, not according to the seriousness of the crime committed, but according as the individual criminal needs to be punished in order to effect his reformation. This new attitude is based upon the assumption that the criminal is a person who is not adapted to the conditions of modern life, and that the chief aim of the authorities should be so to reform him that he will become a useful member of society. In case reform seems impossible, the criminal should be segregated in an institution.
237. INDIVIDUALIZED TREATMENT OF OFFENDERS.—The emphasis now placed upon reformation has made necessary a new point of view on the part of the public. We are beginning to make use of a mass of data furnished by physiology, psychology, and sociology, and on the basis of these data to subject prisoners to individualized treatment. Instead of herding all offenders into a single institution such as the county jail or the penitentiary, we are beginning to inquire, first of all, whether the prisoner might not be treated most effectively outside prison walls. For those offenders who seem to require institutional treatment, we are developing a whole series of institutions, designed to care for special types of abnormality. Industrial and farm colonies for petty offenders and occasional criminals, hospitals and colonies for the mentally defective, industrial schools and reformatories for certain types of juvenile offenders, and penitentiaries for hardened offenders, all these are included in the correctional system of the more progressive states.
238. SUBSTITUTES FOR IMPRISONMENT.—The belief is growing that young offenders, first offenders, and those committing petty crimes, may often be corrected without actual imprisonment. Increasingly common is the probation system, the essence of which is to suspend the sentence of the court upon certain conditions. The offender is placed in charge of a court officer who will stand in the relation of friend and guardian to him, in order to supervise his conduct and to attempt his reformation. The success of the probation system depends largely upon the care and judgment with which probation officers control their charges.
The use of the fine deserves mention. Generally the sentence for a petty offense is a fine, with imprisonment as an alternative in case the prisoner is unable to pay the fine. Realizing the corrupting influence of the jail sentence for first or slight offenders, court officials in many cities are making the payment of the fine less difficult. In Buffalo, Indianapolis, Chicago, and other cities it is customary in some cases to allow the payment of a fine in instalments. This ultimately secures the fine; it has a disciplinary effect upon the offender; and it keeps him out of jail.
239. MENTAL DEFECTIVES.—Recent progress in medicine and psychology has demonstrated that many criminals are mentally defective. Such persons are not fully responsible for their acts, and nothing is to be gained by committing them to prison. They need special treatment in institutions for the insane, the feeble-minded, and the otherwise defective. In recognition of this fact, the criminal courts of our larger cities now make extensive use of psychopathic experts. It is the duty of these experts to determine the mental status of the prisoner, and, in case he is found to be mentally defective, to recommend the type of treatment needed.
This is an admirable development, provided care is taken to prevent the abuse of the insanity plea by influential criminals who, though normal mentally, seek to evade responsibility for their deliberate crimes.
240. THE JUVENILE OFFENDER.—It has been proved that a large percentage of hardened criminals begin their careers by some careless or mischievous act for which they were severely or unwisely punished. Formerly, juvenile offenders were treated much as were adult criminals; more recently we are coming to believe that children ought not to be committed to penal institutions, but rather should be put on probation, or sent to correctional institutions of a special type. Wherever possible, institutional treatment of every kind ought to be avoided, for the crimes of children are clearly in a different class from those of the adult. In New York City a few years ago, for example, half the children brought into court were there because of the lack of recreation facilities. Petty theft and malicious mischief are often traceable to bad home influences and the unnatural surroundings of the city. These circumstances, coupled with the fact that immature children are often unaware of the seriousness of their lawless acts, justify the special treatment of the juvenile offender.
241. THE JUVENILE COURT.—The juvenile court has been created to meet the special needs of the youthful offender. An early institution of this kind was established in Chicago in 1889. Shortly afterward Denver established a juvenile court, and since then many other cities have taken up the idea. In some states county judges are authorized to suspend the ordinary rules of procedure where the defendant is under eighteen years of age.
A typical juvenile court provides separate judges and separate hearings for youthful prisoners. It avoids publicity, investigates the home life of the youthful offender, and attempts by kindly treatment to guide him back into a wholesome, honest life. In some cases delinquent children are sent back to school, in other cases they are placed on probation, in still other cases special institutional treatment is provided. Every effort is made to keep juvenile offenders from associating with habitual criminals. The aim of the court is not to punish the offender for a particular offense, but to weigh all the circumstances which have influenced his life, and to correct his wrong tendencies. Work of this type is preventive in the fullest sense of the word.
242. THE INDETERMINATE SENTENCE.—The realization that punishment ought to fit the criminal rather than the crime has led to the indeterminate sentence. Though not yet widely applied, this reform is attracting more and more attention. A logical application of the indeterminate sentence would require prisoners to be committed to prison, not for a specific term, but for an indefinite period. The actual length of the prison term would depend upon the prison record of the individual, and upon the promise that he showed of becoming a useful and normal citizen if released. According to this plan, occasional criminals, and persons enticed or forced into wrong-doing, would be entitled to release (regardless of the character of the crime) as soon as it became apparent that they would not repeat the offense. Hardened criminals, on the other hand, might remain in prison permanently, even though committed for a trifling offense. Certainly we ought not to continue to commit and to re-commit hardened criminals for short terms, when their past conduct proves that they have neither the intention nor the ability to make proper use of their freedom.
243. THE FUNCTION OF THE MODERN PRISON.—In addition to the principle of the indeterminate sentence, modern penology has approved a whole series of supplementary measures. The ideal prison of to-day is not a gloomy dungeon, but a great plant which attempts to turn criminals into useful citizens through the use of the school, the chapel, the workshop, the gymnasium, the library, and even the theatre. Discipline, the fundamental weakness of offenders against the law, is a cornerstone of prison life. More and more prisons are adopting the merit system, according to which prisoners are graded and promoted to additional privileges on the basis of behavior. In many prisons these privileges may include an "honor system" and "inmate self-government." The prison attempts to supply the deficiencies in the convict's early training. Prisoners are taught to take care of their bodies. They are taught useful trades, according to their abilities. If illiterate they may go to the prison school. Religious exercises and moral instruction are employed to develop a sense of moral values.
When consistent good behavior and earnest endeavor in prison duties indicate that the prisoner is entitled to another chance in the outside world, he may be paroled, that is to say, he may be released on certain conditions. Generally prisoners are not paroled until some person is found who will guarantee them employment. In many states the work of the parole board is ably supplemented by unofficial prisoners' aid societies which help the released man to readjust himself to a free life. After a certain period of satisfactory conduct on parole the prisoner is entitled to a full and unconditional discharge. The whole aim of the parole system is to supervise the actions of the prisoner, without adding to his irritation or humiliation, but with sufficient strictness to guard him against temptation and to replace him in prison if he proves unworthy of the trust bestowed upon him.
1. What is a crime?
2. In what way may bad economic conditions be connected with crime?
3. What are the social causes of crime? What are the personal causes?
4. In what way are defects of government related to crime?
5. Summarize the remedies for crime.
6. Trace the influence of Magna Charta upon our ideal of justice.
7. How does the administration of our criminal law often result in injustice?
8. Why is it necessary to reform our criminal procedure?
9. What is the nature and function of the legal aid society?
10. What is a Public Defender? How does he help secure justice?
11. Trace the development of the theory of punishment.
12. What is the purpose of the "individualized treatment of offenders"?
13. What is the function of a probation system?
14. How should mentally defective criminals be treated?
15. Describe the work of the Juvenile Court.
16. Outline the purpose of the indeterminate sentence.
17. What are the chief functions of a modern prison?
1. Williamson,Readings in American Democracy, chapter xxi.
Or all of the following:
2. Guitteau,Government and Politics in the United States, chapter xiii.
3. Lewis,The Offender, part iii, chapter i.
4. Smith,Justice and the Poor, pages 105-127.
5. Wines,Punishment and Reformation, chapter ii.
1. Distinguish between crime, vice and sin. (Wines, page 11.)
2. Define criminal law. (Wines, page 12.)
3. What is the distinction between public and private wrongs? (Guitteau, pages 140-141.)
4. What are the first steps in a criminal action? (Guitteau, pages 142-143.)
5. What is an indictment? (Guitteau, page 143.)
6. Outline the steps in a criminal trial. (Guitteau, pages 144-146.)
7. What is a sumptuary law? (Wines, page 7.)
8. What are the eight distinct protections afforded by our criminal law? (Smith, page 108.)
9. What is the great defect of these protections? (Smith, page 111.)
10. What can be said as to the future development of the Public Defender movement? (Smith, page 127.)
11. Is the average age of offenders declining or increasing? (Lewis, page 254.)
12. What is the relation of the school to crime? (Lewis, pages 262- 270.)
13. What is the relation of recreational facilities to crime? (Lewis, pages 276-285.)
1. Make a classification of the criminal courts of your state.
2. The use of psychopathic experts in the criminal courts of your state.
3. Make a study of a near-by county jail. (Compare data gathered with Queen,The Passing of the County Jail.)
4. The legal aid bureau in your state.
5. The parole system in your state.
6. Classify the correctional institutions in your state. What types of offenders are sent to each?
7. Interview, or write to, a prison official in your state regarding the practicability of the indeterminate sentence.
8. Criminal law procedure in England. (Annals, vol. lii, pages 200- 207; Kaye,Readings in Civil Government, pages 328-335.)
9. Criminal law procedure in the United States. (Beard,American Government and Politics, pages 568-577.)
10. Defects in the enforcement of the law. (Reinsch,Readings on American State Government, pages 173-181.)
11. The courts and the criminal. (Osborne,Society and Prisons, chapter ii; Lewis,The Offender, part i, chapter iii.)
12. Reform of criminal procedure in the United States. (Annals, vol. lii, pages 102-107.)
13. The county jail. (Queen,The Passing of the County Jail.)
14. Crime prevention from the standpoint of the police. (Woods,Crime Prevention; Lewis,The Offender, part ii, chapter ii;Annals, vol. lii, pages 56-60.)
15. Overcrowding in its relation to crime. (Riis,The Battle with the Slum; Addams,The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets.)
16. Juvenile crime. (Mangold,Problems of Child Welfare, Part V.)
17. The Junior Republic. (George,The Junior Republic.)
18. The work of Judge Ben Lindsay of Denver. (Consult an encyclopedia.)
19. The legal aid society. (Smith,Justice and the Poor, part iii.)
20. The Public Defender. (Smith,Justice and the Poor, pages 105- 130.)
21. Probation and parole. (Lewis,The Offender, part i, chapter v.)
22. The Jukes. (Dugdale,The Jukes.)
23. The Kallikak family. (Goddard,The Kallikak Family.)
24. The criminal theories of Lombroso. (Consult an encyclopedia.)
25. Modern prison systems. (Henderson,Modern Prison Systems. Individual students may be assigned to the study of the prison systems of particular countries.)
26. Industrial training in prison. (Lewis,The Offender, part i, chapters x and xii;Annals, vol. xlvi.)
27. The discharged convict. (Booth,After Prison, What?)
28. Is crime increasing in the United States?
29. The practicability of the indeterminate sentence.
30. Should capital punishment be abolished?
31. Advantages and disadvantages of the "honor system" in prison.
244. ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO.—Early in the seventeenth century the scarcity of labor in the American colonies led to the introduction of African Negroes as slaves. In response to the demand for slave labor on the southern plantations, the importation of Negroes increased steadily during the next century. The slave trade was nominally abolished in 1808, but Negroes continued to be brought in until the Civil War period. In September, 1862, President Lincoln proclaimed abolished both the slave trade and the institution of slavery in the United States. The legality of this act was substantiated in 1865 by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution.
245. RISE OF THE NEGRO PROBLEM.—The Emancipation Proclamation, followed by the Thirteenth Amendment, conferred freedom upon four million slaves. In 1868 the Fourteenth Amendment made the freed Negroes citizens of the United States, and in 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment enfranchised them. Largely as the result of these measures, the problem of the slave developed into the present Negro problem. The racial differences between the white and the Negro, as well as the demoralizing effects of slavery, promised to render difficult the adjustment of the Negro to American life. The situation was made more serious by the suddenness of emancipation, and by the fact that the vote was extended the Negroes before most of them were ready for it. The economic, social, and political upheaval effected in the South by the war, together with the bitterness with which many southern white men regarded the newly freed Negroes, also contributed to the difficulty of the situation. Lastly, the Negro became a problem because of the lack of a national program in his behalf.
246. NUMBERS AND DISTRIBUTION.—In 1920 the Federal census gave 10,463,131 as the Negro population of the United States. According to these figures the Negro constitutes slightly less than one tenth of our total population. Eighty-five per cent of the Negroes live in the South. In Mississippi and South Carolina the Negro exceeds the white population, while in several other southern states the Negro constitutes from one fourth to one half of the total population.
About three fourths of our Negroes live in the rural districts. There is, however, an important migratory movement which operates to decrease this percentage. There is a growing tendency for southern Negroes to leave the rural districts and to move cityward. Chiefly because of the economic attractions of urban life, many rural Negroes are moving toward the southern city; in search of social equality as well as greater economic opportunities, many southern Negroes are migrating to the cities of the North.
247. ADAPTABILITY OF THE NEGRO.—From one important angle, civilization is the process of getting along with one's environment, partly by changing that environment, and partly by adapting one's self to external conditions. An important characteristic of the Negro, not usually taken into account, is his adaptability. Ours is predominantly a white man's civilization, and we are accustomed to think of the Negro as an individual who finds it more or less difficult to fit into our way of living. And yet one reason for believing that the Negro has a capacity for modern civilization is that he has survived until the present time. Compare the Negro in this regard with the American Indian, who, despite his many noble traits, has fared poorly under the white man's civilization. The Indians of Cuba, for example, were so proud and unbending that they died out under the slavery which the early Spanish imposed upon them; the Negro, because of his teachableness and his passive strength, not only survived slavery, but has weathered freedom under very disadvantageous circumstances.
248. PROGRESS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR.—The Negro has made considerable progress since the Civil War. Many Negroes have become independent farmers and artisans, owning a considerable amount of property. Despite the backwardness of Negro schools, great progress has been made in the matter of decreasing Negro illiteracy. Whereas at the close of the Civil War some ninety per cent of the Negroes were illiterate, less than a third of our present Negro population is illiterate. In art, literature and science the Negro has already made a tolerable showing. Altogether it is likely that an able and constructive leadership is being developed among the Negroes.
249. PRESENT ECONOMIC CONDITION.—In spite of the substantial progress made since the Civil War, however, the present economic condition of the Negro is unsatisfactory. The great majority of Negroes are unskilled laborers of a shiftless disposition. Because he is frequently neither a dependable nor an efficient worker, the average Negro tends to receive low wages. The Negro is not skilled in manufacturing or mechanical lines, and he is kept out of the higher trades and professions by reason of illiteracy and social barriers. Very often the southern Negro is a tenant farmer, carelessly tilling a small plot of land and mortgaging his crop in order to secure the bare necessities of life. Large families, inadequately supported, and reared under insanitary living conditions, are characteristic of the southern Negro. The failure to save money, and the inability to protect themselves against exploitation by unscrupulous white men, are characteristic weaknesses of many Negroes.
250. PRESENT SOCIAL CONDITION.—Though decreasing steadily, Negro illiteracy is still high. This is a serious evil. Not only does illiteracy bar the Negro from the education and training of which he is in such great need, but it allows unscrupulous persons to swindle and exploit him. The Negro furnishes an abnormally large proportion of our prison population. Whether or not this is partly the result of racial characteristics, it is certain that the bad economic and social conditions surrounding Negro life lead to a high degree of criminality. In justice to the Negro it should be noted that in many communities he is apprehended and convicted more often than is the white culprit. Acts which would go unpunished or even unnoticed if committed by white men often arouse the community and lead to severe punishment when committed by Negroes. Statistics on Negro crime are also influenced by the fact that the poverty of the Negro often causes him to go to jail while the white offender escapes with a fine.
A serious evil is race mixture between Negroes and whites. This has gone on since colonial times, until at the present time probably more than half of the Negroes in the United States have some degree of white blood. Such mixtures, while probably not disastrous from the standpoint of biology, have unfortunate consequences socially. Generally the mulatto offspring are forced to remain members of the Negro group, where they are subjected to social surroundings which too often encourage disease, vice, and degeneracy. The majority of the states now have laws forbidding marriage between Negroes and whites. Both white and Negro leaders agree that race mixture ought to be stopped.
251. PRESENT POLITICAL CONDITION.—The Fifteenth Amendment declared that "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Yet in many southern states the Negro is barred from the polls. In many northern cities where the Negro is allowed the ballot, his ignorance and irresponsibility make him the prey of political "bosses" who control his vote. The question of Negro suffrage will be treated later; [Footnote: See Chapter XXXIII.] here we may content ourselves with noting that the Negro's right to vote is often restricted. In the South, at least, it is also true that the Negro has but little share either in making the laws or in administering them.
252. URGENT NATURE OF THE NEGRO PROBLEM.—The Negro problem was never of more pressing importance than it is to-day. Illiteracy is still perilously high, Negro crime is becoming more serious, and the cityward tendency of the Negro is increasing his susceptibility to disease and vice. In spite of prohibitive laws, racial intermixture is continuing, and the problem of the mixed blood is becoming more and more acute. Social unrest among the masses of southern Negroes is increasing. The World War created new aims and aspirations among thousands of Negroes. New leaders are arising to preach racial equality for the Negro; old leaders are in many cases becoming more impatient with the attitude of the white population.
253. HESITANCY IN ATTACKING THE PROBLEM.—The American people have been singularly backward about grappling with the problem of fitting ten million Negro citizens into the fabric of American democracy. One explanation of this backwardness is that until recently many have believed that the Negro would die out under freedom. This expectation has not been realized, for while the Negro population is increasing less rapidly than is the white population, it is nevertheless increasing. The Negro is not dying out. Nor can he be deported to Liberia or other colonies, as was often suggested in the last century. The Negro is here to stay, and his problems must be solved.
254. NEED OF A CONSISTENT PROGRAM.—Many institutions and individuals have attacked various phases of the Negro problem with courage and success, but we are in need of a unified and comprehensive program rather than of a series of unrelated endeavors. Above all what is needed is not impassioned opinion or cure-all schemes, but rather the development of a sound and comprehensive program which shall attack the problem from a number of angles at the same time. Such a program must have a double end in view: First, the immediate needs of the Negro must be met; second, we must permit the Negro to be trained toward a position in which he will be able to play a useful and honorable role in our national life. Thus the great comprehensive purpose of this program is to help the Negro adapt himself to American life, to aid him in fitting in with our economic, social, and political institutions, and to encourage him to contribute to the development of American culture to the best of his ability.
255. EDUCATION.—Education is the most important element of any program designed to help the Negro. Ability to read and write, the habit of study, training in correct thinking, all are of such basic value that it is difficult to understand why we have so long neglected the education of the Negro. We spend three or four times as much for the education of the white childper capitaas for the education of the Negro child. Negro schools are sparsely distributed; they are poorly equipped, and they are sadly hampered by lack of competent teachers. Clearly we must spend vast sums on Negro education, if we are to expect marked improvement in the Negro's social and economic condition. We cannot expect the Negro to cease being a problem until he has been trained in the fundamentals of citizenship. "The inadequate provision for the education of the Negro," says the Southern University Race Commission, "is more than an injustice to him; it is an injury to the white man. The South cannot realize its destiny if one third of its population is undeveloped and inefficient."
256. ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT.—The Negro cannot be expected to become a thrifty, responsible citizen until he is rendered capable of earning a decent living at productive work. He must acquire the habit of working steadily and efficiently under a system of free contract. This economic readjustment, many students of the Negro problem believe, will be attained largely through industrial education. We already have several excellent industrial training schools for Negroes, including Hampton and Tuskegee. The latter was made famous by Booker T. Washington, an ex-slave who devoted his life to the economic readjustment of his people.
A great deal more must be done in this direction. In spite of the excellent beginnings made at Hampton and Tuskegee, not more than one per cent of our Negroes have the privilege of industrial education. More adequate instruction is needed in methods of agriculture and stock raising, in the various crafts, and in those professions for which the Negro seems fitted. The South needs labor badly, but she cannot use her millions of Negroes effectively until they are turned into competent and dependable workers. The Negro appears to have little aptitude for mechanical work, or for mill and factory employment. Diversified agriculture on a small scale seems to be the most promising industry for him, and one in which he ought consistently to be encouraged.
257. THE NEED FOR COÍPERATION.—No permanent solution of the Negro's difficulties can be attained without the friendly co÷peration of all parties concerned. Most of our Negroes live in the South, but the Negro is no more a purely southern question than Japanese immigration is a purely Californian problem. We are one nation, and the problems of one section are the problems of the whole. The South must not be left alone, either to neglect the Negro, or to struggle with his difficulties as best she can. Generous aid must be extended her by the North, East, and West, before we can expect a solution of the Negro question.
Furthermore, there must be co÷peration between the leaders of the Negro and white races, otherwise energy will be wasted and inter- racial bitterness created. Very promising beginnings in this direction have recently been made in the South. Nevertheless it is to be regretted that many leaders, both white and Negro, are still prone to propose "remedies" for the Negro problem which serve their own interests, but which show little or no regard for the rights of the other group, or for the welfare of the nation.
Above all, there must be a firm resolve to work toward a fair solution, and an earnest desire to be just and humane. Hard and unpleasant facts cannot be argued away, but at least they can be treated rationally. No solution can be reached except through law and order. Neither violence nor deceit can solve this or any other problem. Race riots and lynchings are proof that those who engage in them are unfit to carry on the work of American democracy.
258. THE PROMISE OF THE NEGRO.—There is a good deal of discussion as to whether or not the Negro race is merely backward, or whether it is an inferior race. Those contending that the Negro is only backward believe that ultimately he can be fitted into the fabric of American life; those insisting that he is inferior declare that all attempts to adapt the Negro to American life will prove unavailing.
Academic discussions of this sort are not to the point. As to whether or not the Negro is backward or inferior, and as to precisely what each of these terms implies, there must always be a good deal of dispute. For practical purposes it is enough to admit that the Negro cannot now do many of the things which the average white man can do, and that in so far as this is true, the Negro is less effective as a citizen.
At the same time, it should be frankly recognized that the Negro has shown himself capable of substantial progress. It will be more appropriate to discuss the inferiority of the Negro when he has failed to react to the most comprehensive, intelligent, and consistent program which we are able to draw up. This we have not yet done, and until it is done, we shall have less cause to deny to the Negro a capacity for civilization than the Negro will have cause to complain of our unhelpful attitude toward him. So far as we now know, there is no scientific justification for believing that the masses of American Negroes cannot ultimately be trained to a useful sphere in American life.
1. How were Negroes first introduced into this country?
2. When did the modern Negro problem come into existence?
3. What proportion of our population is Negro?
4. Where are most of our Negroes found?
5. What is meant by saying that the Negro is adaptable?
6. In what particulars has the Negro made substantial progress since the Civil War?
7. What is the present economic condition of the Negro?
8. Why is the social condition of the Negro unsatisfactory?
9. What can be said as to the present political condition of the Negro?
10. Why have we delayed the development of a comprehensive plan for meeting the needs of the Negro?
11. What is the importance of Negro education?
12. Why is the economic readjustment of the Negro important?
13. Discuss the need for co÷peration in meeting the Negro's problems.
14. What is the promise of the American Negro citizen?
1. Williamson,Readings in American Democracy,chapter xxii.
Or all of the following:
2.Annalsof the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. xlix, "The Negro's Progress in Fifty Years," pages 47-58.
3. Washington,Tuskegee and its People, chapter i.
4. Williamson,Sociology of the American Negro, chapters xii, xvi, and xxvii.
1. Discuss the recent decrease in Negro illiteracy. (Williamson, chapter xii.)
2. What difficulty is encountered in applying mental tests to Negroes? (Williamson, chapter xii.)
3. Outline the results of mental tests of the Negro. (Williamson, chapter xii.)
4. Summarize the chief characteristics of the Negro race. (Williamson, chapter xvi.)
5. What Negro faults might be turned into virtues? (Williamson, chapter xvi.)
6. Discuss the role of the mulatto leader. (Williamson, chapter xvi.)
7. What is Tuskegee Institute? (Washington, page 19.)
8. What are the chief aims of Tuskegee Institute? (Washington, page 21.)
9. What was Booker T. Washington's concept of education? (Washington, pages 28-30.)
10. What progress in Negro education has been made since 1880? (Annals, pages 51-52.)
11. What four forces retard the economic development of the Negro in the South? (Annals, page 55.)
1. African background of the American Negro. (Williamson,Sociology of the American Negro, part i.)
2. Slavery. (Hart,Social and Economic Forces in American History, chapter xix; Callender,Selections from the Economic History of the United States, pages 768-793; Williamson,Sociology of the American Negro, chapter v.)
3. Gains and losses under slavery. (Williamson,Sociology of the American Negro, chapter xxiv.)
4. The Negro in business. (Atlanta University Publications, No. 4.)
5. The Negro in professional occupations. (Annals, vol. xlix, pages 10-18.)
6. The Negro as an unskilled laborer.Annals, vol. xlix, pages 19- 28.
7. The Negro as a skilled worker. (Atlanta University Publications, No. 17.)
8. The system of Negro tenancy. (Annals, vol. xlix, pages 38-46.)
9. The Negro in the city. (Wolfe,Readings in Social Problems, chapter xviii;Annals, vol. xlix, pages 105-119.)
10. The Negro family. (Atlanta University Publications, No. 13; Tillinghast,The Negro in Africa and America, part iii, chapter iii;Annals, vol. xlix, pages 147-163.)
11. Negro organizations. (Annals, vol. xlix, pages 129-137.)
12. The Negro church. (Atlanta University Publications, No. 8; Tillinghast,The Negro in Africa and America, part iii, chapter iii; Washington,The Story of the Negro, vol. ii, chapter xiii.)
13. The mulatto. (Williamson,Sociology of the American Negro, chapters xx, xxi, and xxii.)
14. Race relationships in the South. (Annals, vol. xlix, pages 164- 172; Storey,Problems of To-day, chapter iii.)
15. Negro education. (Annals, vol. xlix, part iv; Wolfe,Readings in Social Problems, pages 769-783; Washington,The Story of the Negro, vol. ii, chapter v; Tillinghast,The Negro in Africa and America, part iii, chapter iv.)
16. The work of Booker T. Washington, (Washington,Up from Slavery. See also an encyclopedia.)
17. Tuskegee Institute. (Washington,Tuskegee and its People.)
18. The Negro's part in the development of the South. (Annals, vol. xxxv, pages 124-133; Washington,The Future of the American Negro.)