feited bond shall be collected in full. This provision would take away from any court the power, so frequently exercised, of letting a bondsman off on payment of the costs or a fractional part of the sum named in the bond. The charge is openly made that some judges, in this way, protect from loss personal friends or influential politicians. THE SYSTEM OF FINES CHEATS JUSTICE No rule of court procedure or provision of law has become a greater scandal or invites more contempt for the majesty of the law than the existing system of fines. Every law on the Every law on the statute books providing for the alternative of fine or imprisonment should be swept away. A fine is not a punishment. It is at best a substitute for punishment and it is, in practice, a device by which the rich escape punishment. The whole system of fines is flagrantly unjust. Laws are not equal when money gives immunity from disgrace. This system, more than any other influence, has brought about a widespread conviction that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor. In this sense our papers have lately referred to high-class financiers as "quasi-criminals." A thorough search of the law libraries will fail to reveal any such term or classification. These men are either criminals or they are not criminals. Does the possession of riches make a transgressor of the law a quasi-criminal? SHAMEFUL METHODS OF PROCEDURE vent crime than does severity of punishment. Thus we find that crimes multiply at an astounding rate, and convictions decrease in disheartening ratio. 66 It is the custom among powerful corporations in this country, especially those whose business subjects them to personal-injury suits, to 'wear out" their opponents. This is a comparatively easy matter under the present system of court procedure. Take the case brought by a poor man, the sole support of a family, against a family, against a street railway for injuries received at its hands. His creditors press him for payments which he cannot make. His suit is "passed" from term to term of court. When brought to trial, in the course of two or three years, let us suppose he secures a verdict. The railway company promptly carries the case to the Court of Appeals, and often to the still higher courts. Meanwhile the demands of the plaintiff's creditors and the exigencies of life force him to accept a settlement wholly out of proportion to the damages. Examples of such oppression, under the mantle of the law, might be offered by the score. THE RICH ESCAPE THE SWEAT-BOX The prisoner without money or friends, and the prisoner rich in both, present striking contrasts. Our courts and officials seem less inclined to proportion justice to the magnitude of the offense than to considerations of the "previous estate" of the criminal. The "third degree," the "sweat-box," and other barbaric The rules of procedure and our system of methods of modern police are habitually visited appeals, together with the ingenuity of counsel upon the prisoner destitute of money and in cases where the accused possesses means, friends. None of the "aristocracy of crime" have served to prolong issues through a series is ever subjected to these forms of torture. On of trivial questions and consequent delays the contrary, the members of the "upper class" with the result that justice, when not actually are treated with consideration, even deference, defeated, is shamefully retarded. In this this and sometimes by courts as well as by police. country the cases of prompt justice are well- If the "third degree" were applied to a thieving nigh limited to instances of mob violence- financier, the whole country would cry out in frightful protests against the delays and dis- rage and that feature of police practice would appointments due to the intricacies and defects soon follow into oblivion the "boot" and the of our legislation and the follies of our justice. rack. What with demurrers, continuances, appeals, reprieves, and pardons, the guilty man with cash and "pull" so disfigures Justice as to render her unrecognizable. By such means cases are dragged along for months and years, even after conviction, before the actual execution of the sentence. Criminal justice is thus robbed of much of its terror, for speed and certainty of punishment do more to pre Two prominent Federal prisoners recently on trial for swindling the Government out of millions of dollars lived an exclusive sort of life in jail. Comfortably lodged in a light and well-ventilated room overlooking a beautiful park, their wives were permitted to visit them twice a day. Their fastidious appetites balked at the unpalatable jail fare, so their meals were sent in from a neighboring hotel of national fame. Bottled mineral water took the place of the water served to the criminals of lesser estate. Both prisoners were supplied with books, periodicals, and all manner of literature. In short, the warden was their host rather than their jailer. Meanwhile, in the same building poor, friendless criminals dragged through the days and nights in small, ill-lighted, vermininfested cells, existing on the miserable jail fare of bread and water. Yet their crimes, by the money standard, were to be measured in cents while those of the favored ranged in the millions of dollars. In October of last year, two Federal courts were in session-one in the city of Chicago, another in a small town of western Kentucky. A case in each court was called for trial. In the Kentucky court, before the bar of justice stood a tall, lithe, bronzed mountaineer, stolid and sullen. In the back of the room was seated his wife, a pale woman, her face pinched and drawn, with four thinly clad, disconsolate children-awaiting the climax of the tragedy. In some little valley back in the cold hard mountains, the year before, this man and woman had struggled bravely with the problem of existence. The expense of transporting their small crop of corn to market was great so it had been turned into whiskey, in a still hidden in a mountain recess. No bond had been executed to the United States for the operation of this industry; the government tax had not been paid. The nation had been deprived of a few dollars of revenue-that was the burden of his offense. In Chicago, the vice-president of a large packing company was on trial for conspiracy to violate the interstate commerce law against the granting or accepting of railroad rebates. He had violated a criminal statute. He had connived with a railroad offical. He had taken criminal advantage of his competitors, as a result of which they were compelled to forego the business of slaughtering cattle or handling dressed beef. An entire nation had been defrauded. This defendant had left his palatial home in New York the day before, had travelled in a Pullman car, and had stopped at the most exclusive hotel in Chicago. The ablest lawyer of the Chicago Bar stood ready to plead his case. The attorneys representing the United States had held a "conference" with the prisoner's counsel the hour previous and "matters had been arranged." His wife and children were under no necessity of alter ing their daily routine. Yet the United States had spent thousands of dollars to bring him before the tribunal. Such cases furnish eloquent testimony of the inequity of justice that threatens our national career. THE RICH ROGUE AND THE DUCK THIEF On the 12th of January of this year two prisoners were received in the penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio-Mrs. Cassie Chadwick and John Shannon. Mrs. Chadwick wrecked banks, stole over $1,000,000, and forged notes for $13,000,000. Poverty, suicide, and disgrace followed in the wake of her crimes. Shannon stole a duck last Thanksgiving day that he might have a good meal. To commit the theft he had broken into a store. Shannon must serve until January 13, 1911. Ten months later Mrs. Chadwick is to be discharged. In one of our largest penitentiaries are confined twelve former bankers. Apart from the disgrace and the restriction to the vicinity of the prison, there is small difference between the banker convicts and the man outside the walls. They go about with much the same liberty as the officials; they chat with each other and their keepers, while the "ordinary prisoners" are forbidden to open their mouths except to receive the prison food. They move about the prison in authoritative manner; they dictate not alone to the other prisoners, but even to the officials. These bankers who were "big men" before their infamy, are still big men in their relations to the prison officials, respected rather than subjected, feared rather than fearing. They all fill clerical positions and enjoy numerous privileges. One is clerk in the office of the secretary, others are clerks in the office of the warden, in the post-office, in the hospital, in the steward's office, in the cigar shop, and so on throughout the list. In another state penitentiary a former leading politician, convicted of boodling and wholesale naturalization frauds, is serving a sentence of "five years at hard labor." He leaves the institution at 7.30 A. M. and returns at 9 P. M. He does nothing even resembling work. Across the street stands a small oneroom brick house formerly the abode of the stable boss. It is now fitted up with a lounge, several comfortable chairs, and a telephone. On a table are popular novels, current magazines, and daily papers. Here this "convict" entertains his friends and relatives with the best of fare prepared by a special cook. Rot- unfortunate, and helpless, whose rights seem tenness is not confined to "Denmark." BRAINY CRIMINALS ON THE INCREASE There can be no question that intellectual crimes, as opposed to mere coarse, brutal violations of law, are on the increase. I mean forgeries, embezzlements, and huge swindles requiring brains, resources, and nerve. The dangerous tendency of crime in these days is toward oppression and murder by a system under which no one can be held responsible by law. Professor James, the eminent psychologist, has said: "Though education frees us from the more brutal forms of crime, it is true that education itself has put even meaner forms of crime in our way. The intellect is a servant of our passions and sometimes education only makes the person more adroit in carrying out these impulses." The educated lawbreaker is capable of doing infinitely more harm than the ignorant criminal. His power for harm is multiplied by his knowledge. The educated man who constantly transgresses the moral law and ignores the ethics of his relations to the state is the worst enemy of society. Burglars and highwaymen prowl about the streets and prey on citizens but they always run their chances of being captured, and organized society is not greatly harmed-its existence is not even threatened. The spirit of this condition was well expressed by the remarks of Judge Foster in sentencing a man for complicity in stealing a policy from the vaults of a certain insurance company: "Your methods were very crude and bungling. If you had, instead of colluding with an outsider, colluded with an insider and thereby had your salary raised to $50,000, and then divided with the other man, the result would not have been more hurtful to policy-holders, but possibly you would not have been at the bar of justice." The aristocratic violators insolently laugh the law to scorn; the purpose of our organic law is misdirected and the ends of justice subverted instead of subserved. Fiduciary positions of highest rank have become the equivalent of burglar's tools. The law has been flouted. In the wicked circle of waste and loot moral obligations of the most sacred character have counted for naught. But is sacredness to be found only in the laws for the punishment of the weak, the ignorant, so few and whose opportunities are fewer? A condition making strongly for inequity is the under-payment of our public officials. We set up a $2,500-a-year public prosecutor against a $50,000-a-year lawyer and look for a record of achievement. HOMICIDE RARELY OR LIGHTLY PUNISHED Statistics of crime reveal startling truths. They show that the United States stands preeminent among the civilized and progressive nations in its catalogue of lawlessness. A tabulated series of such sinister statistics, recently prepared, shows that in seven years, beginning with and including 1894, there were more than 62,000 murders and homicides in the Union-nearly 9,000 a year-and only 871 legal executions. Less than 2 per cent. of the whole number of lawless slayers had paid the extreme penalty of their crimes. In the period between 1881 and 1903 there were 129,464 murders and criminal homicides, balanced by but 2,611 judicial executions. These figures show a rapid increase of murders in proportion to the population, but no appreciable increase in the number of executions. Small wonder that the conservative London Spectator recently implored the people of this country to cease disgracing the Englishspeaking race. speaking race. Our record has been so shocking, for a number of years, that we are rapidly gaining the stigma of a nation of mankillers. In 1905 we surpassed the notorious record of Italy. The United States now leads, with 115 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants; Italy has 105 per 100,000; Germany 13; France 19; Great Britain and Ireland 27 per 100,000. Europe's comparative freedom from such extreme crimes is undoubtedly the result of their practice of making short shrift of murderers. They seem to pay closer attention to a prompt and decisive visitation of punishment. In Great Britain, for example, one in every four homicides is promptly hanged. Justice is equally effective elsewhere in Europe. In themselves, statutes can accomplish nothing. But honestly and rigidly enfored, they can make the manipulators of justice humble and tractable. They may not create moral principles where they do not exist, but they can at least put some of the violators of moral principles in jail. Though they may not put moral principles in men, they may force moral principle into the methods of men. Political news and choice bits of gossip are here exchanged, as well as fruits and fowl THE WHITE A VAST PLATEAU AS LARGE AS THE UNITED STATES, WHERE WHITE FAMILIES TH BY SAMUEL P. VERNER [AN AMERICAN PIONEER WHO HAS MADE SEVERAL JOURNEYS INTO HE word Africa still conjures up visions of wild animals, black people, and burning sunshine; of phlegmatic Boers, Congo slaves, and Belgian "atrocities"; in general, of a good place to stay away from. Many wonder why nations should fight over it, and why men who come away seem smitten with a mad desire to get back again. For nothing is truer than that the Africander, of whatever race or nation, cannot get the Dark Continent out of his heart and brain. But when the Englishman, the Scot, and the Hebrew unite on a proposition, there is apt to be something in it. England quarreled with Germany, threatened France, and fought a bloody war over Africa; Mungo Park, Gordon, and Livingstone, the Scotchmen, died for it; Barnato, Beit, and Lionel Phillips have been buying it up. All of them thought it worth while. Rhodes, in dying, is said to have quoted Tennyson: "So little done, so much to do!" SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA A VAST PLATEAU A magnificent territory lies between the Cape and the Sahara, south of Egypt and southeast of the Niger. This region is a vast table-land; its eastern rampart is the chain of the Mountains of the Moon; on the west is the Chrystal Range; on the north, the ridge stretching from the great peak of the Kameruns to the headlands of Abyssinia; and to the south are visible the mountains of the Cape. These bounds include about 5,000,000 square miles, four-fifths of which is highly productive. In it are the im |