THE EDUCATED MAN AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 437 



It is here that much that has been done with the best of intentions 

 has failed. 



Of all charitable and philanthropic efforts, that which aims to 

 prevent misery and degradation is most successful. " An ounce 

 of prevention is worth a pound of cure." 



Charity must have, above all, the consecration of heart and soul 

 of those who would help others. Added to this there must be a 

 knowledge of human nature and a certain intellectual insight. 



Finally, charity, whether administered by the state, or through 

 organization, or by the individual, must depend for its effectiveness 

 at last on enlightened friendship, spiritualized by divine love. 



Another illustration of the application of these same principles 

 is to be found in the method of treatment of criminals. It is the 

 duty of the educated man to give to this class the opportunity to 

 reach, as nearly as possible, the ideal which he sets for himself. They 

 are our brothers and our neighbors. Every member of society 

 affects it for good or evil. There is much that is bad in our treat- 

 ment of criminals. Yet there is a right way, and we are beginning 

 to find out some things that we have done badly, and to correct 

 them. Our whole theory, on which the great body of our prison 

 laws are based, is faulty. We have placed too much confidence in 

 the police system. We have asked our courts to solve problems 

 which are insoluble under all the conditions, and we have more 

 faith in prisons than the facts will justify. 



Our law contemplates administering distributive justice. There 

 is an effort throughout to assign to every malefactor that particular 

 degree of suffering or privation which he has deserved, to proportion 

 the punishment, so-called, to the offense; to make the criminal 

 who has done a deed of but slight injury to society, or indicative 

 of but a slight degree of malice, suffer a slight punishment, and, on 

 the other hand, when the criminal has perpetrated a great outrage 

 upon his fellows, to inflict on him such punishment as will appear 

 proportional to his offense. 



That justice can be reached in this way has been disproved by 

 the great difference in the law governing offenses in the various 

 states. In New Jersey there is a provision that a certain offense 

 shall be fined $10; in several states for the same offense the pun- 

 ishment is imprisonment for twenty-one years. In Texas the 

 offense is punished by capital punishment. When we consider 

 again the way in which the courts interpret the law, we find still 

 wider divergence. So much depends, not alone on the judge, but 

 on the time and attention given by the judge, and his knowledge 

 of, and attitude toward a given case. Society is coming gradually 

 to see that this method does not reach the end of justice. Criminals 

 serve out their sentences to return to society, often worse hardened 



