473
Index to Periodicals are unconstitutional under the ordinary provi
cution.
sions of the state constitutions."
for the person of the convict, who remains a
“3. Even if confined to indigent persons they are probably unconstitutional under the ordina provisions of the state constitutions, althou there is some reason for believing they might be justified as a form of outdoor poor relief. "4. There is much ground for the belief that such pensions, particularly if confined to indi ent persons, might constitutionally be provide by the federal Government."
citizen and can claim his rights under conditions which seem to us astonishing. I have also found evidence of a very different feelin; for instance, the practice of an operation caled vasectomy, the details of which I need not 0 into, having for its object the prevention of t e propagation of a degenerate race. . . . "The dilference between America and Europe
Penology. “Some European Comments on the American Prison System." By Ugo Conti and Adolphe Prins. 2 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 199 (July). "It is well known that in America arose the Philadelphia system and the Auburn system of prison discipline, after which the Irish system was modeled, and that in this country also origi nated the idea of prison congresses. And now in these latter days America IS producing for us model penal institutions which are splendid and marvelous, animated by one common principle —the principle of the reformation of the offender. Reformation, to be sure, as the sole basis of a
penal system, is an untenable princi le. And even in the aspect of an incidental OIJJCCt to be aimed at, we Italians are apt to lace little faith in it. Yet this principle the mericans (mis takenly, if you like, but it is noble and high
minded mistake) make the main support of their prison system. . . . "The care of dependent children is another field in which America can teach us much even though it has yet a long road to travel before it has perfected the indispensable protec tive measures. In the treatment of delinquent children, even more positively, it can be asserted that America offers us an admirable example, with its juvenile courts, its robation system and
its
reform
schools.
e
have,
indeed,
already taken advantage of this example, and are importing such institutions; but for us the problem is, how to get the means to establish
those wonderful family-colonies. The reforma tories, too, or schools of supplementary correc tion, made a remarkable impression on us; in these the indeterminate sentence seems to work ideally and fruitfully. The nitentiaries (for long sentences) are notewort y; but luxu
I have seen evidences of great respect
results from other causes as well: in the first place,
from the pessimism of our civilization, which distrusts the criminal, because we have not room enough for our respectable classes, and furthermore, from the o timism of the new world, which does not istrust the criminal,
because all the men available can be made use ful, even criminals.
This optimism has another
source in the religious feeling which makes it a duty for the American to help his neighbor, and in a humanitarian feeling analogous to the confi dence of the French eighteenth century and of the encyclopedists fectability of humaninnature. the goodness One must anda dera scientific tendency which takes account of heredity and environment, which holds that the man who has fallen is never wholly responsible for his fall, but that fatality has had a certain
share in determining his destiny, and that, consequently, the criminal is still deserving of pity.
"These religious and humanitarian feelings and this scientific tendency have produced a penal code different from ours; a very liberal penal code, which our ancient civilization could
not imitate. It does away entirely with the system of vengeance, and often takes awa from punishment any intimidating efiect. T e old system is replaced by the enthusiastic, super stitious, exaggerated faith in the effect of edu cation upon the convict; that one can change theQphysical and moral nature of the convict and cause the erms of a new life to spring up in him. But i this is exaggerated in the case of adults, it is not exaggerated in the case of children and young criminals, and here the edu cative effects have proved admirable and really effective." See juvenile Delinquency. Police Power. See Old Age Pensions.
of
the buildings and their arrangements is a t ing difficult for us to approve. . . . "Each institution has its own character. I have seen some that are magnificent-such, for example, as the prison of Auburn, where the workshops are really factories fitted up with the most perfect tools and in which intensive production is carried on. I may also cite the prison of Chicago, where the convicts can work in an immense quarry and in a large brickyard. I have also seen detestable institutions —jails in which there prevailed promiscuity, idleness and gambling, just as in the most horrible com mon-rooms under the old system. I have seen glaring contrasts; on the one hand, astonishing conditions of luxury, of comfort in rison, of kindness for the convicts; on the ot er hand,
species of barred cages in which convicts con demned to death awaited for months their exe
Procedure. See Criminal Procedure. Public Service Corporations. See Taxation. Quasi-Contracts. See Municipal Corpora tions. Railways. "The German Drift Toward Social ism." By William C. Dreher. Atlantic Monthly, v. 108, p. 101 (July). "The railway is almost wholly a state insti tution in German . The Prussian system, with its more than 4,000 laborers and ofiicials, is the largest employer of labor in the world; and this vast business is administered with remark able honesty and efficiency. . . . Bismarck's purpose to use the railway wholly in the inter
ests of the people, as declared when he nation alized the roads, has not been fully carried out.
