268 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



long, we believe, before public opinion 

 will sanction its employment in their 

 case. 



The conclusion of the matter for the 

 present is, that society is taking far too 

 little interest in the questions which Mr. 

 Boies so ably and earnestly discusses. 

 It must be aroused from its easy-going 

 indifference, or our boasted civilization 

 will not be worth many generations' 

 purchase. Philanthropy has taken the 

 job of keeping up the standard of the 

 human race out of the hands of natural 

 selection ; and it now devolves upon it 

 to show that, aided by science, it is equal 

 to its self-imposed task, and can indeed 

 accomplish results that never could have 

 been accomplished by the operation of 

 unconscious laws. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Prisoners and Paupers. A Study of the 

 Abnormal Increase of Criminals, and the 

 Public Burden of Pauperism in the United 

 States ; the Causes and Eemedies. By 

 Henry M. Boies, M. A. New York : G. 

 P. Putnam's Sons, 1893. Pp. 318. Price, 

 $1.50. 



Mr. Boies had peculiar facilities for the 

 production of such a work as this and he has 

 used them ably. In his preface he says that 

 he has in this work not only endeavored to 

 give a general view of the subject as it ap- 

 pears in this country, " to emphasize the 

 waste of human sympathy and public funds 

 which results from what appears to be incon- 

 siderate and misdirected methods of treat- 

 ment," but he proposes a most feasible — 

 he says, " positive remedy." 



The eleventh census of the United States, 

 which is now being published, " furnishes 

 statistics of a national growth in numbers, 

 wealth, and general prosperity unparalleled 

 in the history of civilization." Nevertheless, 

 this census, says the author, makes some dis- 

 closures which are " appalling in the highest 

 degree to our confidence in the future." One 

 of these is the extraordinary increase in the 

 criminal classes ; and he shows that while in 

 1850 the proportion of criminals was 1 in 

 3,500 of the population, it increased in 1890 

 to 1 in *!&§ m 5, or 445 per cent ; while the in- 



crease of population in the same period was 

 only 1*70 per cent. 



Mr. Boies claims that " such a dispropor- 

 tion can not continue indefinitely without a 

 relapse into barbarism and social ruin." And 

 he explains his statement by telling that such 

 a condition of affairs does not exist in any 

 other civilized nation. He attributes the first 

 cause for crime and pauperism to the unnatu- 

 ral increase of intemperance ; the second, 

 "the crowding of the people to the centers." 



The third cause lies in the existing laws for 

 the punishment of criminals and the unintel- 

 ligent manner in which they are administered. 

 And having thus briefly summarized the con- 

 ditions of paupers and prisoners generally and 

 the causes for their existence, the author re- 

 views the awful criminal condition of Penn- 

 sylvania, and in the sixth chapter begins an 

 examination of the classes which form the 

 prison and pauper population of the country. 



In this part of the work it is stated that 

 that portion of the population which is for- 

 eign-born, or having one or both parents for- 

 eign-born, furnishes over one third of the 

 criminals and three fifths of the paupers of 

 the country, whereas they constitute only one 

 fifth of the whole number. From this the 

 author concludes that to avert the danger 

 " which has become imminent, and threatens 

 our very existence, . . . Congress must regu- 

 late immigration as the initial remedy." 



The excessive increase of criminals from 

 the negro population occupies the next chap- 

 ter, and the anomalous proportion of crimi- 

 nals among the population of African descent 

 is so startling that Mr. Boies analyzes the 

 causes very minutely. It appears, he says, 

 that although " they constitute less than 13 - 51 

 per cent of the total population, yet they con- 

 tribute one third of our convicts, though only 

 8"8 per cent of our paupers." Further on he 

 says that this alarming increase " is quite as 

 important and threatening as the foreign ele- 

 ment," which has been considered. The 

 cause for this disparity of criminals and pau- 

 pers he claims is that " a ruling white minor- 

 ity (in the South), possessing the wealth, 

 stands over a black majority which is paid 

 for their labor actually less than the fairly 

 comfortable subsistence which they received 

 as slaves, and denies to them every right of 

 equality. . . . This is as hostile to true Amer- 

 icanism as was slavery." And he continues, 



