As the limitation and treatment of crime is one of the great questions of the day, it behooves us to search for its primary factors.
In a careful study of this subject, we are startled by the rapid increase in crime—rapid beyond the ordinary increase in population.
The census reports for five decades (the only ones we have at hand) show:
Year
Criminals
Ratio of Population
1850
5,737
1 to 3,442
1860
19,086
1 to 1,642
1870
32,901
1 to 1,171
1880
58,699
1 to 855
1890
83,329
1 to 757
These figures represent criminals punished, and probably two thirds escape punishment.
The population of New York City has increased in ten years thirty-three per cent, while crime has increased more than fifty per cent. In Chicago, the proportionate increase of crime over population is much more startling.
An important factor in the causation of crime is intemperance. Fully fifty per cent of the criminals arrested in Chicago are inebriates, and the police reports in New York show about the same proportion.
It has been well expressed that the saloon is the abode where criminals not only mediate their crime, but spend the money obtained by crime. The saloon is the true home of the criminal. It, then, is one factor in the cause of crime.
The cigaret is another fruitful cause. The superintendent of the Illinois State Reformatory, in an article on the relation of the cigaret to crime, says: “I am sure cigarets are destroying and making more criminals of more of them than saloons.” In his reformatory there were 278 boys averaging from twelve to fifteen years of age. Two hundred and fifty-six of them were cigaret smokers.
A third factor in the causation of crime, and really a basis of the other two factors,—a cause of these causes,—is the “festal board.” The way in which we spread our tables, the diet of our growing boys, is such as will cause an appetite for stimulants. How can the boy remain temperate in his habits of life when the delicate nerves are fed upon such irritating foods and drinks as flesh meats, pastries, tea, coffee, and spices? The congested mucous membranes of the alimentary tract, produced as a result of the use of these things, call for a soothing draft or the narcotic effects of a pipe or cigaret.
Rather in place of these irritants and blood-heaters upon the table, place before the boy or man well-baked breadstuffs, dextrinized cereals, properly prepared vegetables, a liberal amount of fruit and nuts, and observe the result.
Fruits in abundance are a safeguard against intemperance, as every saloon-keeper knows. The fruit-stand next door is his natural enemy, serving to otherwise quench the thirst of his patrons. The saloon-keeper is wise to his game. Hot spiced soups and highly seasoned meats, and not fruits, are found upon his lunch-counter. Why not the latter?
Intemperance begins at the table. Appetite is indulged, and overeating—no matter what the quality of the food—clogs the living machine, and poisons as toxic in their nature as chloroform and alcohol are produced in the system. These toxins circulating in the blood bemush the sensitive nerves of the brain, the liver is burdened, the stomach is overworked, producing a sense of languor which is interpreted to mean hunger. Then more food is partaken of, which only serves to increase the burden, thus producing a morbid condition of the15system. The unhappy victim of overeating thus seeks to drown his unsatisfied cravings by a recourse to narcotics, as tobacco and alcoholics.
Yes, alcohol is a true narcotic and not a stimulant, as believed by many. Chemically allied to chloroform and ether, it has the same depressing narcotic, anesthetic effect; the only difference being that it requires a larger amount and a longer time to produce the effect.
The true work of temperance reform should begin at the table. Education is needed concerning the proper and natural diet of man. The public mind needs to know and to be deeply stirred as to the true ethology of this rapid increase in crime.
Had the human race an intelligent knowledge of the laws of health, they might be free from disease. God does not arbitrarily bring disease upon any one. See Ex. 15: 26.
Disease is the result of wrong habits of life, and it has come to be well recognized that the criminal is a diseased person. His crime is often the result of nerve irritation, from which he seeks relief by using benumbing narcotics. The drunkard when he does the crime, may not be conscious of it. His responsibility begins when he lifts the cup to his lips; or responsibility may well be placed back to where he partakes of unhealthful or poorly prepared food, and the cook is crimes participans. When narcotized by drink, he then becomes unconscious of human rights.
Only recently in Cleveland a man was seen acting strangely, and accordingly was watched by two patrolmen. He was followed to a barn where he was prevented from taking his life just as the knife was at his throat. In court he denied having any knowledge of the fact.
A person under the influence of ether or chloroform knows nothing. He very often does strange things in this condition, due to the poison circulating through the brain. He is not accountable for what he says or does.
Chemically, let me repeat, alcohol is allied to chloroform, and chemically produces a similar tho a more tardy effect. The drunkard has no more control of himself when fully under the influence of liquor than the patient when under an anesthetic.
Overeating produces poisons in the alimentary canal as a result of the fermentation of the food, and one of these fermented products is alcohol.
The glutton is drunken with the food he eats, so gluttony must be classed with drunkenness. Anciently in the commonwealth of Israel, there existed a law that the glutton should be stoned to death.
Let us ask ourselves the questions: Do we deserve this punishment? Are we inebriates? See Luke 21: 34.
To prevent crime by a removal of the underlying factors, is far better than to ameliorate crime by locking up the criminal.
Let the public mind be educated concerning the laws of life and health. Teach the natural diet of man. Show that where health is on the increase, there crime will proportionately be on the decrease, for we are learning that crime and disease go hand in hand.—The Search Light.
