R N E

R N E
Ci~vrNcr S. D~vvov
lN1vouUc1ioN nv DoUci~s E. lvrNcu
Ludwig
von Mie
Intitute
A U B U R N , A L A B A M A
Oiiginally published in 1vu! by Chailes H. Keii & Company, Chicago, lllinois.
Copyiight zu11 by the Ludwig von Mises lnstitute
Published undei the Cieative Commons Auiibution License !.u.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Mahew 7 : 1.
Ye have heaid that it hath been said An eye foi an eye, and a tooth
foi a tooth. But l say unto you, that ye iesist not evil, but whosoevei
shall smite thee on thy iight cheek, tuin to him the othei also.
Mahew 5 : 38, 39.
lNTRODUCTlON
by Douglas E. liench
You always iemembei books that change youi mind. Because
these books aie so few and fai between. Weie diawn to books that
ieinfoice what we alieady believe. lt makes us feel smaitei that an
authoi shaies oui opinion and piovides woids we can use to make
oui case on the o chance thats iequiied.
Afei Muiiay Rothbaid opened my eyes at UNLVin 1vvu, l went
on a book buying binge that included an edition of the book you
hold, Resist Not Evil. l cant honestly iemembei why l bought the
book fiom Loompanics, othei than the bookselleis catalog desciip-
tion must have in some way piqued my inteiest.
At the time l iemembei being on the fence, with a slight lean
towaid suppoiting capital punishment. Te deteiience aiguments
iesonated with me. Howevei, it was a haid question, akin to the is-
sues of aboition and immigiation. ln the end, to not suppoit capital
punishment put a peison with the bleeding heait libeials, company
l didnt want to be in.
But this is the way with so many issues. lnstead of analyzing the
pioblem foi ouiselves, we let the gioup we identify with make the
decision foi us as to what we believe. A lazy way to live, iequiiing
no thought, no study, no consideiation, no intiospection.
Claience Daiiow does not allow foi that. He does not allow you
to sit in the juiy box of public opinion and let the othei juiois make up
youi mind. Resist Not Evil is not just an indictment of capital punish-
ment. Te state is on tiial and Daiiow is aiguing foi the piosecution.
And theie is a no moie passionate, aiticulate piosecutoi than
Daiiow. lt is impossible not to be swept away by his ihetoiic. Like
any good auoiney, Daiiow anticipates eveiy aigument, and pio-
ceeds to ciush them in page afei page of some of the best piose
you will evei iead.
Although wiiuen in 1vuz, Daiiow anticipates the piison nation
that Ameiica is today. All aieas of life become pait of the penal
vii
viii RESlST NOT EVlL
code with an aimy of people opeiating as police, legislatois and the
couit system to enfoice these laws thiough foice and violence.
Te state is set up not to administei justice, but to punish. No vic-
tims aie compensated, but the state gets its pound of esh. Wiiting
moie than a centuiy ago, Daiiow focused on ciimes against piop-
eity, the piedominate ciime foi which the state penned oendeis
at that time.
Today, buiglaiies, besides not being sexy, aie too haid to solve,
and not a cash geneiatoi foi local, state oi fedeial law enfoicement.
So nowits the wai on diugs that clogs Ameiicas piisons combined
with initiatives fiom Washington to get tough on ciime.
Ameiica has the highest incaiceiation iate in the woild. One
in a hundied of us is behind bais, judged by a monstiosity cieated
only to mete out vengeance. Te citizeniy is all to happy to cheei
while people they dont know aie sent away foi yeais and decades
foi what may have been one mistake.
Daiiow points out that the state doesnt considei the whole of a
peisons life when administeiing punishment foi the one oence. A
life of good deeds is no defense foi a teachei who has consensual sex
with a student. Te public ciies that this is wiong, and the judge,
consideiing his next election, is all too willing to pen hei up foi
decades.
Te state ensuies that we dont get to know the peipetiatois.
Tese men and women (many of whomaie moms and dads) become
less like people we might like oi identify with. Tat makes it easy
foi the public to allow the state to judge, convict, and punish.
Te State now says the people who bought what was foimeily
an ovei-the-countei alleigy medication too many times in too shoit
a peiiod of time aie ciiminal. Te local newspapei dutifully does its
pait, piinting mug shots, naming the oense, so the neighbois can
sneei in disgust. lew ieading the newspapei undeistand these peo-
ple weie meiely iesponding to the economic incentives the states
wai on diugs cieated.
lf the state says theyie bad and must be punished with a couple
of decades in the penitentiaiy, and the local papei conims the
states stoiy, then peifect stiangeis suddenly judge themas the state
has Yes, lock them up. Tey aie bad.
lNTRODUCTlON ix
Daiiow sees those judged by the state to be moie honoiable
than those within the state doing the judging. Teie aie numeious
examples in populai modein cultuie of chaiacteis engaged in ciimi-
nal activities who not only have the sympathies of the audience but
aie viewed as heioic.
Te day-to-day emotional and family stiuggles of ctional mod-
ein mobstei Tony Sopiano casts him in a much dieient light to
audiences than the state would judge him in ieal life. Te same goes
foi housewife tuined maiijuana sellei Nancy Botwin on Weeds, oi
chemistiy teachei tuined ciystal meth pioducei Waltei H. White on
Breaking Bad. No one can empathize with piohibition agent Nelson
Van Alden, but its easy to ioot foi the vaiious ciiminals on Broadway
Empire, oi vigilante seiial killei Dextei, oi pill-popping Nuise Jackie.
While netwoik TV still pioduces its shaie of police and couit-
system diamas, cuiient audiences would iathei watch ieality com-
petition oi talent shows. While yeais ago audiences weie diawn to
stieet-cop detectives like Dragnets Joe liiday, these days its woik
in the ciime lab that stimulates (piimaiily oldei) vieweis. Cops on
the stieet aie poitiayed as diunks, thugs, and oppoitunists as was
best poitiayed on e Wire.
Howevei in ieal life, the community has no sympathy foi those
engaged in activities the state deems wiong.
Daiiow staits Resist Not Evil by calling the state what it is a
violent aggiessoi. And a violent institution must have aimies, func-
tionaiies, and civil goveinments to punish those who oend. Unlike
Hans Hoppe, Daiiow views monaichy as no beuei than demociacy,
but its inteiesting that Daiiow makes the point that monaichs ie-
spected each othei and thus weie not engaged in woild domination.
Daiiow lacked the benet of Hoppes insight that monaichs
have lowei time piefeiences because iule stays in the family, allow-
ing iuleis to think long-teim and be moie peaceful with theii neigh-
bois. High-time-piefeience elected iuleis in demociacies must steal
and pillage in the shoit time they aie in oce with powei.
At times Daiiow wiites that doing business is the equivalent
of extoition and embezzlement, believing that the undeiclass aie
pillaged by the uppei class that is piotected by the states piopeity
laws and enfoicement appaiatus.
x RESlST NOT EVlL
Ludwig von Mises explained that in a fiee maiket it is the con-
sumei who is actually in chaige, and that the wealthy only get that
way by seiving consumeis.
Howevei, if Daiiows woids aie viewed in the light of todays
ciony capitalism, wheie the piivileged aie allowed piivate gains
with the public lef to absoib any losses and the opening of any
soit of business ventuie is a piivilege only to be gianted with the
states appioval, then Daiiows woids in this aiea cannot easily be
dismissed.
With the 11uth anniveisaiy of Resist Not Evil appioaching, theie
aie millions of Ameiicans caught up in the nations penal system,
most punished foi aibitiaiy ciimes of the states concoction. lt
is again Claience Daiiows moment, pioviding the cleaiest indict-
ment of the state and its violence.
PRElACE
lt is not claimed that the following pages contain any new ideas.
They weie inspiied by the wiitings of Tolstoy, who was the ist,
and in fact the only, authoi of my acquaintance who evei seemed to
me to place the doctiine of non-iesistance upon a substantial basis.
Afei ieading Tolstoy l deteimined to make a caieful study of the
subject, but on a thoiough seaich of book stoies and libiaiies could
nd next to nothing dealing with the question, while the shelves
weie ciowded with liteiatuie extolling the gloiies of wai and the
benecence of patiiotism.
The ist pait of this volume which deals with the state is veiy
fiagmentaiy, and in no wise so complete as can be found in many
othei volumes, but in the poition which deals with ciime and pun-
ishment, l have found a much newei eld, and one which has gen-
eially been discussed by those who have liule piactical knowledge
of the machineiy of couits of justice.
lt has been my puipose to state the ieasons which appeal to
me in suppoit of the doctiine of non-iesistance, iathei than to give
authoiities to sustain the theoiies advanced. Still, l believe that
the student who is inteiested in the subject of ciiminology, and
wishes to caiefully investigate ciime and punishment, will nd that
most of the gieat histoiians, philosopheis, and thinkeis will amply
coiioboiate the views heiein set foith, as to the cause of ciime, and
the evil and unsatisfactoiy iesults of punishment.
Claience S. Daiiow.
Chicago, Novembei 1, 1vuz.
xi
CONTENTS
lN1vouUc1ioN vii
Pvri~cr xi
l. Tur N~1Uvr oi 1ur S1~1r 1
ll. Avxirs ~Nu N~virs
lll. Tur PUvvosr oi Avxirs 11
lV. Civii GovrvNxrN1 1
V. Turovv oi Cvixr ~Nu PUNisuxrN1 z1
Vl. Rrxrui~i Eiirc1s oi PUNisuxrN1 z
Vll. C~Usr oi Cvixr !!
Vlll. Tur Pvovrv Tvr~1xrN1 oi Cvixr |1
lX. lxvossiniii1v oi JUs1 JUucxrN1 |
X. Tur JUucr oi 1ur CvixiN~i |v
Xl. Tur Mr~sUvr oi PUNisuxrN1 !
Xll. Wuo Drsrvvrs PUNisuxrN1 v
Xlll. N~1Uv~i L~v ~Nu CoNuUc1 e1
XlV. RUirs GovrvNiNc PrN~i Cours ~Nu Turiv Vic1ixs e
XV. Tur M~cuiNrvv oi JUs1icr 1
XVl. Tur Ricu1 Tvr~1xrN1 oi VioirNcr
Ai1rvvovu c
lNurx v
xiii
CHAPTER l
THE NATURE Ol THE STATE
ln this heioic age, given to wai and conquest and violence,
the piecepts of peace and good will seem to have been almost
submeiged. The pulpit, the piess, and the school unite in teaching
patiiotism and in pioclaiming the gloiy and benecence of wai,
and one may seaich liteiatuie almost in vain foi one note of that
Peace on eaith, and good will towaid men in which the woild still
piofesses to believe, and yet these benign piecepts aie supposed to
be the basis of all the civilization of the westein woild.
The doctiine of non-iesistance, if evei iefeiied to, is tieated with
deiision and scoin. At its best the doctiine can only be held by
dieameis and theoiists, and can have no place in daily life. Eveiy
goveinment on eaith fuinishes pioof that theie is nothing piactical
oi vital in its teachings. Eveiy goveinment on eaith is the peisoni-
cation of violence and foice, and yet the doctiine of non-iesistance
is as old as human thoughteven moie than this, the instinct is as
old as life upon the eaith.
The doctiine of non-iesistance to evil does not iest upon the
woids of Chiist alone. Buddha, Confucius, Plato, Sociates, show the
evil and destiuction of wai, of conquest, of violence, and of hatied,
and have taught the benecence of peace, of foigiveness, of non-
iesistance to evil. But modein thought is not content to iest the
conduct of life upon the theoiies of moialists. The iules of life that
govein men and states must today be in keeping with science and
confoim to the highest ieason and judgment of man. lt is heie that
non-iesistance seems to have failed to make any piactical piogiess in
the woild. That men should tuin the othei cheek, should love theii
enemies, should iesist not evil, has evei seemed ne to teach to chil-
dien, to pieach on Sundays, to iound a peiiod in a senseless oiatoiical
ight, but it has been taken foi gianted that these sentiments cannot
fuinish the ieal foundation foi stiong chaiacteis oi gieat states.
1
z RESlST NOT EVlL
lt is idle to discuss non-iesistance in its eect upon life and
the woild without adopting some standaid of excellence by which
to judge iesults. Heie, as elsewheie in human conduct, afei all is
said and done, men must come back to the fundamental piinciple
that the conduct which makes foi life is wise and iight. Natuie in
hei tiieless laboi has evei been developing a highei oidei and a
completei life. Sometimes foi long peiiods it seems as if the woild
weie on the backwaid couise, but even this would piove that life
ieally is the highest end to be auained. Whatevei tends to happiness
tends to life, joy is life and miseiy is death.
ln his long and toilsome pilgiimage, man has come to his piesent
estate thiough endless stiuggle, thiough biutal violence adminis-
teied and ieceived. And the question of the coiiectness of non-
iesistance as a theoiy, like any othei theoiy, does not depend upon
whethei it can be enfoiced and lived nowoi tomoiiow, but whethei
it is the highest ideal of life that is given us to conceive. ln one sense
nothing is piactical excepting what is, eveiything must have been
developed out of all the conditions of life that now exist oi have
existed on the eaith. But to state this means liule in the seulement
of ethical questions, foi mans futuie condition depends quite as
much upon his mental auitude as upon any othei fact that shapes
his couise.
Eveiywheie it seems to have been taken foi gianted that foice
and violence aie necessaiy to mans welfaie upon the eaith. End-
less volumes have been wiiuen, and countless lives been saciiced
in an eoit to piove that one foim of goveinment is beuei than
anothei, but few seem seiiously to have consideied the pioposition
that all goveinment iests on violence and foice, is sustained by
soldieis, policemen and couits, and is contiaiy to the ideal peace
and oidei which make foi the happiness and piogiess of the human
iace. Now and then it is even admiued that in the fai distant ages
yet to come men may so fai develop towaid the angelic that po-
litical goveinments will have no need to be. This admission, like
the common concept, piesumes that goveinments aie good, that
theii duties undeitaken and peifoimed consist in iepiessing the evil
and the lawless, and piotecting and caiing foi the helpless and the
weak.
THE NATURE Ol THE STATE !
lf the histoiy of the state pioved that goveining bodies weie evei
foimed foi this puipose oi lled this function, theie might be some
basis foi the assumption that goveinment is necessaiy to pieseive
oidei and to defend the weak. But the oiigin and evolution of the
political state showquite anothei thingit shows that the state was
boin in aggiession, and that in all the vaiious stages thiough which
it has passed its essential chaiacteiistics have been pieseived.
The beginnings of the state can be tiaced back to the eaily his-
toiy of the human iace when the stiongest savage seized the laigest
club and with this weapon enfoiced his iule upon the othei mem-
beis of the tiibe. By means of stiength and cunning he became the
chief and exeicised this powei, not to piotect the weak but to take
the good things of the eaith foi himself and his. One man by his
unaided stiength could not long keep the tiibe in subjection to his
will, so he chose lieutenants and aides, and these too weie taken
foi theii stiength and piowess, and weie given a goodly poition
of the fiuits of powei foi the loyalty and help they lent theii chief.
No plans foi the geneial good evei foimed a poition of the scheme
of goveinment evolved by these baibaious chiefs. The gieat mass
weie slaves, and theii lives and libeity held at the absolute disposal
of the stiong.
Ages of evolution have only modied the iigois of the ist
iude states. The divine iight to iule, the absolute chaiactei of
ocial powei, is piactically the same today in most of the na-
tions of the woild as with the eaily chiefs who executed theii
mandates with a club. The ancient knight who, with baule-axe
and coat of mail, enfoiced his iule upon the weak, was only the
foieiunnei of the tax-gatheiei and tax-devouiei of today. Even in
demociatic countiies, wheie the people aie supposed to choose
theii iuleis, the natuie of goveinment is the same. Giowing
fiom the old ideas of absolute powei, these demociacies have
assumed that some soit of goveinment was indispensable to the
mass, and no soonei had they thiown o one foim of bondage
than anothei yoke was placed upon theii necks, only to piove
in time that this new buiden was no less galling than the old.
Neithei do the people govein in demociacies moie than in any
othei lands. They do not even choose theii iuleis. These iuleis
| RESlST NOT EVlL
choose themselves and by foice and cunning and intiigue aiiive
at the same iesults that theii piimitive ancestoi ieached with the
aid of a club.
And who aie these iuleis without whose aid the evil and coiiupt
would destioy and subveit the defenceless and the weak` liom
the eailiest time these self-appointed iuleis have been conspicuous
foi all those vices that they so peisistently chaige to the common
people whose iapacity, ciuelty and lawlessness they so biavely cuib.
The histoiy of the past and the piesent alike pioves beyond a doubt
that if theie is, oi evei was any laige class, fiom whom society
needed to be saved, it is those same iuleis who have been placed in
absolute chaige of the lives and destinies of theii fellow men. liom
the eaily kings who, with blood-ied hands, foibade theii subjects to
kill theii fellow men, to the modein legislatoi, who, with the biibe
money in his pocket, still makes biibeiy a ciime, these iuleis have
evei made laws not to govein themselves but to enfoice obedience
on theii seifs.
The puipose of this autociatic powei has evei been the same.
ln the eaily tiibe the chief took the land and the fiuits of the eaith,
and paiceled them amongst his ietaineis who helped pieseive his
stiength. Eveiy goveinment since then has used its powei to divide
the eaith amongst the favoied few and by foice and violence to
keep the toiling, patient, sueiing millions fiom any poition of the
common bounties of the woild.
ln many of the nations of the eaith the ieal goveining powei
has stood behind the thione, has sueied theii cieatuies and theii
puppets to be the nominal iuleis of nations and states, but in eveiy
case the ieal iuleis aie the stiong, and the state is used by them to
peipetuate theii powei and seive theii avaiice and gieed.
CHAPTER ll
ARMlES AND NAVlES
Howis the authoiity of the state maintained` ln whatevei guise,
oi howevei fai iemoved fiom the iudest savage tiibe to the most
modein demociatic state, this autociatic powei iests on violence
and foice alone. The ist gieat instiument which suppoits eveiy
goveinment on eaith is the soldiei with his gun and swoid. Tiue,
the aimy may be but iaiely used. The civil powei, the couits of
justice, the policemen and jails geneially suce in civilized lands to
maintain existing things, but back of these, to enfoice each deciee,
is the powei of aimed men with all the modein implements of death.
Thousands of chuich oiganizations thioughout the Chiistian
woild piofess the doctiine of non-iesistance to evil, of peace on
eaith and good will to men, and yet each of these Chiistian lands
tiains gieat bodies of aimed men to kill theii fellows foi the piesei-
vation of existing things. Euiope is made up of gieat militaiy camps
wheie millions of men aie kept apait fiom theii fellows and taught
the tiade of wai alone. And demociatic Ameiica, feeling the ush
of victoiy and the glow of conquest, is tuining hei eneigies and
stiength to gatheiing aimies and navies that shall equal those acioss
the sea. Not only aie these tiained soldieis a living denial of the
doctiines that aie piofessed, but in obedience to an eteinal law,
deepei and moie benecent than any evei made by man, these
mighty foices aie woiking theii own iuin and death. These gieat
aimies and navies which give the lie to oui piofessions of faith exist
foi two puiposes ist, to keep in subjection the people of theii
own land, second, to make wai upon and defend against the othei
nations of the eaith. The histoiy of the woild is liule else than
the stoiy of the cainage and destiuction wiought on bauleelds,
cainage and destiuction spiinging not fiom any dieience between
the common people of the eaith, but due alone to the desiies and
passions of the iuleis of the eaith. This iuling class, evei eagei

e RESlST NOT EVlL

to extend its powei and stiength, evei looking foi new people to
govein and new lands to tax, has always been ieady to tuin its
face against othei poweis to satisfy the iuleis will, and without
pity oi iegiet, these iuleis have depopulated theii kingdoms, and
caiiied iuin and destiuction to eveiy poition of the eaith foi gold
and powei.
Not only do these Euiopean iuleis keep many millions of men
whose only tiade is wai, but these must be suppoited in woise than
useless idleness by the laboi of the pooi. Still othei millions aie
tiained to wai and aie evei ieady to answei to theii masteis call,
to deseit theii homes and tiades and oei up theii lives to satisfy
the vain ambitions of the iulei of the state. Millions moie must
give theii stiength and lives to build foits and ships, make guns
and cannon and all the modein implements of wai. Apait fiom any
moial question of the iight of man to slay his fellow man, all this
gieat buiden iests upon the pooi. The vast expense of wai comes
fiom the pioduction of the land and must seive to weaken and
impaii its industiial stiength. This veiy foice must destioy itself.
The best talent of eveiy nation is called upon to invent new im-
plements of destiuctionfastei sailing boats, stiongei foits, moie
poweiful explosives and moie deadly guns. As one nation adds to
its militaiy stoies, so eveiy othei nation is also bound to inciease
its aimy and navy too. Thus the added foice does not augment the
militaiy powei, but only makes laigei the buiden of the state, until,
today, these gieat aimies, aside fiom pioducing the moial degiada-
tion of the woild, aie sapping and undeimining and consuming the
vitality and stiength of all the nations of the eaith. Cost of laboi
and stiength means cost of life. Thus in theii piactical iesults these
aimies aie destioying millions of lives that a policy of peace and
non-iesistance would conseive and save.
But when these aimies aie in action how stands the case` Ovei
and ovei again the woild has been submeiged by wai. The stiongest
nations of the eaith have been almost destioyed. Devastating wais
have lef consequences that centuiies could not iepaii. Countless
millions of men have been used as food foi guns. The miseiies and
sueiings and biutality following in the wake of wai have nevei
ARMlES AND NAVlES
been desciibed oi imagined, and yet the woild peisists in teaching
the gloiy and honoi and gieatness of wai. To excuse the wholesale
butcheiies of men by the goveining poweis, leained apologists have
taught that without the havoc and ciuel devastation of wai the
human iace would oveiiun the eaith, and yet eveiy goveinment in
the woild has used its powei and inuence to piomote and encoui-
age maiiiage and the ieaiing of childien, to punish infanticide and
aboition, and make ciiminal eveiy device to pievent population,
have used theii powei to heal the sick, to alleviate miseiy and to
piolong life. Eveiy movement to oveicome disease, to make cities
sanitaiy, to pioduce and maintain men and women and childien has
ieceived the sanction and encouiagement of all goveinments, and
still these gloiious iuleis have iuthlessly slaughteied in the most
baibaious and ciuel way tens of millions of theii fellow men, to
add to theii gloiy and peipetuate theii names. And philosopheis
have told us that this was necessaiy to pievent the ovei-population
of the eaith'
No single iulei, howevei ciuel oi ambitious, has evei yet been
able to biing the whole woild beneath his sway, and the ambitions
and lusts of these sepaiate chiefs have divided the woild into hostile
camps and hostile states. Endless wais have been waged to inciease
oi piotect the teiiitoiy goveined by these vaiious iuleis. ln these
bloody conicts the pooi seifs have dumbly and patiently met death
in a thousand sickening ways to uphold the authoiity and piowess
of the iulei whose sole function has evei been to pillage and iob the
pooi victims that fate has placed within his powei. To these biutal,
senseless, ghting millions the boundaiies of the state oi the coloi
of the ag that they weie taught to love could not in the least aect
theii lives. Whoevei theii iuleis, theii mission has evei been to toil
and ght and die foi the honoi of the state and the gloiy of the chief.
But, today, even national pieseivation demands that the iule
of peace shall give place to the iule of wai. ln the oldei coun-
tiies of the eaith the gieat diains made upon industiy and life to
suppoit vast aimies and equip them foi slaughtei is depopulating
states and impoveiishing the lands. And besides all this, so fai as
exteinal powei is conceined, no nation adds to its eectiveness
to baule with the otheis by incieasing its aimy and navy. This
c RESlST NOT EVlL
simply seives to inciease the stiength of the enemys guns and
to make new combinations between hostile lands, until the veiy
stiength of a nation becomes its weakness and must in tuin lead
to its decay and oveithiow. The nation that would today disaim
its soldieis and tuin its people to the paths of peace would accom-
plish moie to its building up than by all the wai taxes wiung fiom
its hostile and unwilling seifs. A nation like this would exhibit
to the woild such an example of moial giandeui and tiue vitality
and woith that no nation, howevei poweiful, would daie to invite
the odium and hostility of the woild by sending aims and men to
conquei a peaceful, pioductive, non-iesistant land. lf the integiity
and independence of a nation depended upon its foits and guns the
smallei countiies of Euiope would at once be wiped fiom the map
of the woild. Switzeiland, Holland, Gieece, ltaly, and Spain aie
absolutely poweiless to defend themselves by foice. lf these nations
should at once disaim eveiy soldiei and melt eveiy gun and tuin
the woise than wasted laboi into pioductive, life-saving woik, they
could but gieatly stiengthen themselves amongst the othei nations
of the eaith. Not only this, theii example would seive to help tuin
the tide of the woild fiom the baibaious and soul-destioying path
of wai towaid the highei, noblei life of peace and good will towaid
men.
But not alone aie these small nations made still weakei by wai,
but eveiy bauleship that is built by England, Russia, liance, Gei-
many, oi the United States ieally weakens those nations too. lt
weakens them not alone by the loss of pioductive powei but by
the woise than wasted eneigy which is iequiied to suppoit these
implements of death, fiom the time theii ist beam is mined in the
oiiginal oie, until scaiied and woithless and iacked by scenes of
blood and violence and shame, they aie thiown out upon the sands
to iot. But eveiy bauleship weakens a nation by inviting the hostil-
ity of the othei peoples of the eaith, by compelling othei iuleis to
weaken theii kingdoms, to build mighty ships and poweiful guns.
Eveiy piepaiation foi wai and violence is ieally a violation of the
neutiality undei which gieat nations piofess to live. They aie a
ieection upon the integiity and humanity of theii own people and
an insult to eveiy othei land on eaith. The building of a man of wai,
ARMlES AND NAVlES v
the ieaiing of a foit, oi the planting of a gun can be likened only to
a man who piofesses to live in peace and quiet with his neighbois
and his fiiends and who goes about aimed with pistol and with diik.
But these patent evils and outiages aie afei all the smallest that
ow fiom violence and stiife. The whole puisuit of wai weakens
the aspiiations and ideals of the iace. Ruleis have evei taught and
encouiaged the spiiit of patiiotism, that they might call upon theii
slaves to give theii laboi to the piivileged class and to fieely oei
up theii lives when the king commands. Eveiy people in the woild
is taught that theii countiy and theii goveinment is the best on
eaith, and that they should be evei ieady to deseit theii homes,
abandon theii hopes, aspiiations, and ambitions when theii iulei
calls, and this iegaidless of the iight oi wiong foi which they ght.
The teaching of patiiotism and wai peimeates all society, it ieaches
to the youngest child and even shapes the chaiactei of the unboin
babe. lt lls the soul with false ambitions, with ignoble desiies, and
with soidid hopes.
Eveiy sentiment foi the impiovement of men, foi human justice,
foi the uplifing of the pooi, is at once stied by the wild, hoaise
shout foi blood. The lowest standaid of ethics of which a iight-
thinking man can possibly conceive is taught to the common soldiei
whose tiade is to shoot his fellow man. ln youth he may have
leained the command, Thou shalt not kill, but the iulei takes the
boy just as he enteis manhood and teaches himthat his highest duty
is to shoot a bullet thiough his neighbois heait, and this unmoved
by passion oi feeling oi hatied, and without the least iegaid to iight
oi wiong, but simply because his iulei gives the woid. lt is not the
piivilege of the common soldiei to ask questions, to considei iight
and wiong, to think of the miseiy and sueiing his act entails upon
otheis innocent of ciime. He may be told to point his gun at his
neighboi and his fiiend, even at his biothei oi fathei, if so he must
obey commands.
Theiis not to ieason why,
Theiis but to do and die,
iepiesents the code of ethics that goveins a soldieis life.
1u RESlST NOT EVlL
And yet fiommen who believe in these ideals, men who saciice
theii iight of piivate judgment in the holiest mauei that can weigh
upon the conscience and the intellect, the taking of human life,
men who place theii lives, theii consciences, theii destinies, without
question oi hesitation, into anotheis keeping, men whose tiade is
slaughtei and whose cunning consists in theii ability to kill theii
fellows, fiomsuch men it is expected to build gieat states and ieai
a noble humanity'
These teachings lead to destiuction and death, the destiuction
of the body and the destiuction of the soul. Even on the plea of
physical evolution in the long sweep of time, these men must give
way to the patient, peaceful, non-iesistants, who love theii biotheis
and believe in the saciedness of life. Long ago it was wiiuen down
that He who takes the swoid shall peiish by the swoid.
CHAPTER lll
THE PURPOSE Ol ARMlES
But the gieat aimies and navies aie not ieally kept today foi
foieign conquest. Now and then, in obedience to the commeicial
spiiit that iules the woild, these vessels of destiuction aie sent to
foieign seas. But the iuleis of the eaith live on faiily fiiendly teims.
Long since, the most ambitious have abandoned theii dieams of
woild powei and aie content to exploit a poition of the eaith. When
waiships aie sent to foieign seas they usually ie a salute iathei
than tiain theii guns foi death. Monaichs the woild ovei iespect
each othei. They aie bound togethei by ties of common inteiest,
if not of common love. When a iulei dies, even though the most
tyiannical and despotic, eveiy othei iulei piomptly sends condo-
lences to the soiiowing couit, theii own subjects may die unwept,
but a touch of common feeling moves themto mouin a iuleis death.
Nations aie bound by many ties to pieseive peace among each othei.
Scions of ioyal families aie handed iound in maiiiage fiom couit
to couit, tieaties of all soits aie made and iatied in most solemn
foim, and even moie than this, the ieal owneis of the woild, those
who possess the stocks and bonds which iest upon the wealth that
the pooi have laboied to cieate, these ieal iuleis who make wai
oi peace by giving oi withholding funds, these own the gieat bulk
of the piopeity of the vaiious nations of the woild, and will not
lightly suei theii possessions to be destioyed. And yet these same
ieal iuleis, who stand behind the thiones of all the woild, appiove
of this piepaiation foi wai, appiove of taking millions of men fiom
theii homes and tiaining them to kill, appiove of eveiy foit and
gun and bauleship. Moie than this, they contiibute laigely of theii
piivate funds to build baueiies and equip militia, especially in the
gieat cities of the eaith. Thiough the speeches of theii agents and
the voice of theii piess, all this giimvisage of wai is foi the stiangei
without theii gates. But in ieality the piime ieason foi all the aimies
11
1z RESlST NOT EVlL
of the woild is that soldieis and militia may tuin theii guns upon
theii unfoitunate countiymen when the owneis of the eaith shall
speak the woid. And these unfoitunate countiymen aie the outcast
and despised, the meek and lowly ones of the woild, the men whose
ceaseless toil and unpaid eoits have built the foits and molded the
cannon and sustained the soldieis that aie used to shoot themdown.
To say that these aimies and fiowning foits and Gatling guns aie
needed to maintain peace and oidei at home is to admit at once that
the gieat mass of men aie held captive by the moie poweiful few.
Oiganized soldieis and policemen, couits and sheiis, with guns
and foits and jails, have the gieatest advantage ovei the disoiga-
nized mass who cannot act togethei, and who know not which way
to tuin to keep outside the meshes of the law. Not one in a thousand
need be tiained to aims and authoiity to keep the unoiganized mass
in the place ieseived foi it to live. The puipose of guns and aimies is
to fuinish the fewan easy and suie way to contiol the mass. Neithei
aie these aimies made of the iuling class. The oceis, it is tiue, aie
geneially taken fiom the favoied ones, but the iegulai soldiei is the
man too pooi and abandoned to nd his place in any othei of the
walks of life. He is only t to be an executionei of his fellow man.
No iulei can love his subjects when he takes theii money and theii
laboi to buy cannon and tiain men to shoot them down. That this
is the ieal puipose of standing aimies and wailike equipments is
plain to all who have eyes to see. Moie and moie the iuleis have
leained to build theii baiiacks and mass theii tioops not on the
boideis of theii land but convenient to gieat cities, in the midst of
distiicts thickly populated by woiking men. As nations giow oldei
the oppoitunities of the masses giow less. Moie men aie called
to seive the state, and gieatei piepaiations aie made to pieseive
the possessions of the iich. These soldieis aie moved fiom place
to place, aie massed at time of need, not in accoidance with the
petition of the citizens fiom whose ianks the soldieis come, but in
iesponse to the iequest of the iuling class.
Qite apait fiom the question of the iights of capital on one
hand and laboi on the othei, what must be the eect of this policy
of foice and violence when ieaching ovei long peiiods of time`
THE PURPOSE Ol ARMlES 1!
A nation is ieally gieat and possessed of the lasting elements of
stiength in piopoition as hei people aie stiong, intelligent, and fiee.
The iuleis of a nation should owe theii subjects some duty in ietuin
foi the homage and taxes they ieceive. The iulei who delibeiately
goveins his subjects by violence and foice, and thiough tyianny
and feai, must nd in time that this policy of hatied and outiage
is destioying and sapping the foundations of the state, the moie
stiength and vitality that he diaws fiom the pooi and the moie
soldieis iequiied to suppoit aibitiaiy powei, the gieatei the chasm
that yawns beneath his feet. The loyalty that is kept thiough feai
is lost with oppoitunity. The iuleis of Rome befoie hei destiuction,
and of liance befoie the Revolution, had diawn all the soldieis
fiom the people that the elds and shops could spaie, and used
these to suppoit theii toueiing powei. Kings can gain nothing by
goveining soldieis alone. They must have faimeis, aitisans, all soits
of pioduceis, oi theii conquest is not woith the piice. The policy
of hatied and violence must in the end destioy the state. lt can
bieed only hatied in the heaits of the outcast and the pooi. lf theii
subjection is incomplete, the thione is iesting upon the shifing
sands. lf peifect and complete, theii subjects aie lifeless machines
and theii empiies ciumbling to decay. lt is ieally idle to speculate
as to whethei love and biotheihood could accomplish moie, it is
ceitain they could not do less. To disband the aimies and destioy
the foits, to diuse love and biotheihood, and peace and justice in
the place of wai and stiife, could tend only to the building up of chai-
actei, the elevation of the soul, and the stiength and well-being of
the state. Tiue, the class lines would disappeai. Biotheihood would
have neithei iulei noi iuled, would have no authoiity of man ovei
man, would tieat all as biotheis and co-equals, and fiom it would
giow a stiongei state and a highei manhood than the woild has
known. Peaceful industiy ielieved fiom the buidens of soldieis and
aims would inevitably inciease, and life, iendeied less buidensome
by the exactions of authoiity, would lengthen and sweeten thiough
the benecent inuence of love. No nation can be ieally gieat that
is held togethei by Gatling guns, and no tiue loyalty can be induced
and kept thiough feai.
CHAPTER lV
ClVlL GOVERNMENT
Afei the evolution of society thiough biute foice and the ist
stages of militaiism, comes civil goveinment. ln its foims and meth-
ods civil goveinment dieis fiom militaiy goveinment, but in its
essence, its ieal puipose and eect, it is the same. Civil govein-
ment, like militaiy goveinment, iests on violence and foice. As
society ieaches the industiial stage, it is easiei and costs less waste
of eneigy foi the iuling class to maintain its supiemacy thiough
the intiicate foims and mazes of civil goveinment, than thiough
the diiect means of soldieis and guns.
Civil goveinments, like militaiy goveinments, aie instituted and
contiolled by the iuling class. Theii puipose is to keep the eaith and
its iesouices in the hands of those who diiectly and indiiectly have
taken it foi themselves. This can only be done by the establishment
and maintenance of ceitain iules and iegulations conceining the
disposition of piopeity and the fate of men. A vast aimy of o-
cials, goveinois, legislatois, tax-gatheieis, judges, sheiis, police-
men, and the like aie maintained by the goveining class to enfoice
these iules and iegulations and keep the exploited in theii place.
The deciees of couits and the vaiious oideis of civil goveinment
aie enfoiced by violence, dieiing only in kind fiom the geneials
commands. The deciees of couits, whethei iightful oi wiongful,
must be obeyed, and the penalty of disobedience is the foicible
taking of piopeity, the kidnapping and impiisoning of men, and if
need be, the taking of human life. lf it shall evei occui that the civil
authoiities have not sucient foice to compel obedience, the whole
powei of the aimy and navy may at once be made subseivient to
the civil powei.
The vast aimy which is chaiged with enfoicing and maintain-
ing civil law is diawn laigely fiom the iuling class and those who
contiibute as theii willing tools. This class must be suppoited and
1
1e RESlST NOT EVlL
maintained in gieatei luxuiy than that enjoyed by the oidinaiy
man, and the suppoit entails ceaseless and buidensome exactions
fiom the pioducing class. These exactions aie a poition of the piice
that the woikei pays foi the piivilege of being iuled. lt is tiue that
a poition of the money foicibly taken thiough the machineiy of
goveinment is used foi those copeiative commeicial puiposes that
aie incident to a complex social life, but it has nevei yet been shown
that an autociatic powei like a political state is needed to piovide
the common iesouices incident to social life.
Piactically the whole aimy of ocials, with its wastefulness, its
extiavagance and its endless peculation, is suppoited and kept in
woise than idleness foi the puipose of iuling men thiough violence
and foice. Even in so-called demociacies the civil law, with its
pondeious and costly machineiy, seives the same puipose as in
monaichical states. lt is easy to undeistand that when the deciees
of a iulei aie absolute it can mauei liule whethei these deciees
aie issued to an aimy and caiiied out by foice of the bayonet and
gun, oi whethei they aie ciystallized into law and caiiied out by
the oideis of couits to be enfoiced by consigning tioublesome and
iebellious subjects to the piison oi the block. ln eithei event the
will of the soveieign is law, and the law is made foi the benet of
the iulei, not the iuled.
ln demociacies, the foim is somewhat changed, but the iesults
aie not unlike. Eveiy demociacy begins with a gieat mass of iegu-
lations inheiited fiom the autociatic poweis that have gone befoie.
These laws and customs aie oiiginally the same deciees that have
gone foith fiom the absolute iuleis of the eaith, and eveiy change
in foims and institutions is based upon the old notions of piopeity
and iights that weie made to seive the iulei and enslave the woild.
Then, too, authoiity has the same eect on human natuie whethei
in an absolute monaichy oi a demociacy, and the tendency of au-
thoiity is evei to enlaige its bounds and to encioach upon the nat-
uial iights of those who have no powei to piotect themselves. The
possession of authoiity and aibitiaiy powei evei tends to tyianny,
and when autociatic oideis may be enfoiced by violence, libeity
and life depend upon sueiance alone. A close community of intei-
est natuially spiings up between those ciicumstanced alike. The
ClVlL GOVERNMENT 1
man who possesses one soit of powei, as, foi instance, political
piivilege, is veiy fiiendly to the class who possess anothei soit, as,
foi instance, wealth, and this community of inteiest natuially and
invaiiably aiiays all the piivileged classes against the weak. The
laws and iegulations of a demociacy tend no moie to equality than
those of a monaichy. Undei a demociatic goveinment inequality
of possession, of oppoitunity, of powei, is quite as gieat as undei
absolute monaichies. Given the iight to use foice of man ovei
man and the stiongest foice will succeed. You may foibid it in
one diiection, it will but nd a new method to accomplish the same
iesult, like the pent-up toiient that will nd its outlet, in howevei
ciicuitous a ioute it is obliged to move. The legislatois who make
laws come eithei fiom the iuling class oi diaw theii honois, ie-
waids, and emoluments fiom this class, and the statutes of the most
demociatic state aie not unlike the dictates of the absolute monaich,
and the deciees of both alike may be enfoiced by all the powei and
violence of the state. But laws do not execute themselves, and eveiy
ocial appointed oi self-chosen to enfoice the law eithei comes
fiom oi natuially giavitates towaid the iuling class. Heie again
powei giows by what it feeds on. Oidei is moie impoitant than
libeity, and at all costs oidei must be enfoiced upon the many. The
few have liule need foi law. Whatevei is, is theiis, and may they
not use theii own to suit themselves` The business of the couits and
ocials is to enfoice oidei upon the gieat mass who must depend
upon the few foi the means of life. To enfoice oidei upon them
means that they may only live in ceitain ways.
But admiuing the oithodox view of goveinment to be coiiect,
then how stands the case` The gieat majoiity of mankind still
believe in the utility of the state. They not only believe that society
could not exist without the state, but likewise that this political insti-
tution exists and is maintained foi the public good, that all its func-
tions and activities in some mysteiious way have been confeiied
upon it by the weakei class of society, and that it is administeied
to save this class fiom the iavages of the vicious and the stiong.
Of couise, theie aie many humane ocials, men who use theii
powei to piomote the public good, as they see and undeistand the
1c RESlST NOT EVlL
public good. These, in common with the community, look upon the
endless piovisions of oui penal code as being the magical powei
that keeps the state fiom dissolution and pieseives the lives and
piopeity of men fiom the vicious and the bad. The idea of punish-
ment, of violence, of foice, is so inteiwoven with all oui concepts
of justice and social life that but few can conceive a society without
foice, without jails, without scaolds, without the penal judgments
of men. The thought nevei suggests itself to the common mind
that natuie, unaided by mans laws, can evolve social oidei, oi that
a community might live in measuiable peace and secuiity moved
only by those natuial instincts which foim the basis and iendei
possible communal life. To be suie, the woild is full of evidence
that oidei and secuiity do not depend on legal inventions. liom
the wild hoises on the plains, the ocks of biids, the swaiming
bees, the human society and association in new countiies amongst
unexploited people, suggestions of oidei and symmetiy iegulated
by natuial instincts and common social needs aie ample to show
the possibility at least of oidei oi a consideiable measuie of justice
without penal law. lt is only when the aiiogance and the avaiice
of iuleis and chiefs make it necessaiy to exploit men that these
iuleis must lay down laws and iegulations to contiol the actions
of theii fellows. And the moie xed the caste, the beuei seuled the
community, the moie complete the piivate appiopiiation of land,
and the longei the penal code, the gieatei the numbei of victims
that aie caught within its snaies.
Tuining fiom the examples eveiywheie piesent of the natuial-
ness of oidei and system to what we obseive of the daily acts of
men, the thought that iight conduct has liule ielation to penal laws
is still fuithei conimed. ln the myiiad acts of men it is only iaiely
that one is done diiectly because of law. To tuin to the iight when
you meet youi neighboi on the stieet, to impeiil youi happiness and
even youi life to help in diie need, to piotect the helpless, to defend
the weak, to tell the tiuth, in fact, to obey all that natuial moiality oi
iight conduct iequiies, is the ist instinct of man, and evei pievails,
not only iegaidless of human law but in spite of human law, and
this, too, foi the best and most abiding ieason that can inuence the
life of man. Natuie piovides that ceitain conduct makes foi life, and
ClVlL GOVERNMENT 1v
in the sweep of time, those who confoim to this conduct live and
theii ospiing populate the eaith when they aie gone, those who
violate the laws of communal life will die oi leave no descendants oi
weak ospiing to be the last suivivois of theii line. The unschooled
child and the uncivilized iace alike tell the tiuth, they obey the laws
of natuie and the laws of life. lt is only afei the exploitei appeais
with his iules foi enslaving man that he must needs build jails in
which to pen those who defy oi ignoie theii powei.
CHAPTER V
THEORY Ol CRlME AND PUNlSHMENT
Those who believe in the benecence of foice have nevei yet
agieed upon the ciimes that should be foibidden, the method and
extent of punishment, the puipose of punishment, noi even its ie-
sult. They simply agiee that without foice and violence social life
cannot be maintained. All conceivable human actions have fallen
undei the disfavoi of the law and found theii place in penal codes
blasphemy, witchciaf, heiesy, insanity, idiocy, methods of eating
and diinking, the mannei of woishiping the Supieme Being, the
obseivance of fast days and holy days, the giving of medicine and
the withholding of medicine, the ielation of the sexes, the iight
to laboi and not to laboi, the method of acquiiing and dispens-
ing piopeity, its puichase and sale, the foims of diess and man-
nei of depoitment, in fact almost eveiy conceivable act of man.
On the othei hand, muidei, iobbeiy, pillage, iapine, have ofen
been commended by the iuling poweis, not only peimiued, but
undei ceitain conditions that seemed to woik to the advantage of
the iulei, this conduct has been deemed woithy of the gieatest
piaise. The punishment foi illegal acts have been as vaiious as
the ciimes. Death has always been a favoiite visitation foi the
ciiminal, but the means of death have vaiied with time and place
boiling in oil, boiling in watei, buining at the stake, bieaking on
the wheel, stiangulation, poison, feeding to wild beasts, beheading,
and in fact eveiy conceivable way down to the humane method of
electiocution and hanging by the neck until dead. Death, too, has
been made the punishment foi all soits of ciimes, always foi the
ciimes of denying youi Makei, oi killing youi iulei. Afei death,
has come public ogging, standing in the stocks, ducking, maim-
ing, down to the humane method of penning in a cage. No two
sets of iuleis have evei agieed upon the ielative enoimity of the
vaiious ciimes, the soit of punishment they meiited, the extent
z1
zz RESlST NOT EVlL
and duiation of punishment, oi the puipose to be accomplished
by the punishment. One age has pionounced maityis and woi-
shiped as saints the ciiminals that anothei age has put to death. One
law-making body iepeals the ciimes that anothei cieates. Some
judges with veneiable wigs have pionounced solemn sentence of
death upon helpless, defenceless old women foi bewitching a cat.
Giave judges have even sentenced animals to death afei due and
impaitial tiial foi ciime. The judges who pionounced sentence of
death on women foi witchciaf weie as leained and good as those
who today pionounce sentence foi conspiiacy and othei ciimes.
lt is quite as possible that anothei geneiation will look with the
same hoiioi on the subjects of oui laws as we look upon those
of the yeais that aie gone. lt is but a few yeais since a hundied
dieient ciimes weie punishable with death in England, and the
wise men of that day would not have believed that the empiie could
hold togethei had these extieme statutes been limited to one oi
two.
But howevei diastic the laws at dieient peiiods of civilization,
they have nevei been so bioad but what a much laigei numbei of
blamewoithy acts weie outside than inside the code. Neithei have
they evei been enfoiced alike on all. The poweiful could geneially
violate them with impunity, but the net was theie to ensnaie the
victim whom they wished to catch.
Neithei has the method of deteimining the victim foi these vai-
ious laws been as accuiate and scientic as is geneially piesumed.
Sometimes it has been by toituiing until the victim is made to con-
fess, sometimes by wagei of baule, sometimes by tying the feet
and hands and thiowing them into a pond, when if they sank they
weie innocent, if they swam they weie guilty and piomptly put
to death. The modein method of aiiaying a defendant in couit,
piosecuted by able lawyeis with ample iesouices, tiied by judges
who almost invaiiably believe in the piisoneis guilt, defended as
is usually the case by incompetent lawyeis, and without means,
is scaicely moie liable to lead to coiiect iesults than the ancient
foims. liom the natuie of things it is seldom possible to be suie
about the commission of the act, and nevei possible to x the moial
iesponsibility of the peison chaiged with ciime.
THEORY Ol CRlME AND PUNlSHMENT z!
loi ages men have eiected scaolds, instiuments of toituie,
built jails, piisons and penal institutions without end, and thiough
all the ages a long line of sueiing humanity, bound and feueied,
has been maiching to slaughtei and condemned to living tombs,
and yet human goveinments chaiged with the iesponsibility of
the condition and lives of these weak biotheis, have nevei yet
been able to agiee even upon the puipose foi which these pens
aie built. All punishment and violence is laigely mixed with the
feeling of ievenge, fiomthe biutal fathei who stiikes his helpless
child, to the hangman who obeys the oideis of the judge, with
eveiy man who lays violent unkind hands upon his fellow the
piime feeling is that of hatied and ievenge. Some human being
has shed his neighbois blood, the state must take his life. ln no
othei way can the ciime be wiped away. ln some inconceivable
mannei it is believed that when this punishment follows, justice
has been done. But by no method of ieasoning can it be shown
that the injustice of killing one man is ietiieved by the execution
of anothei, oi that the foicible taking of piopeity is made iight
by conning some human being in a pen. lf the law knew some
method to iestoie a life oi make good a loss to the ieal victim,
it might be uiged that justice had been done. But if taking life, oi
blaspheming, oi destioying the piopeity of anothei be an injustice,
as in oui shoit vision it seems to be, then punishing him who is
supposed to be guilty of the act, in no way makes just the act
alieady done. To punish a human being simply because he has
commiued a wiongful act, without any thought of good to follow,
is vengeance puie and simple, and moie detestable and haimful
than any casual isolated ciime. Apologists who have seen the
hoiioi in the thought of vengeance and still believe in violence
and foice when exeicised by the state, contend that punishment
is laigely foi the puipose of iefoiming the victim. This, of couise,
cannot be held in those instances wheie death is the punishment
inicted. These victims at least have no chance to be iefoimed.
Neithei can it be seiiously contended that a penal institution is
a iefoimatoiy, whatevei its name. A piisonei is an outlaw, an
outcast man, placed beyond the pale of society and bianded as
unt foi the association of his fellow man, his sentence is to live
z| RESlST NOT EVlL
in silence, to toil without iecompense, to weai the badge of infamy,
and if evei peimiued to see the light to be pointed at and shunned
by all who know his life.
CHAPTER Vl
REMEDlAL EllECTS Ol PUNlSHMENT
The last iefuge of the apologist is that punishment is inicted
to pievent ciime. No one can speak fiom expeiience as to whethei
punishment pievents what is called ciime oi not, foi the expeiiment
of non-iesistance has nevei yet been faiily oi fully tiied. To justify
killing oi penning a human being upon the theoiy that this pievents
ciime should call foi the stiictest pioof on the pait of those who
advocate this couise. To take the life oi libeity of a fellow man is
the most seiious iesponsibility that can devolve upon an individ-
ual oi community. The theoiy that punishment is a pieventive
to unlawful acts does not seiiously mean that it is administeied
to pievent the individual fiom commiuing a second oi a thiid un-
lawful act. lf this weie the case the death penalty should nevei
be inicted, as life impiisonment accomplishes the same iesults.
Neithei would it be necessaiy to iestiain men in the way that is
done in oui penal institutions, to depiive them of all pleasuie and
the income of theii laboi. All that would then be needed would
be to keep men safely locked fiom the woild. But most unlawful
acts aie commiued hastily in the heat of passion oi upon what
seems adequate piovocation, oi thiough soie need. Such acts as
these would almost nevei be iepeated. Genuine iepentance follows
most ieally vicious acts, but iepentance, howevei genuine, gives no
waivei of punishment.
Then, too, many men who commit no act in violation of the law
aie known to be moie likely to commit such acts than otheis who
thiough some ciicumstances may have violated a ciiminal statute.
Men of hasty tempei, of stiong will, of intempeiate habits, ofen
with no means of suppoit, all of these aie moie liable to ciime than
one who has once oveistepped the bounds. But it is obvious that this
is not the ieal ieason foi punishment, if it weie it would be the duty
of judge and juiy to deteimine, not whethei a man had commiued
z
ze RESlST NOT EVlL
a ciime, but whethei he was liable to commit one at some futuie
time, an inquiiy which is nevei made and which it is obvious could
not be made.
The safety aimed at thiough punishment is not meant the safety
foi the individual, but it is contended that the fact that one peison
is punished foi an act deteis otheis fiom the commission of similai
unlawful acts, it is obvious that theie is a laige class who aie not
deteiied by these examples, foi the inmates of piisons nevei giow
less, in fact piisons giow and inciease in the same piopoition as
othei institutions giow. But heie, too, the theoiies and acts of
iuleis have been as vaiious and contiadictoiy as in ielation to othei
maueis conceining ciime and its punishment. lf the puipose of pun-
ishment is to teiioiize the community so that none will daie again
to commit these acts, then the moie teiiible the punishment the
suiei the iesult. This was geneially admiued not many yeais ago,
but in its tieatment of ciime the woild evei piefeis to be illogical
and ineectual iathei than too biutal.
lf teiioiism is the object aimed at, death should again be substi-
tuted foi the vaiious ciimes, gieat and small, which evei justied
taking human life. Death, too, should be administeied in the most
ciuel way. Boiling, the iack, wild beasts, and slow ies should be
the methods sought. lt should be steadfastly iemembeied by all
squeamish judges and executioneis that one vigoious punishment
would pievent a thousand ciimes. But moie than all this, death
should be in the most public way. The keule of boiling oil should
be heated with its victim inside, out upon the commons, wheie
all eyes could see and all eais could heai. The scaold should be
eiected high on a hill, and the occasion be made a public holiday
foi miles aiound. This was once the case even within the last half
centuiy. These public hangings in Euiope and Ameiica have diawn
gieat ciowds of spectatois, sometimes ieaching into the tens of
thousands, to witness the value that the state places on human life.
But nally, even stupid legislatois began to iealize that these scenes
of violence, biutality and ciime bied theii like upon those who came
to see. Even goveinments discoveied that many acts of violence
followed a public hanging. The hatied of the state which calmly
REMEDlAL EllECTS Ol PUNlSHMENT z
took a human life engendeied endless hatied as its fiuit. And in
all countiies that claim a semblance of civilization, public hangings
aie now looked back upon with hoiioi and amazement. Hangings
today take place inside the jail in the piesence of a few invited
guests, a state doctoi who watches caiefully to see that the victim
is not cut down befoie his heait has ceased to beat, a chaplain who
calls on the Cieatoi of life to take back to his bosomthe divine spaik
which man in his ciuelty and wiath is seeking to snu out. Even
the state is not so ciuel but that it will ocially ask the Almighty
to look afei the soul that it blackens and deles and does its best to
eveilastingly destioy. A few fiiends of the jailei aie piesent to wit-
ness the iaie peifoimance, and the newspapeis too aie iepiesented,
so that the last detail, including the bieakfast bill of faie, may be
giaphically set befoie the hungiy mob to take the place of the ieal
tiagedy that they had the iight to witness in the good old days.
Many states today have piovided that executions shall be inside the
penitentiaiy walls, that the victimshall be wakened, if peichance he
is asleep, in the daikness and dead of night, that he shall be huiiied
o alone and unobseived and hastily put to death outside the gaze
of any cuiious eye, that this baibaiism shall be done, this unholy,
biutal deed commiued in silence, in daikness, that the heavens and
eaith alike may covei up the shocking ciime, fiomwhich a sensitive
public conscience stands aghast. The evei-piesent public piess in
many cases is allowed to piint only the baiest details of the bloody
scene, so that oblivion may the moie quickly and deeply covei this
ciowning infamy of the state.
The abolition of public hangings may speak something foi the
sensitiveness, oi at least, the squeamishness of the state. But it is
evident that all of this is a teiiible admission of guilt upon the pait of
those who uphold this ciime. lt is possible that one might believe at
least in the sinceiity of those who aigue that punishment pievents
ciime, if these teiiible scenes of violence weie caiiied out in open
day befoie the multitude, and fully undeistood and discussed in all
theii haiiowing, shocking details of ciuelty and blood. lf the sight
of punishment teiioiizes men fiom the commission of ciime then,
of couise, punishment should be as open as the day. ln so fai as
the state is successful in keeping seciet the execution of its victim,
zc RESlST NOT EVlL
in this fai does it abandon eveiy claim of pievention and iests its
case foi punishment on vengeance and ciuelty alone. The iuleis of
this geneiation, who aie ashamed of theii deeds, may be wisei and
moie sensitive than those of the last, but oui ancestois, although
less iened, weie much moie logical and innitely moie honest
than aie we.
The whole question of punishment is not only pioven but fully
admiued by oui iuleis in theii dealings with the death penalty. lt
is now eveiywheie admiued that the biutalizing eects of public
executions aie beyond dispute. lt was only afei the completest
evidence that the believeis in the benecence of punishment and
violence abandoned public executions, foi to abandon these was to
uueily abandon the piinciple on which all punishment is based.
lt would, of couise, be impossible to piove the exact iesult of a
public execution. Somewheie in a quiet iuial community, giowing
out of sudden passion oi some unexplained and tempoiaiy abeiia-
tion, a man takes the life of his fellow man. To the shock incident
to this fatal act is added a long public tiial in the couits wheie
eveiy detail is distoited and magnied and passed fiom tongue to
tongue until even the lisping babe is thoioughly familiai with eveiy
ciicumstance of the case with all its haiiowing details iteiated and
ieiteiated again and again. Theie giows up in the public mind a
biuei hatied against the unfoitunate victim whose antecedents, life
and motives they can in no way undeistand oi judge. lt is ieally
believed that no one has the iight to look upon this peison with
any feeling save that of hatied, and the least woid of pity oi sign
of sympathy foi the outcast is set down as sickly sentimentalism
and the maik of mental and spiiitual disease. Weeks and months,
sometimes even yeais, elapse in the slow and unending piocess
of the couits. The whole tiagedy has been well nigh foigot, at
least it no longei has any vital eect upon the community. linally
it is announced that on a ceitain day a public hanging will take
place. Once moie eveiy detail of the tiagedy is iecalled to the public
mind, once moie each man conjuies up a monstei in the place of
the hunted, weak, doomed victim whose act no one eithei fathoms
oi seeks to undeistand. A sightly spot is chosen peihaps upon
the village gieen. loi seveial days men aie kept busy eiecting a
REMEDlAL EllECTS Ol PUNlSHMENT zv
stiange and ominous machine, the old men and women, the middle
aged, the boys and giils, the liule childien, even the toddling babes,
lled with cuiiosity watch the woik and discuss eveiy detail of the
weiid and fatal tiap. At length the day aiiives foi the majesty
of the law to vindicate itself. liom eveiy point of the compass
comes a gieat thiong of both sexes, all conditions and ages, each
to witness the most staitling event of theii lives, childien aie theie,
babes in aims, and even the unboin. A iope is tied aiound a beam,
a noose is foimed of the othei end, a tiembling, helpless, fiantic,
fiiendless victim is led up the steps, placed on a tiap, his hands
and feet aie bound, a black cap is pulled down to hide his face,
the noose is secuiely fastened aiound his neck below his eais. The
ciowd watches bieathless with suspense, the signal is given, the
tiap opens, the man falls thiough space, he is caught in mid-aii by
the iope tightening about his neck, and stiangling himto death. His
body heaves, his legs and aims move with violent convulsions, he
swings a few minutes in mid-aii befoie the ciowd, a ghastly human
pendulum moving back and foith, the moital body of a man cieated
in the image of God whom the state has led out and killed to show
the gloiy and majesty of law'
The advocate of punishment is iight in the belief that such a
scene will pioduce a piofound impiession upon all who see oi heai
oi know. The human being does not live who can witness such a
tiagedy oi even know its details and not ieceive some impiession
that the iest of life cannot eace. The impiession must be to haiden
and biutalize the heait and conscience, to destioy the nei sensibil-
ities, to cheapen human life, to bieed ciuelty and malice that will
beai fiuit in endless ways and unknown foims. No paient who
loved his child and who had any of the human sentiments that
should distinguish man fiom the biute cieation, would evei daie to
tiust that child to witness a scene like this. Eveiy intelligent loving
mothei caiiying an unboin babe would close hei eyes and stop hei
eais and ietiie to the daikest coinei she could nd lest the unboin
babe maiked by the baleful scene should one day stand upon the
same tiembling tiap with a iope about his neck.
The tiue moiality of a community does not depend alone upon
the numbei of men who slay theii fellows. These at most aie veiy
!u RESlST NOT EVlL
few. The tiue moiality depends upon eveiy deed of kindness oi
malice, of love oi hatied, of chaiity oi ciuelty, and the sum of these
deteimine the ieal chaiactei and woith of a community. Any evil
consequences that could owfioma casual killing of a human being
by an iiiesponsible man would be like a diop of watei in the sea
compaied with a public execution by the state.
lt would piobably not be possible to nd a consideiable numbei
of men today who would believe that a public hanging could have
any but bad iesults. This must be tiue because the knowledge of its
details tends to haiden, embiuei and iendei ciuel the heaits of men.
Only in a less degiee does the publication of all the details aect the
chaiacteis and lives of men, but unless they aie at least published to
the woild, then the example is of no eect. The state which would
take life without any hope oi expectation that the community would
in any way be beueied could not iank even among savage tiibes.
Such ciuelty could only be classed as total depiavity.
But the eect of othei punishment is no whit dieient save in
degiee fiom that of hanging. Cultivated, sensitive people have long
since deploied the tendency of newspapeis to give full and vivid ac-
counts of ciimes and theii punishment, and the beuei and humanei
class of citizens shun those jouinals which most magnify these de-
tails. All of this has a tendency to familiaiize man with violence and
foice, to weaken human sensibilities, to accustom man to ciuelty, to
blood, to scenes of sueiing and pain. What iight-thinking paient
would place this liteiatuie befoie his child and familiaiize his mind
with violence piacticed eithei by the individual oi the state` And
yet if punishment is a deteiient, the widest publicity should be given
to the stoiy of eveiy ciime and the punishment inicted by the state.
That men even unconsciously feel that punishment is wiong is
shown by theii auitude towaid ceitain classes of society. A hang-
man would not be toleiated in a self-iespecting body of men oi
women, and this has been the case foi many yeais, in fact since
men made a tiade of butcheiing theii fellow man. A piofessional
hangman is ieally as much despised as any othei piofessional mui-
deiei. A detective, jailei, policeman, constable and sheii aie not
geneially iegaided as being subjects of envy by theii fellows. Still
none of these aie as much iesponsible foi theii acts as the ieal
REMEDlAL EllECTS Ol PUNlSHMENT !1
iuleis who make and execute the law. The time will come when
the public piosecutoi and the judge who sentences his biothei to
death oi impiisonment will be classed with the othei oceis who
lay violent and ciuel hands upon theii fellows.
lf the impiisonment of men tended to awe otheis into obedience
to law, then the old ideas of penal seivitude aie the only ones that
can be logically sustained. A piison should be the most hoiiible,
giuesome, painful place that can be contiived. Physical toituie
should be a common incident of piison life. The victim himself is
beyond the pale of society. His life should be used to aid the com-
munity by the fiightful example daik dungeons, noxious smells,
veimin, iats, the haidest, most constant toil, long teims of impiison-
ment, and the ied maik to be bianded on his biow, when he at last is
tuined loose to the light of day. Piisons should be open to the public,
so that the old and young can constantly witness the teiiible eects
of ciime. Piisons and jails should be in eveiy community and in the
most conspicuous place. The young should not be lef to casually
heai of public punishments oi to imagine a penal institution. The
living hoiiible example in all its loathsome, sickening details should
be evei kept befoie theii eyes. Most men now iegaid these public
exhibitions of the malice of the state exactly as they now look on
public hangings, as tending to degiade and debauch and haiden
the heaits of those who become familiai with the sight. But if the
open sight and knowledge of a penal institution tends to degiade
and haiden the heait, then the seciet, impeifect, coveit knowledge
pioduces the same eect only in less degiee.
All communities and states aie in ieality ashamed of jails and
penal institutions of whatevei kind. lnstinctively they seem to un-
deistand that these aie a ieection on the state. Moie and moie
the best judgment and best conscience of men aie tuined towaid
the impiovement of piisons, the intioduction of sanitaiy appliances,
the beueiing of jail conditions, the modication of punishment, the
tieatment of convicts as men. All of this diiectly dispioves the the-
oiy that the teiiible example of punishment tends to pievent ciime.
All these impiovements of piison conditions show that society is
unconsciously ashamed of its tieatment of so-called ciiminals, that
the excuse of pievention of ciime is ieally known to be humbug and
!z RESlST NOT EVlL
hypociisy, and that the ieal motive that causes the punishment of
ciime is malice and hatied and nothing else. The tendency to abio-
gate capital punishment, to impiove piisons, to modify sentences,
to paidon convicts is all in one diiection. lt can lead to but one
inevitable iesult, the abolition of all judgment of man by man, the
complete destiuction of all piisons and the tieatment of all men as
if each human being was the child of the one loving lathei and a
pait and paicel of the same innite and mysteiious life.
CHAPTER Vll
CAUSE Ol CRlME
lf the punishment of so-called ciimes tended in any way to pie-
vent violent acts, this tendency would be manifest in some conclu-
sive way. Whethei biotheihood, love, and non-iesistance would
lessen ciime may be a mauei of debate, but that punishment does
not lessen it seems to be as well established as any fact that cannot
be absolutely pioved. The death penalty was foi yeais diastically
enfoiced foi the ciime of smuggling, but its enfoicement in no way
tended to pievent the piactice, which ouiished in spite of exe-
cutions without numbei, the common consciousness would not
accept this punishment as just and nally iuleis weie foiced to mod-
ify the punishment in self-defence. The punishment of death foi
laiceny did not pievent the ciime. Neaily eveiy ieligion has made
its way in the face of the seveiest penal statutes. lts conveits have
all been ciiminals and they have accepted and taught theii faith
at the iisk of life. Eveiy oiganization of woiking men has giown
up in violation of human laws, and the jails, piisons and scaolds
have been busily engaged in suppiessing this species of ciime, but
in spite of the fact that judges still impiison and execute foi this
ciime, these associations aie now almost as imly established as
any institution of the woild. All new political ideas, demociacy,
socialism, nihilism have met the same fact and have made theii
way iegaidless of scaolds and jails. Even in the common ciimes,
like buiglaiy and laiceny, piisons have had no eect. liom the
dawn of civilization an endless piocession of weak and helpless
victims, handcued, despised and outlawed, have been maiching
up to piison doois, and still the piocession comes and goes. Time
does not stay noi punishment make it less. ln fact the oldei the com-
munity and the beuei seuled and undistuibed its life, the gieatei the
numbei of these unfoitunates whom, foi some mysteiious ieason,
the lnnite has decieed a life of shame and a death of ignominy and
!!
!| RESlST NOT EVlL
dishonoi. lf scaolds and piisons and judges and jaileis have no
eect to pievent and lessen ciime, common wisdom, to say nothing
of humane instincts, ought to seek some othei plan.
lntelligent men have long since ceased to believe in miiacle oi
chance. Whatevei they may think of ancient miiacles and the oiig-
inal chance that biought the univeise into being, still most people
nowbelieve that the woilds aaiis, be they small oi gieat, physical,
intellectual, oi moial, come within the iealm of law.
ln the oidinaiy aaiis of life, men eveiywheie seek the causes
that pioduce eects. Men aie called into being, live theii lives, and
pass away in obedience to natuial laws which aie as immutable
as the movement of the tides. ln oui half civilized condition we
paitially compiehend this fact. The defect of the boin ciipple, the
idiot, the insane, is no longei chaiged to the pooi victim who,
unhampeied by the woild, still has a buiden as heavy as should
be given to moital man to beai. The physician who would tieat
fevei oi measles oi diphtheiia without consideiing the cause would
be consideied the veiiest bunglei and iesponsible foi his patients
death. lt is not so veiy long ago that a woild about as intelligent
as oui own believed that disease, defoimity, and sin came fiom
the same cause, some soit of an evil spiiit that found its abode in
man. The way to destioy the evil spiiit was geneially to destioy
the man. The woild will peihaps giow wise enough to not only
believe that disease, defoimity, and sin have a common cause,
but peihaps so wise as to nd theii common cause. No skilful
physician called to the bedside of a child sueiing with scailet
fevei would upbiaid the child foi the evil spiiit that caused its
pain, no moie would he punish the consumptive foi his hack-
ing cough, he would undeistand peifectly well that the physical
condition of each was due to some natuial cause, and that the
disease could be cuied in these patients and avoided with otheis
only when the cause was destioyed, oi so well known that no one
need fall a victim to the malady. Even in diseases of the most
contagious soit, wheie the isolation of the patient is necessaiy
to piotect the lives and health of otheis, this isolation would be
accomplished not in hatied oi malice but in the gieatest tendeiness
and love, and the isolation would last only foi the puipose of
CAUSE Ol CRlME !
a cuie and a sucient time foi cuie, and eveiy pain would be
taken to destioy and stamp out the cause which pioduced the
disease.
The theoiy of disease is so well undeistood today that oui physi-
cians cleaily iecognize mental disease as well as physical. lnsanity
is no longei punished as a ciime as in the days gone by, and even
kleptomania is now a well classied and iecognized disease. No
intelligent peison doubts the disease of kleptomania, its symptoms
aie too well established. When a peison steals a thing he does not
need, it is an evidence of kleptomania, an ungoveinable will. When
a pooi peison takes a thing he needs and cannot live without, theie
is no evidence of an ungoveinable will.
Many facts have been classied conceining physical disease and
oui knowledge of its natuie, cause, and cuie giows yeai by yeai.
Malignant spiiits and accident aie no longei consideied in iefeience
to disease, while the oiigin of all bodily ailments is not yet known,
so many have been asceitained as to make it suie that with sucient
knowledge, all could be tiaced to theii natuial cause. And while the
means have not yet been found to cuie each disease, still so much
is known as to waiiant the belief that theie is no physical ailment
that will necessaiily cause death.
And intelligent ieseaich is constantly adding to the known and
evei naiiowing the iealm of the mysteiious and unexplained. ln
physical disease, long obseivation has shown that ceitain climates
and ceitain localities aie favoiable to this disease oi that, some
places natuially bieed malaiia, and the mind of man is tuined to
discoveiing methods to oveicome the conditions which pioduce the
disease. lf feveis abound, the conditions aie caiefully obseived to
nd what bieeds the infectious geim. lt is not dicult to imagine
that if the medical piofession should evei laboi puiely to cuie dis-
ease, instead of to make money foi itself, and should continue its
ieseaich and investigation, that few would die until old age should
teiminate life as simply and natuially as biith usheis it in.
But in the iealm of the mental and the moial, the law has been
content foi centuiies to iest at ease. Oui piactical dealings with
ciime aie based on the same theoiies of evil and evil spiiits that
made wise physicians diive the devils into swine and swine into
!e RESlST NOT EVlL
the sea. lf any piogiess has been made it has been in believing
that, instead of one being possessed of a devil, he ieally is a devil.
When the physical condition of a man is suciently fai iemoved
fiom the physical condition of the aveiage which is supposed to
iepiesent the noimal man, he is tieated foi the disease. When the
mental condition suciently vaiies fiom that of the oidinaiy man,
the noimal man, he is piomptly impiisoned oi put to death. Judges
and juiies debate and pondei ovei the question of whethei a man
has done some act that is not commonly done by his fellows, and
if they deteimine that he is guilty of doing the act, the judgment
follows that he must have wilfully and peiveisely chosen to do
wiong. No one then inquiies why he did the act and whethei theie
aie conditions of disease piesent in the community that will lead
otheis to do like acts. Theie is but one thing to do. The man is evil.
The state must lay violent hands upon himmust meet evil with
evil, violence with violence. Theie is but one cuie foi malice and
that is malice.
But howevei ignoiant the law and its administiatois, some of
the iules of conduct have been biought to light, while judges have
been sentencing, and hangmen and jaileis plying theii giuesome
tiades, theie have been thinkeis and students and histoiians, who
did not believe in the old theoiy of witchciaf and evil spiiits on
which human punishment ieally iests. These students and scholais
have labeled and classied facts and have at least leained something
as to the cause and oiigin of what men call ciime. Enough at least
has been discoveied to piove that punishment has absolutely no
eect to lessen ciime.
The ancients believed in the existence of the body and the soul as
independent entities. Each had its own spheie of action and neithei
one had any ielation to the othei. This idea has come down to us
and is piesent in all oui dealings with oui fellow man. Paiticulaily
is this the view of goveinment in its tendei caie of those who aie
the subjects of its laws. The caie and tieatment of the body come
within the piovince of the physician. The caie and tieatment of
the soul belong to the piiest and the hangman. Whethei man has a
soul that evei existed oi can exist independent of the body may be
a question that will iemain foievei open to occupy oui thoughts.
CAUSE Ol CRlME !
But this at least is tiue that the condition of the body has the
gieatest inuence ovei the mental and so-called moial natuie of
man. The body and mind giowtogethei and decay togethei. Health
in one geneially indicates health in the othei. The oveifeeding
oi the staivation of the one means the disease of the othei. lt is
doubtful if any mental chaiacteiistic oi abnoimal condition could
not be tiaced to its physical cause eithei in the individual oi his
ancestois, if science weie fai enough advanced.
Eveiyone who is familiai with the inmates of jails and penal
institutions has leained to know the type of man that is conned as
a ciiminal. ln neaily eveiy case these aie infeiioi physically to the
aveiage man. ln neaily eveiy case they aie also infeiioi mentally
to the aveiage man. One needs but visit oui ciiminal couits day
afei day to nd that the aveiage ciiminal is a stunted, staived,
decient man. Moie than this, almost univeisally they come fiom
the pooiei classmen and women ieaied in squaloi and miseiy and
want, suiiounded fiomyouth by those who have been compelled to
iesoit to almost any means foi life, people who, whatevei theii own
code of ethics, have not been able in theii giowth to maintain those
distinctions in conduct which to the common mind constitutes the
dieience between lawful and unlawful acts. Heie and theie, of
couise, one nds some one in jail who has been dieiently ieaied,
but these aie the exceptions which in no way dispiove the iule.
These cases too can be tiaced to theii cause like all the iest. Theie
aie ceitain moial diseases like speculation, foi instance, that seize
on men exactly as the measles oi the mumps. These diseases gen-
eially ouiish in gieat cities and aie not indigenous to countiy life.
Not only aie these piisoneis decient in statuie and intellect, but
the shape of theii heads shows them dieient fiom othei men. As a
class theii heads aie much less symmetiical and what aie known as
the highei faculties aie much less developed than with the oidinaiy
man.
lf it weie established even that the ciiminal type is infeiioi men-
tally and physically and that they have all misshapen heads, this
alone ought to be sucient to iaise the inquiiy as to who was ie-
sponsible foi theii acts. Long ago a wise man said that no one could
by taking thought add a cubit to his statuie, and yet we hang and
!c RESlST NOT EVlL
pen because these unfoitunates have not giown as tall, as laige, oi
as symmetiical as the oidinaiy man. But the mental actions of man
have been shown to be as much due to law and enviionment as
his physical health, ceitain sections of the woild aie indigenous
to men who kill theii fellows, and moie than this, ceitain poitions
pioduce men who kill with guns, otheis who kill with a knife, otheis
still who administei poison. ln ceitain sections, the chief ciime is
hoise stealing, in otheis, iunning illicit distilleiies, again, buiglaiy,
in some places, poaching, sometimes, iobbeiy, and again, smug-
gling. A study of conditions would ieveal why each of those ciimes
is indigenous to the paiticulai soil that gives them biith, and just
as diaining swamps pievents the miasma, so a iational tieatment
of the condition caused by the vaiious ciimes would cuie them, too.
lf oui physicians weie no moie intelligent than oui lawyeis, when
called to visit a miasmic patient, instead of diaining the swamp they
would chloiofoim the patient and expect thus to fiighten all otheis
fiom taking the disease.
Obseivation as to so-called ciime has gone much fuithei. The
numbei of inmates of oui jails is much laigei in wintei than in
summei, which ought to show that theie is something in the aii
that pioduces a wicked heait in the wintei, oi that many peisons
diiectly oi indiiectly go to jail because in wintei, food and waimth
aie not easily obtained and woik is haid to get. loi many yeais it
has been obseived that jails aie veiy much moie ciowded in haid
times than in good times. lf woik weie suciently plentiful oi iemu-
neiative both jails and almshouses would be compelled to close theii
doois. Long ago it was asceitained fiom statistics that the numbei
of ciimes iose and fell in exact accoid with the piice of biead. All
new communities, wheie land is cheap oi fiee and laboi has ample
employment, oi, beuei still, a chance to employ itself, aie veiy fiee
fiom ciime. England made Austialia its dumping giound foi ciimi-
nals foi yeais, but these same ciiminals when tuined upon the wide
plains with a chance to get theii living fiom the soil, became peace-
able, oideily citizens fully iespecting one anotheis iights. England,
too, used ceitain poitions of hei Ameiican colonies wheie she sent
men foi hei countiys good. These ciiminals, like all the ciiminals of
the woild, weie the exploited, homeless class. When they ieached
CAUSE Ol CRlME !v
the new countiy, when they had an oppoitunity to live, they be-
came as good citizens as the pilgiim fatheis who weie likewise
ciiminals themselves. As civilization has swept westwaid thiough
the United States, jails have lagged behind. The jail and the peni-
tentiaiy aie not the ist institutions planted by colonists in a new
countiy, oi by pioneeis in a new state. These pioneeis go to woik
to till the soil, to cut down the foiests, to dig the oie, it is only when
the owning class has been established and the exploiting class giows
up, that the jail and the penitentiaiy become xed institutions, to
be used foi holding people in theii place.
CHAPTER Vlll
THE PROPER TREATMENT Ol CRlME
Reason and judgment as well as an almost endless aiiay of facts
have pioven that ciime is not without its cause. ln showing its cause,
its cuie has been made plain. lf the minds and eneigies of men
weie diiected towaid cuiing ciime instead of biutally assaulting
the victims of society, some piogiess might be made.
lt is ofen dicult to tiace iesults, because theii ielations aie
not always diiect and plain. Even in the iealm of physical facts it is
always easy to stiay fiomthe stiaight path between cause and eect.
When we obseive the conduct of men and seek to nd its cause
the pioblem is still moie complex. Each human being is an entity
made up of all that is and of all that has gone befoie. lt may not be
possible to tell fiom whence he obtained eveiy quiik oi peculiaiity
of his biain, but one thing is suie, he did not foim his own skull
and could have but liule pait in aiianging the biain cells within the
bone. This poition came fiom his fathei, this his mothei gave, this
was bequeathed by a bloody ancestoi who died long geneiations
since, but all who went befoie did theii pait, and gave theii liule
mite to make the composite biain that diives its possessoi heie and
theie.
While the exact cause of any act may not be asceitained, still
the geneial causes aie beyond dispute. A stunted body means that
eithei its ownei oi its ancestoi has almost suiely been staived and
that want and hungei have lef theii tiaces on the biain. An infeiioi
mind means some incapacity, disease oi disadvantage, eithei in the
individual oi his ancestoi, that has lef him dieient fiom his fellow
men. An unsymmetiical head may ieach back to the eaily ape, and
account foi any possible seeming deciency oi peculiaiity in the
biain, which afei all must be molded in the shape that the bone
allows it to assume. Staived bodies can be cuied by food. Tiue, it
may take moie than one geneiation to cuie them as it may have
|1
|z RESlST NOT EVlL
taken seveial to pioduce them, but, afei all, they can be cuied by
food, and a iational humane woild would commend itself moie to
thinking men and to the posteiity which will judge us, by feeding
these staived bodies iathei than impiisoning them in pens. An
infeiioi mind oi an ill-shaped head can be ieached in a geneiation
oi moie by feeding the body that suppoits it, by tieating it with
tendeiness, chaiity and kindness, iathei than iuling it with hatied,
biueiness and violence.
Neaily eveiy ciime could be wiped away in one geneiation by
giving the ciiminal a chance. The life of a buiglai, of a thief, of a
piostitute, is not a bed of ioses. Men and women aie only diiven to
these lives afei othei means have failed. Theiis aie not the simple,
natuial lives of childien, noi of the childhood of the woild, but men
and women can leain these piofessions oi be bied to them. Afei
othei iesouices aie exhausted they will be chosen foi the simple
ieason that life is sweet. With all its pangs and biueiness, it is the
natuie of life to send its pooi tendiils deep into the eaith and cling
with all its foice and powei to this pooi, eeting, tiansitoiy woild.
Men aie slow to admit that punishment is wiong and that each
human soul is the iiiesponsible, unconscious pioduct of all that has
gone befoie, and yet eveiy kind and wise paient in the woild pioves
by his eveiy ielation with his child that he knows that he is the
authoi of his being and the moldei of his chaiactei, and that he,
the paient, is innitely moie iesponsible foi the soul he launches
than is the child himself. Theie might be some measuie of justice
in tiying and punishing the paient foi the conduct of the child, but
even this does not ieach back. The souice of eveiy life iuns back to
the lnnite itself. Eveiy iight thinking fathei does his best to have
his child ieaied in those inuences and suiioundings which will
best contiibute to his physical, mental and moial giowth. Even then
he feels that the futuie is doubtful enough, that man is weak and
nite and blind, that he sees but a liule way into the dim, unceitain
futuie, that he is lled with passions, emotions and desiies, that he
must tiavel a path beset with all soits of temptations and piomises,
that his weak sight will look upon beautiful cities and faii piospects
which aie only miiages and sent to beguile and ensnaie his soul.
lew judges, if called upon, would not soonei slay theii innocent
THE PROPER TREATMENT Ol CRlME |!
sleeping child with theii own loving hands, than abandon him to
giowup in the stieets oi make his way unaided thiough the tangled
mazes that confiont the homeless and the pooi, and yet these same
judges will coolly aiiaign men who all theii lives have walked in
the shadows thiough a tangled maze beset with passion and feai,
and sentence them to death and ask God to have meicy on theii
souls. Eveiy man who loves his child and seeks to suiiound him
with what is best foi his physical, mental and moial needs denies in
his veiy life the iight of man to judge and punish his fellow man.
CHAPTER lX
lMPOSSlBlLlTY Ol JUST JUDGMENT
Natuial laws iule the woild. lt is a mistake to believe that the
conduct of man is outside of natuial law. The laws of being that
move all the sentient woild iule him. His ist impulse is to pieseive
his life, and his next to pieseive the species. Natuie planted these
instincts so deeply in his being that no civilization can ioot themup.
To destioy these instincts would be to destioy the human iace. The
ist instinct of man is to pieseive his life. To do this he must obtain
the food, sheltei and iaiment that enable him to live. His constant
eoit has been evei to get these at the smallest expendituie of time
and stiength. ln a semi-copeiative state like ouis the stiongest
choose the easiest, most iemuneiative occupations society can be-
stow. The less foitunate the next best, and so on down the scale. At
the lowest place some aie foiced to abject toil, to piactical slaveiy,
to beggaiy, to ciime. Men would not steal sheep if they had land
on which to iaise muuon. Men would not exploie theii neighbois
houses at dead of night, if theii own weie lled, and women would
not sell theii bodies if society lef them any othei faiily decent and
pleasant way to live.
Even if punishment by the state could evei be justied, no man
is wise enough oi good enough to administei that punishment. lt
is the theoiy of the law that by means of its magical wisdom it is
enabled to x a code enumeiating the acts that aie suciently evil
to constitute a ciime, and foi each of these enumeiated acts it sets
a penalty which it piesumes is suciently seveie and diastic to in
some mysteiious way atone foi, excuse, absolve, oi at least in some
way make iight, oi ceitainly make beuei, the commission of the act.
Punishment must pioceed upon the theoiy that some aie wilfully
bad, possessed of devils, and the bad must be punished when found
bad, to pievent otheis who aie bad fiom commiuing ciime. Men
could only be punished because they weie wilfully bad. lf men aie
|
|e RESlST NOT EVlL
pait good and pait bad it will not do to punish. How could the
law oi couits x the exact line as to how bad a man might be to
deseive punishment, and how good to excuse it` Neithei is it the
act that should be punished, foi it would be a haid and ciuel and
stiange code of negative ethics that should say that a man should
be punished foi an evil act and not be iewaided foi a viituous one,
and even judges might nd diculty in balancing the good and bad,
and besides, does not the law in its wisdom say that an evil act
shall be punished iegaidless of its consequences` l may steal my
neighbois hoise at night and ietuin it in the moining. l am none
the less a thief and my home is the piison. l may buiglaiize a safe
and nd it empty, but the ciime has been completed and it deseives
the penitentiaiy. ln each case l deseive the penitentiaiy because
my heait is bad. Thus the old theoiy is the only one on which the
believei in punishment could iest foi a moment, that some men aie
bad and some aie goodat least some aie bad.
The law is not conceined with the good. lts business is not
iewaiding, but punishment, not love but hate. How can human
judgment deteimine what heait is bad` Mens lives aie a stiange
mixtuie of thought, motive and action, an innite mixtuie of good
and evil, as it is given to nite man to know good and evil. No life
is wholly good, and no life is wholly bad. A life of gieat viitues
may heie and theie be inteispeised with an evil act. The law picks
out the evil and ignoies the good. A life baiien of ieal aimative
goodness may still be fiee fiomseiious positive sin, and thus escape
the condemnation of man and his couits. The conduct which falls
undei the obseivation of otheis is not so much due to the goodness
oi badness of the heait as to the emotion oi placidity of the natuie.
ln balancing the evil of a life against the good, no one can give the ex-
act weight to each, foi no two men weigh moial woith oi tuipitude
with the same scales. Neithei can a mans standing be deteimined
until his life is done. Acts which seemevil if lefto develop chaiactei
aie ofen the means of sofening the heait, of developing love and
chaiity and humanity, of ieally building up the moial woith of man.
But no peison can be judged even by his conduct. Goodness and evil
aie both latent in man and this fact shows the evil of iesistance and
foice. One may be intiinsically good and live a long life and still
lMPOSSlBlLlTY Ol JUST JUDGMENT |
nevei be touched upon the piopei side to develop chaiactei and
ieveal to the woild the ieal self. lt iequiies ciicumstance, oppoitu-
nity and the piopei appeal to develop the best in man, the same as
to develop the woist in man. To judge the chaiactei of a human
soul fiom one isolated act, would be as impossible as to judge his
physical health by testing his sight oi heaiing alone. Eveiy peisons
ist impiessions show how ofen these aie ieally wiong, and how
much they depend upon the ciicumstances of time and place. To
ieally judge anotheis chaiactei iequiies almost innite knowledge,
not of theii acts alone, but of theii thoughts and aspiiations, theii
temptations, and enviionment, and eveiy ciicumstance that makes
up theii lives. But if the administiation of punishment is to depend
on the good oi evil of the man, then each peison must be judged
fiom his own standpoint. Ones meiit oi demeiit depends not on
what he does but on his puipose and intent, upon his desiie to do
good oi evil. ln shoit, upon the condition of his heait, which can
only be told in pait fiom his isolated acts.
Each peison has his own iule of conduct and of life. The highest
that can be done by any human soul is to live and stiive accoiding
to his best conception of the highest life. To one man an act appeais
haimless which to anothei is a heinous ciime. One man would
blaspheme, but undei no ciicumstances would beat a dog oi kill a y.
One might commit laiceny oi even muidei by the veiy stiength of
his love. Again, ieal chaiactei, meiit and demeiit cannot be judged
except in view of the capacity, the oppoitunity, the teaching of the
life. No honest judgment of the woith of any soul can be measuied
except with full knowledge of eveiy ciicumstance that made his
life, and with this knowledge the man who would accuse would but
condemn himself. But even if eveiy act of eveiy life weie open to
the sight of man, this could fuinish no guide to tiue chaiactei. The
same temptation does not appeal alike to all. One man may not
be tempted by stiong diink and may nevei fall. Anothei with an
appetite boin in a iemote ancestoi may stiuggle manfully and fail.
The temptation to take piopeity by foice does not appeal to one
who can get it by inheiitance oi gif oi fiaud. The desiie to kill
nevei moves the soul of the placid man. To know what it means
iequiies an intimate, innite knowledge of eveiy emotion of the
|c RESlST NOT EVlL
soul, of eveiy bei of the body, and the undeistanding, not of how
the temptations oi inducements that he met would aect the judge,
but how they would aect the man. Science has deteimined a way
to measuie the height and the giith of an individual, to tell the coloi
of his eyes and haii, to deteimine the shape and contoui of his skull.
lt has not yet found a way to look beneath the skull and weigh the
actions and iesponsibilities of that hidden involved mysteiythe
human biain, oi to look at the ieal man, the human soul, and judge
whethei the lnnite Makei made it white oi black. lf eveiy man who
passed an unjust judgment on his fellowshould be condemned, how
many judges would be found so vain and foolish as to ieview and
condemn theii Makeis woik`
CHAPTER X
THE JUDGE Ol THE CRlMlNAL
But even if some men deseive punishment, who is to judge`
The old injunction still comes back and evei will ietuin when man
aiiaigns his fellow, Let him who is without sin cast the ist stone.
To nd a judge without sin in the oidinaiy meaning of the woild
is necessaiily out of the question. They must of couise pietend
to be holiei than the iest, and oiganized society helps out the
faice and fiaud. At the best, one guilty man is set up to judge
anothei, one man lled with his weaknesses, his inimities, his
shoitcomings, sets himself up to judge not only that his fellow man
is a ciiminal but that he himself is beuei than his fellow. And yet
all the past and the piesent has conspiied to make him good, to
keep him fiom temptation, that he might the beuei pass judgment
on anothei, while all the woild has conspiied to place the victim
wheie he is. Veiily, in the light of innite justice, no gieatei ciime
could be commiued than to judge and condemn youi fellows and
if theie shall evei be a nal day when the ciooked is made stiaight
and the puipose of all shall be ievealed and undeistood, safei
fai will be the man who has ieceived the sentence than the one
who has daied to pass judgment on anotheis life and pionounce
it bad.
But how is this judge to deteimine the guilt oi innocence of
his fellow` He cannot know his life and does not seek to know.
To undeistand fully anotheis life would iequiie innite pains and
such ieseaich as no judge could give oi pietend to give. The judge
cannot balance up the chaiactei of his victim, he simply seeks in
a pooi, clumsy, impeifect way to asceitain whethei he did a cei-
tain act. Whatevei else he did, his auitude of mind, his necessities,
his eaily tiaining, his oppoitunities and temptations, the numbei
of temptations iesisted befoie one pioved too muchall of this is
beyond the powei of a human judge to know, yet all of it beais upon
|v
u RESlST NOT EVlL
the ieal chaiactei of the man and should go to show whethei, on
the whole, he deseives blame oi piaise, and the extent of each.
ln the light of all this, how many human souls could be guiltily
cast out as bad` lt iequiies innite pains and almost innite knowl-
edge to judge ones physical condition. A man is sueiing fiom
some ailment and a doctoi is called to tieat him. The disease may
be of long standing and located in some oigan beyond the ieach of
sight and heaiing, he patiently watches eveiy symptom to know
the ieal condition of the physical man and the cause that made him
ill. He calls the wisest suigeons to consult and these may nevei be
able to locate the disease, oi the cause that made the patient as he
is. But twelve untutoied juiois and a judge wantonly and caielessly
set themselves up to pass on the condition of a human soul a soul
no man has seen oi by any chance can evei see, a life they do not
knowand could not undeistand and do not even seek to undeistand.
They take this soul and, with theii pooi light, which at the best is
blackest daikness, they pionounce it bad, and in violence and malice
deny it the iight of fellowship with its human biotheis, each equally
a poition of the gieat lnnite which takes all of good and all of bad
and makes of these one gieat, divine, inclusive whole.
The judge must and does view the conduct of his victim ac-
coiding to his own ideas of iight and wiong. At his best he takes
with him to the judgment tiibunal eveiy piejudice, bias and belief
that his education, suiioundings and heiedity have lef on him. He
measuies the condemned by the ideal man, and the ideal man must
be himself, oi one made fiomhis weak, fallible concepts of iight and
wiong. Natuially he places liule weight oi value upon those vices
which aie a poition of his own chaiactei, oi those viitues which he
does not possess, oi especially admiie. Ajudge can see no chaiactei
oi viitue in an accused man, who would iathei suei impiisonment
oi death than to betiay his fellows. ln the judgment of the couits the
betiayei is iewaided, the man of chaiactei and woith condemned.
A judge ieads the code, Thou shalt not steal. He cannot undei-
stand how a so-called thief should have foicibly taken a paltiy sum.
He cannot conceive that he, himself, could undei any ciicumstances
have done the like. Such conduct must come fiom a depiaved and
wicked heaita devil that dwells within the culpiit. The common
THE JUDGE Ol THE CRlMlNAL 1
thief looks at the judge aiiayed in ne linen and living in luxuiy and
ease, with nothing to do but pass judgment on his fellowman. He
dimly undeistands how much easiei it is foi the judge to obtain his
laige salaiy than foi himto get the pooi wages of his hazaidous and
shifing tiade. But the judge does not begin to compiehend that, if
he could not have ieceived his salaiy oi obtained a toleiable life in
any of the endless giades of activity between his piofession and the
thiels, veiy easily he might have been the victim with some othei
foitunate man to pionounce him bad. Human judgments aie not
passed in view of all the ciicumstances of the case. lf this was the
condition of human judgments, no man could be condemned.
CHAPTER Xl
THE MEASURE Ol PUNlSHMENT
But admiuing the iight to punish, wheie is theie a man with
the wisdom to inict punishment` By what magical scales can he
weigh the guilt of a human being, and by what standaid can he
deteimine the judgment that is piopoitionate to his guilt` lt must
be evident that the wit of man nevei did invent oi can invent a
measuie that shall deteimine the just amount of punishment foi
any human act. The punishment administeied does not in any way
indicate the extent of the culpiits tiansgiession, but simply shows
the degiee of biutality of the law, and of those who aie given the
powei of xing the extent of punishment to be imposed. The victim
whom the law catches in its net is at the meicy of the judge. His
fate depends not upon his life, not upon what society has done foi
him, noi upon howhe has iepaid the debt. Noi does it depend upon
the intiinsic value of his soul, foi no human judgment can ieach this.
Neithei does it depend upon the iatio between the biain he had, and
the temptation he iesisted, oi the iatio between the oveipoweiing
foice he met and the weak will and intellect which heiedity had
bequeathed to him. His fate iests with the humanity oi inhumanity
displayed, the point of view, the expeiience, the piejudice, the social
suiioundings, the physical condition, the appetite oi the bieakfast
of the judge, whose light and easy duty it is to pionounce judgment
on the life oi libeity of a fellow man.
Given the best equipment and the gieatest knowledge and sense
of iesponsibility on the pait of the judge, how then will stand the
case` A piisonei is aiiaigned foi foicibly taking a pocket-book on
the public stieet. The instinct to do the act may have come upon him
in a moments time, as the oppoitunity seemed suddenly piesent
and the need seemed gieat. Undei the peculiai ciicumstances of
the time and place, he may have been impelled to act when a
moments ieection would have stayed his hand. ln a hundied
!
| RESlST NOT EVlL
cases the oppoitunity foi the ieection was piesent, and he passed
thiough unscathed, and then theie came a time when the judgment
had no chance to speak and he was lost. The ciime even at its woist
dieis only in degiee, peihaps not in that, fiom the actions of oui
daily lives. We look at anotheis pocketbook and covet it, oi covet
his home oi coat oi wealththe case piesents the same evil heait.
Oui action, howevei, is tempeied and contiolled by judgment and
the powei of will.
Assuming the man is bad, wheie is the judge who can mea-
suie the punishment he ought to have` How many endless, silent,
shameful days, each made of houis that seem eteinities, should
he be conned foi this` How many days should diag theii end-
less weaiy length into months and yeais befoie the act should be
atoned` And is justice done when the victim, old and bent, and
silent, and giay, with health destioyed and chaiactei and hope foi-
evei gone, is once moie led out into the stiange, bewildeiing light
of day`
Theie can be no measuie foi human conduct. All scales, iules
and measuies aie valueless when used to judge the soul. Even time
cannot be counted. The judge upon the bench lightly consigns his
victimto a piison pen. He measuies the victims yeais by the swifly
gliding days that pass like magic in his joyous life. To the judge,
time stiides with seven league boots, even the giim spectei at the
end, the one skeleton at his feast, even this evei-piesent shadowbut
hastens the magic ight of yeais. But the clock that ticks away the
joyous wasted moments at the banquet hall is not the same time-
piece that hangs upon the penitentiaiy walls. One pendulum leaps
gladly back and foith, the othei moves with the weight and giavity
of human life, of human death, of endless agony, of unmitigated
pain. Time is the most obstinate of the delusive gifs that fate be-
queathes to man. When we would have hei speed she moves with
leaden foot. When we would have hei halt she ies with magic
wings.
Ruleis have invented and used all soits of punishments and con-
stantly alteinated fiom one to the othei, each one in use seeming to
be infeiioi to some one hitheito untiied. Coipoial punishment has
THE MEASURE Ol PUNlSHMENT
iespectively come and gone. Public oggings and piivate oggings,
toituies, and death in vaiious ways, have met the appioval and then
the disappioval of the goveining powei. But with all of them, ciime
has gone on and on, unmindful alike of the foim oi extent of the
punishment in vogue.
The eect of an act of ciuelty and violence can nevei be mea-
suied oi undeistood. No one can tell the full consequences that
occui to eveiy human being when the state puts one to death, oi
ogs, oi maims, oi impiisons, oi even nes. A violent act pioduces
injuiy, haidship and sueiing to the victim who is poweiless in the
stiong giasp of the law. But the evil does not end with him.
ln evei-widening ciicles the iesults of ciuelty move on and on
until to some degiee oi pait they ieach eveiy membei of society.
Unless punishment lessens the sum of human sueiing, incieases
the measuie of human joy, and thus lengthens and adds to life, it
has no iight to be.
Punishment biings positive evil. Any possible good that it may
pioduce is at the best pioblematical and wholly impossible to piove.
liomthe ist victimwhomthe state degiades with punishment, the
evil and the haidship and sueiing moves on to family and fiiends.
ln no theoiy of the law is compensation, oi iecompense, oi making
good, any pait of punishment. lf taking the life of the piisonei could
biing to life the victimwhomhe killed theie might be some appaient
excuse foi the punishment of death. lf impiisoning in the peniten-
tiaiy in any way ietiieved a wiong oi made up a loss, a piison
might be toleiated, and some ielation might be shown between
punishment and ciime. Even in cases wheie a ne is administeied,
in place of impiisonment, the ne does not go in any way to ietiieve
any loss, but goes to the state as puie punishment and nothing else.
Eveiywheie in the theoiy and administiation of punishment is the
iule the same. The one puipose is to injuie, to haim, to inict
sueiing upon the individual whom society sets apait.
When tiaced to the end, the sole theoiy on which punishment
is based is that a ceitain man has commiued an act of violence and
ciime, and that, theiefoie, in some mysteiious way this is to be
made iight by inicting an injuiy on him. That the oiiginal wiong
will not be undone has no beaiing on the casethat otheis entiiely
e RESlST NOT EVlL
innocent may suei moie giievously than the accused is not to
be consideied in the iniction of punishment. The fathei may be
taken fiom the helpless childien, and these lef to giow up as best
they can, with theii own haidships and theii fatheis evil name to
beai, but society stands unmoved. Though the heavens fall, justice
must be done, and justice can only be done by inicting pain. The
execution oi impiisonment of the fathei may not unieasonably tuin
the childien to follow in the path the state maiked out foi him. This
is not the aaii of goveinment, not pievention oi iecompense, oi
iewaid is the function of the state, but vengeance, vengeance suie
and complete.
Justice is not the function of the state, this foims no pait of the
scheme of punishment. Punishment is punishment. A wife and
helpless babes may be lef in want when the state lays its hand in
wiath upon the man. Undei the law of natuial justice the child has
a iight to suppoit and caie fiomthe fathei, who is iesponsible foi its
life. Still, the state, not with a piioi iight, but with a gieatei powei,
takes the fathei fiom his child, kills him oi pens him, and tuins the
child into the byways of the woild, giving it only the heiitage of
the fatheis shame. lt is no answei to say that such a fathei is of no
value to the child. Many a kind, indulgent fathei has violated the
penal codes of man. Many a fathei has been sent to piison because
he so loved his child that he commiued ciime.
liom the natuie of things theie can be no justice in punish-
ment. Justice imposes ielation between act and consequence. The
judgment of man is uueily poweiless to pass upon the meiits oi
elements of a human soul. But justice fiom the state to its citi-
zens impoits some iatio between the iewaids, oppoitunities and
punishments meted out to each. As to iewaids and oppoitunities,
the state does nothing except to assist the stiong to despoil the
weak. lt fuinishes no oppoitunity foi its helpless, no chance foi
development and life, and gives no iewaids foi meiitoiious conduct,
and makes no allowance foi iesisting temptation fiom ciime. But
aside fiom all this, within the iealm wheie the state pietends to do
justice, theie is no equality meted out between its vaiious membeis.
The code is unyielding, the positive dead leuei of the law is mans
highest and piofoundest judgment as to the conduct of his fellows.
THE MEASURE Ol PUNlSHMENT
Each human soul is a sepaiate entity, with its own hopes, desiies,
and feais, some impassive and stolid, some sensitive and shiinking.
To be accused of ciime means moie to some natuies than yeais
of impiisonment to otheis. The body is not alone the subject of
punishment. Man, with his toituies and ciuelties, seeks to ieach
the mind even moie than the body. Stiiped clothes fuinish the
same waimth as othei gaiments, but to some the stiipes aie an
evei-consuming ame. To otheis, piopeily educated and haidened
by the state, this consciousness does not add to the punishment
involved. One day of foiced connement, oi one moment of the in-
dignity of handcus, means moie to some than a yeai of haid laboi.
The teims of impiisonment aie not the same to all. To some a teim,
howevei shoit, means the blighting of a life, and the destiuction of
a familypeichance a wife and child, a fathei oi a mothei, whose
soiiow and shame aie gieatei foi being indiiect. With a sensitive
soul no punishment ends when the piison gates aie opened up. lts
consciousness lives as long as life enduies. No day is so biight,
and no piospect so pleasing, but the black shadow is evei piesent,
blighting life, and diiving hope and sunshine fiom the soul.
ln cases wheie nes aie meted out, those who can aoid to pay
escape with compaiative ease, otheis aie foiced to shif a buiden
of debt upon fathei, mothei, wife, childien, oi fiiends, who aie
thus punished foi yeais, not foi ciime, but foi theii loyalty and
love. lf, peichance, thiough any eoit the money foi a ne can be
obtained, the state ciuelly and biutally takes the unholy, ill-gouen
cash, although it may mean that a home is scant of food and shiv-
eiing in cold oi daikness, oi a liule child is foiced fiom school to a
factoiy oi stoie. lt may mean a plundeied giilhood and abandoned
womanhood, that the vengeance of the state may be appeased. The
taking of money by the state in payment of ciime is innitely moie
damnable than piivate thef. The evils of foice and violence aie
unendingbold and ignoiant, indeed, is he, whethei iulei, ocial,
oi piivate citizen, who sets in motion biueiness and hate. lt is an
evil foice set loose upon the eaith to wandei up and down, cankei-
ing, polluting and despoiling all it meets, augmented by eveiy othei
foice, to be conqueied and subdued, if evei conqueied and subdued,
only by innite meicy and chaiity and love.
c RESlST NOT EVlL
Eveiy man, whethei iulei, juioi, judge oi whosoevei that is
called upon oi volunteeis to pass judgment on the conduct of otheis,
must do it accoiding to his own ickeiing, feeble light, accoiding to
the expeiiences that have made up his life. lt is foi this ieason that
good men aie so bad, and bad men so good. Life oidinaiily means
bieadth. Some, of couise, aie boin deaf and blind, and the longei
they tiavel the ioad the moie contiacted, cold and unchaiitable
they become, but to the oidinaiy peison life means sueiing and,
above all othei lessons, it teaches chaiity. As the ieal man giows
oldei, less and less does he believe in oi administei punishment,
and moie and moie does he see the extenuating ciicumstances that
explain and excuse eveiy act. The stein and upiight judge is an
impossibility. No one can be stein and upiight. ln piopoition as he
becomes tiuly upiight, ieally just, the moie neaily he appioaches
the chaiactei of the ideal judge, the moie neaily does he undeistand
the injustice of violence and ciuelty, and the eteinal unfailing iigh-
teousness of chaiity and love. Wheie is the man so wise oi the judge
so gieat and just that he could take any two human beings with theii
dieient ancestiy, enviionment, oppoitunities, passions and temp-
tations, and pionounce a judgment that would equalize the two`
Lawmakeis, since the woild began, have been busy undoing each
otheis wiongs. Couits have been established whose sole duty it is
to coiiect othei couits. Unjust judgments aie necessaiily incident to
the inimities of man. The wise judge who looks back ovei a long
caieei, the judge who knows human life and has a human heait,
the judge who seeks to be iuled by his conscience, will nd much in
his past caieei he would wish undone. He will look back on many
unjust judgments, on many things done in angei and hatied, ciuelty
and wiong, on blighted hopes and iuined lives. But in his whole
caieei he will iegiet no act of chaiity, no deed of meicy that he has
been moved to do. He will look back on judgments he would ieveise,
but these aie not judgments of love oi foigiveness oi chaiity, but
judgments of foice, of violence, of hate.
CHAPTER Xll
WHO DESERVES PUNlSHMENT
lf theie is any justice in human punishment it must be based
upon the theoiy of intiinsic evil in the victim. Punishment cannot
be justied because of the violation of human law. To violate law
is ofen the highest, most sacied duty that can devolve upon the
citizen, and even weie it not, the condition of the heait is the test of
the evil oi good puipose, not the good oi evil of the act. The woild
woiships and veneiates many of its dead because they violated hu-
man law. Eveiy new ieligion, eveiy social advancement has been
caiiied on in violation of human law. The ciiminals who, in the face
of contumely, hatied oi violence, have led the woild to a highei
standaid and biought humanity to a divinei oidei, have so loved
tiuth and iighteousness as to defy the law, and in eveiy age these
men have met the life of outcasts, and the death of felons. Whatevei
may be said of the necessity of goveinment to piotect itself, no one
can believe that any human being meiits punishment foi following
his own highest ideal. Punishment can only be in any wise defended
upon the theoiy that the individual is untiue to himself, that his
heait is bad. But all schemes of human punishment seem specially
contiived to exempt this class of men. Those who aie untiue to
themselves nd no diculty in obeying the state, oi at least in
seeming to be subseivient to its laws. The cunning man without
stiong convictions of iight and wiong can always nd ample ioom
to opeiate his tiade inside the dead line the law lays down. Even
Blackstone wiote that a man who goveined his conduct solely by
the law was neithei an honest man noi a good citizen. The penal
code cannot pietend to covei all the vicious acts of men. lf theie
is a distinction between vicious acts and iighteous acts, each aie so
numeious that even to catalogue them would be beyond the powei
of the state. The most that the penal code pietends to do is to choose
a numbei of faiily well classied acts and to set penalties foi these
v
eu RESlST NOT EVlL
ciimes. The men who ieally entail the most evil and sueiing on
mankind easily shape theii conduct to avoid these acts. lf peichance
they wish in eect to do some things foibidden by the law, they aie
able by theii wealth to have skilled lawyeis who can show them
how to accomplish the same object by indiiect means. The hollow
heaited man, the whited sepulchei is the last to violate the law. To
suppoit the state and be noisily patiiotic is a laige pait of his stock
in tiade. As a iule it is only the weak oi the extiemely conscientious
oi devoted that violate the law, and it does not follow that these oi
any othei class ieally intend a wiong oi considei it in any such light
as theii judge, when they commit an act foibidden by the law.
A veiy laige numbei of acts of individual violence come fiom
sudden feeling and passion, which is puiely a physical, oi moie
piopeily, a mechanical act. Ceitain motives oi feelings opeiating
upon a given biain pioduce a given iesult, wheieas opeiating upon
anothei biain, they might pioduce a veiy dieient eect. lt is like a
body in mechanics opeiating upon anothei smallei oi laigei body.
The laws of the univeise aie not at woik in one place and held in
abeyance in anothei. ln these cases ieason and judgment have no
oppoitunity to act. Reection and conscience in no wise entei into
the aaii. leeling, emotion, passion alone aie iesponsible foi the
deed. The human feelings as they sweep thiough that unchaited
land, the human soul, pioduce innitely vaiied iesults, like the mov-
ing wind, whose sound depends entiiely upon the unconscious in-
stiument with which it toys.
CHAPTER Xlll
NATURAL LAW AND CONDUCT
Many of the ciimes xed by lawaie puiely aibitiaiy. To commit
them oi to iefiain does not necessaiily imply innocence oi guilt. Of
such a chaiactei, foi instance, aie ievenue laws, the obseivance of
holy days and the like. A laige numbei of foibidden acts that aie
geneially supposed to imply moial guilt aie also puiely aibitiaiy.
Most of the laws goveining the taking and obtaining of piopeity,
which constitute the gieat buiden of oui penal code, aie aibitiaiy
acts, whose sole puipose is to keep the gieat mass of piopeity in
the hands of the iuleis and exploiteis and to send to jail those who
help themselves and who have no othei means within theii powei
to sustain theii lives. Most of the so-called thieves and othei of-
fendeis against piopeity dimly know this fact. Without being able
to analyze oi logically iealize it, they, afei all, feel that they have
commiued no wiong, and that they took the only ioad life had lef
open foi theii feet.
Neaily oui whole ciiminal code is made up of what may be
called piopeity ciimes, oi ciimes against piopeity, if they may be
so called. These ciimes aie buiglaiy, laiceny, obtaining piopeity by
false pietenses, extoition, and the like. The jails and penitentiaiies
of eveiy nation in the woild aie lled to oveiowing with men and
women who have been chaiged with commiuing ciimes against
piopeity. Piobably nine-tenths of all the business of ciiminal couits
come diiectly fiom piopeity ciimes. A veiy laige piopoition of the
balance comes indiiectly fiom this cause. Nothing could moie com-
pletely show the humbuggeiy, knaveiy and the absolute hypociisy
of all punishment by the state than the patent facts with iefeience to
these ciimes. liomist to last these inmates of jail and penitentiaiy,
these sueiing outcast men, aie uueily without piopeity and have
evei been. ln the penal institutions of the woild aie conned a
motley thiong chaiged with commiuing assaults upon piopeity,
e1
ez RESlST NOT EVlL
and yet this whole mass of despised and outcast humanity have evei
been the piopeityless class, have nevei had aught wheieon to lay
theii heads. But wheie is all the piopeity that has been the subject
of these diie assaults` No mauei wheie you tuin youi eyes in the
woild, the whole piopeity is in the hands of a chosen few, and the so-
called owneis of all this wealth cieated by the laboi of man and the
bounty of natuiethese so-called owneis have commiued no ciime
against piopeity. The statement of the fact is sucient to show the
inequality of the whole system undei which the fiuits of the eaith
aie kept in the possession of the few. These despised and outcast
ones have violated no law of conscience oi justice, have commiued
no uniighteous assault on piopeity. The plain fact that will one
day stand cleaily foith to explain the whole biutal code which is
used to impiison and enslave, the plain ieason and object of these
laws is the fact that the iuleis who have foicibly seized the eaith
have made ceitain iules and iegulations to keep possession of the
tieasuies of the woild, and when the disinheiited have ieached out
to obtain the means of life, they have been met with these aibitiaiy
iules and lodged in jail.
The advocates of punishment believe that law contiols the natu-
ial woild. The movement of the eaith about the sun, the changes of
the moon, the iising and falling of the tide, the change of seasons, all
these depend on natuial law. lt is even known that the distiibution
of animal life upon the eaith is due to natuial law. Ceitain climates
and locations pioduce ceitain animal life. Paiticulai seasons of the
yeai inciease oi diminish insect life. The wild fowl ies noith in
summei and south in wintei. The swaiming of bees, the homes of
ants, in shoit all the activities, lives and deaths of the biute cieation
aie suiely seen to be the subject of natuial law. The distiibution,
giowth and decay of plant life is no less within the iealm of law
than is the animal life, which depends upon the same poweis and
foices, the same gieat souice of life.
But when man is ieached it would seem that the iule of law is at
an end. His life and death, his goings in and out, his myiiad acts aie
due to no iule oi system oi law, but aie the iesult of capiicious will
alone. Tiue, in many of his acts man iecognizes the gieat foice in
NATURAL LAW AND CONDUCT e!
whose mighty powei he is like the insect, oi the giain of sand tossed
by the angiy sea. Heie and theie he seems to dimly undeistand the
gieat laws of necessity, of sequence, of consequence, that govein
human life. Eveiy fathei who takes pains in the ieaiing of his
child, who suiiounds it with the inuences that build up chaiactei
and develop judgment and ieason, iecognizes the law of necessity,
the contiolling powei of enviionment, the stiength of habit and
ciicumstance. The life of tiibes and iaces and nations show that
xed laws contiol in the actions of men, as eveiywheie else within
the iealmof natuie. Man is a pait of natuie, the highest evolution of
all, but still a pait imly bound by law to eveiy atom of mauei and
eveiy paiticle of foice which the wide univeise contains. The life
and death of man, his distiibution ovei the eaith, his peimanency as
an individual oi a tiibe, depend upon all othei life. Man diaws his
sustenance fiomthe animate and inanimate woild. The lives of bees
depend upon the oweis, theii numbei and condition, theii coming
and going, theii biith and death is due to this natuial cause outside
the contiol of the individual bee. The life of man depends upon his
supply of food and sheltei, upon his ability to obtain the necessities
of life. lt is tiue that in his piogiess he is no longei bound so closely
to the eaith as in his eaily stages. He has leained something of the
laws of natuie and is able to take some thought foi the moiiow, but
yet famine destioys him, disease oveicomes him, seveie dioughts,
piotiacted heat, gieat inundations of ood, all these aect his life,
change population, destioy vast numbeis, always the weakei, those
less able to piovide foi themselves, those who, fiom ciicumstances,
have taken the smallest thought foi the moiiow.
Even in the most civilized, piogiessive lands man is dependent
on natuie. The constant thought of much the laigest poition of
mankind is foi the piocuiement of those things that will sustain,
piolong and iendei theii lives moie comfoitable. The vast majoi-
ity of men aie closely bound to the soil and theii whole life is a
stiuggle foi the means to live. Even the laige majoiity of those
whose condition is the most toleiable nd life an endless stiuggle
and anxiety theii constant companion. Such a thing as a fiee choice
of life is out of the question foi the vast majoiity of men boin upon
the eaith, theii iesidence, occupation, houis of laboi, method of
e| RESlST NOT EVlL
life, aie xed almost iiievocably in obedience to the demands of
theii physical being. Afei those whose conditions of life aie the
most toleiable come a gieat mass whose existence is most piecaii-
ous, dependent upon the condition of the haivest, the condition of
tiade, the amount of iain oi snow, the quantity of sunshine, and a
thousand ciicumstances fai beyond theii contiol.
As a consequence of his desiie foi life and the means that make
it ceitain and pleasant, man has evei tuined his auention towaid the
conquest of natuie, ieducing vegetable and animal life to his contiol.
But his conquest does not end heie. Not vegetables and animals alone
must be his slaves, but man as well. Evei has man enslaved his fellow,
fiomthe beginning of his caieei upon the eaith he has sought to make
his own existence pleasantei and moie ceitain by compelling otheis
to toil foi him. ln its moie piimitive stages slaveiy was enfoiced by
the owneiship of the man. ln its latei and moie iened stages it is
caiiied on by the owneiship of the things fiom which man must live.
All life comes piimaiily fiom the eaith and without access to this
gieat ist souice of being, man must die. Passing fiomthe owneiship
of individuals, iuleis have found it easiei and moie ceitain to own
the eaithfoi to own the eaith is to x the teims on which all must
live. Moie and moie does the mastei seek to contiol access to land, to
coal, to timbei, to iion, to wateithese piime iequisites to life. Moie
and moie ceitainly, as time and civilization move on, do these piime
necessities pass to the few. Eveiy new engine of pioduction makes
it easiei foi the few to ieduce the eaith to theii possession. Even
land itself is of no value without the iailioads, the haibois, the mines
and the foiest. Eveiywheie these have passed into the hands of the
few. liom the piivate owneiship of men, the iuleis have passed to
the piivate owneiship of the eaith and the contiol of the land. The
iuleis no longei have the iight to buy and sell the man, to send him
heie and theie to suit theii will. They simply have the powei to
dictate the teims upon which he can stand upon the eaith. With the
mines, the foiests, the oil, the haibois, the iailioads, and the ieally
valuable pioductive land in the iuleis hands, the dominance and
powei of man ovei his fellows is absolute and complete. lt is not
necessaiy to show that it is the iuling class who own the eaiththe
owneis of the eaith must be the iuling class.
CHAPTER XlV
RULES GOVERNlNG PENAL CODES AND THElR
VlCTlMS
The iuleis make penal codes foi the iegulation and contiol of
the eaith and all the piopeity theieonthe eaith which was made
long ages befoie they weie evolved, and will still iemain ages afei
they aie dust. Not only do they make these iules to contiol the
eaith foi theii biief, haughty lives, but they piovide that it may pass
fiom hand to hand foievei. The geneiations now living, oi iathei
those that aie dead and gone, xed the status of unboin millions,
and decieed that they shall have no place to live except upon such
teims as may be dictated by those who then contiolled the eaith. To
ietain all the means of life in the hands of the few and compel the
many to do seivice to suppoit these few iequiies the machineiy of
the state. lt is foi this that penal laws aie made, and the eoit of the
despoiled to ieach out in theii despaii and obtain a small poition of
the natuial heiitage of all is diiectly and indiiectly the basis of all
piopeity assaults.
Eveiy peison who has obseived caule knows that if the pastuie
is good the animals aie quiet, and will stay wheie they aie placed,
but let the pastuie giowthin until hungei comes and they will leain
to jump. Theie weie nevei caule so quiet and well behaved that they
could not be made to jump, and nevei caule so bieachy that they
could not be made tame. Even successive geneiations of staiving
and abuse will not so fai peiveit theii natuie but that successive
geneiations of kind tieatment will biing them back to a peaceful,
gentle life. Human beings aie like caule in a eld. They aie caule
in a eld. Give them a chance to live and piospei, and violent acts
will be unknown, but biing them close to the line of staivation oi
want and theii natuial iights asseit themselves above the foims and
laws that man has made to hold the eaith and enslave his fellows.
Of couise heie and theie may be found cases wheie geneiations
e
ee RESlST NOT EVlL
of outlawiy and exploitation have lef theii maiks upon men, until
they seem to piefei this life, but in those cases faii tieatment would
geneially iemove this in the ist geneiation, and always befoie
many geneiations had come and gone.
All eneigy manifests itself along lines of least iesistance, and the
ist eneigies of man aie devoted to the piocuiement of the means of
life. lt is only wheie oiganized tyianny has made violence and foice
the line of least iesistance that men will deviate fiom the noimal
path, and so long as the cupidity and biutal selshness of man shall
make this the line of least iesistance, all the laws on eaith cannot
oveicome the piimal instincts and feelings upon which life depends.
A iace that would staive, oi beg, oi accept alms befoie violating the
biutal laws that fence the childien of natuie fiom theii souice of
life, would quickly degeneiate into abject slaveiy and nally into
nothingness. All so-called ciiminals do not ieason out the cause
that placed them wheie they aie. lnstinctively they feel that they
aie doing what they must. This class have geneially lived foi yeais,
sometimes foi geneiations, so neai the boidei line, have lived such
piecaiious lives that theii callings and avocations have giown as
natuial and noimal as monopolizing the eaith has giown to anothei
class. They aie fully awaie of the dangeis incident to theii ciaf, of
the scanty iecompense that theii lives aoid, and, like all othei men,
would at once abandon theii calling foi an oppoitunity to lead moie
noimal lives. They aie in no sense devoid of these common instincts
of humanity upon which natuie iests all life. Given a child falling
into a iivei, an old peison in a buining building, a woman fainting
in the stieet, and a band of convicts would iisk theii lives to give
aid as quickly at least as a band of millionaiies.
Natuie takes liule account of atoms, hei opeiations aie on a
wide eld, a bioad scale. She biings famine, a million men must
die, she does not seem to pick out the individual menshe diaws a
stiaight haid line, and those who step acioss cannot ietuin. Natuie
and man combine to make haid the condition of human life foi
the gieat majoiity that live upon the eaith. A veiy few choose
the ioads of luxuiy and ease, the vast mass aie scaueied in all the
avenues of life, some seive by abject toil, some entei the hazaidous
RULES GOVERNlNG PENAL CODES AND THElR VlCTlMS e
callings of the iailioads and the mines, some the extia-hazaidous
of making gunpowdei and nitioglyceiine, and some the still moie
hazaidousthese aie thieves oi buiglais oi iobbeis oi piostitutes,
as the case may be. Conditions impiove, and man moves up in the
scale, the toileis have gieatei luxuiy, those in hazaidous callings
take an easiei place, the extia-hazaidous iise to the hazaidous, and
the still-moie-hazaidous to the extia-hazaidous. The conditions of
life become moie seveie and the cuiient ows the othei way. lt is
then that the jails and the penitentiaiies aie ciowded to the utmost
limit they will hold.
Statistics have shown that the numbei of inmates in oui piisons
incieases with eveiy iise in the piice of food. lf a combination
incieases the piice of oui a cent a pound and ten thousand men aie
sent to jail thioughout the woild, in the judgment of innite wisdom
and justice who will be held iesponsible foi the ciime` Eveiy time
that the tiust iaises the piice of coal some pooi victims aie sent to
jail, and at eveiy iaise in the piice of oil some giils aie sent out upon
the stieets to get theii biead by a life of wietchedness and shame.
That these piopeity laws aie puiely aibitiaiy is shown by the
slightest thought. The ciiminal statutes foibid extoition and swin-
dling, and yet the laigest pait of business is extoition, and much
of the balance is swindling. When the law foibids extoition and
swindling, it simply foibids ceitain foims and methods of these
acts, and these foims and methods aie the ones not piacticed by the
iuling class. They aie so small and insignicant as not to constitute
business but only peuy annoyance to the iuling class. To go diiectly
to a victim and by thieats of violence compel him to pay moie foi
some commodity than it is ieally woith is geneially extoition, but
this is a veiy clumsy and infiequent act. Real extoition is taking foi
any seivice moie than it is faiily woith by means of agencies cieated
by the extoitei to despoil his victim, and this is the business of the
business woild. Neaily eveiy stieet-cai line and eveiy gas plant
in the woild opeiates its business by means of special piivileges,
and fiom one-half to thiee-fouiths of the money they ieceive is
extoited fiom that poition of the community that has no iediess.
The iailioad companies, who, thiough wateied stocks and bonds
and combinations, chaige the consumei twice and moie the value
ec RESlST NOT EVlL
of the seivice given, touch the pocket of eveiyone who lives in a
modein state. The pioduction of iion, clothing, many kinds of food,
in fact the laigest pait of what is used in daily life, is contiolled
by combinations whose sole puipose is extoition, they scheme to
absolutely contiol the maiket and take fiom the consumeis what
they have. And yet foi this extoition which ieaches eveiy home
and despoils eveiy ieside, the law fuinishes no iediess. Eithei it
does not come within the piovisions of the law oi else those who
aie chaiged with its enfoicement do not caie to ieach this soit of
extoition which is the only kind that ieally aects the woild. ln
eithei case it shows that the penal code is made and enfoiced by
the iuling class, not upon themselves, but to keep the weak at the
bouom of the social scale.
The law foibids swindling at least in ceitain ways, and yet a
laige pait of business consists in making the public believe that
they aie geuing moie value foi what they give than the tiades-
man can possibly aoid. The daily papeis aie lled to oveiowing
with lying adveitisements, each contiadicting the othei. Oui fences,
iocks and buildings aie defaced with vulgai, hideous lies in oidei
to swindle men out of theii much-coveted cash. All oui meichants
and tiadesmen fiantically call out theii lies in eveiy foim, that they
may sell theii waies foi a laigei piice than they aie ieally woith.
And yet, to all of this, the ciiminal code has no woid to say. This
is not the class of swindleis it was made to ieach. The man who
can buy the space of a gieat papei to tell the wondious qualities of
the waies he has to sell is not the soit of man to come within the
meshes of the penal code.
People in the jail and people out, when iepioached foi ceitain
conduct, almost invaiiably iespond that they have done no woise
than someone else who stands uncondemned, and this ietoit is tiue
when motives aie fully analyzed and conduct thoioughly undei-
stood. The actions of men aie wondiously alike. When we look
at the ciiminal in the jail, oi at oui enemy in the stieet, we do not
see the man. This is not due to him. lt comes fiom the malice, the
hatied, the want of human chaiity that dwells in oui own heaits.
Thiough this fog and mist theie can be no cleai tiue sight. To the
puie all things aie puie. To the just all souls aie ieally white.
RULES GOVERNlNG PENAL CODES AND THElR VlCTlMS ev
The web of the law ieaches so fai that theie aie veiy few who
have not in some way been touched by its meshes. One infallible
pioof as to the ieal natuie of ciime and the chaiactei of the ciiminal
is open to almost eveiyone who wishes to obseive. lew men aie
so pooi and outcast as to have no fiiends. The victims who clus-
tei aiound the coiiidois and entiances of oui jails aie as pitiable
as those who dwell inside. To those fiiends who know him the
ciiminal is a man, a man foi whom they will saciice time, money,
sometimes honoi and even life. lf it is nothing but a pooi wife, oi
a helpless child who has known the kind heait of a husband oi a
fathei, these aie theie to piove that the wietch is not a monstei, but
a manthese aie the ones who knew him, who saw his life, who
touched him on the human side, the side that shows the ieal tiue
kinship of man. Judges, lawyeis, cleigymen, physicians, all classes
of men ieadily come foiwaid and tell of the viitues of the ciiminal
whom they know, they tell of the extenuating ciicumstances that
led to his act, oi they show that, in spite of these, they undeistand
the woith of the man. The ciiminal is always the man we do not
know oi the man we hatethe man we see thiough the biueiness
of oui heaits. Let one but ieally love his fellow and he knows
full well that he is not a ciiminal. He sees his pulsing heait, he
knows his weak esh, his aspiiing soul, his hopes, his stiuggles, his
disappointments, his tiiumphs and his failings, and he loves the man
foi all of these.
CHAPTER XV
THE MACHlNERY Ol JUSTlCE
The state fuinishes no machineiy foi aiiiving at justice. Even if
it weie possible undei any ciicumstances to judge, and even though
men weie ieally ciiminals, the state has no way of aiiiving at the
facts. lf the state pietends to administei justice this should be its
highest concein. lt should not be inteiested in convicting men oi
punishing ciime, but administeiing justice between men. lt is obvi-
ous to the most casual obseivei that the state fuinishes no machin-
eiy to accomplish this iesult. The penal law simply takes a man
into its hoppei and giinds out a ciiminal at the end. A foice of able-
bodied, well fed, well paid men aie kept busy in theii seaich foi
ciime. These nd pecuniaiy iewaid in the ciime of theii fellows.
An indictment is easily ietuined against a fiiendless mana suspi-
cion is enough in any case wheie the victim has no fiiends. lf he
is pooi he is at once lodged in jail. Latei he is placed on tiial in
the couits. When he steps into the dock both judge and juiois look
on him as a guilty manbelieve he has commiued ciime. He is
caiefully guaided by oceis, like a guilty, hunted thing. Aiiayed
against him is an able piosecutoi, well paid, and having peisonal
and political ambitions dependent on the numbei of men he giinds
into ciiminals. The piosecutoi has ample means foi the conduct
of the case. The piisonei, helpless enough at best, is iendeied abso-
lutely poweiless to piepaie his case by being lodged in jail. Without
money he has no advocate with eithei the leaining, inuence, oi
ability to help his cause. lf he is silent he is convicted. lf he speaks
no one believes his woids. lnnocent oi guilty, it is a miiacle if
he escapes, and in this miiacle the fact of his innocence oi guilt
plays but the smallest pait. Given a few suspicious ciicumstances,
a helpless piisonei, an indictment, and anothei victim is the suie
iesult. And in the hands of a shiewd lawyei oi undei the belief
of guilt, any ciicumstances aie suspicious ciicumstances. Almost
1
z RESlST NOT EVlL
all acts aie subject to vaiious inteipietations, and the guilt oi inno-
cence of a ciicumstance depends not upon the act but upon the mind
that passes judgment on the act. We look back with hoiioi at the
ciiminal couits of England, of Spain, of ltaly, even upon oui own
Puiitan judges who sentenced witches to death. These judges weie
doubtless as intelligent as oui own. Theii biutal, ciuel judgments
did not giow fiom a wicked peiveited heait, but fiom the fact that
they weie passing judgment on theii fellow man. These unjust
judgments aie the fiuit of the ciuel system of foice and baibaiism
which clothes one man with the authoiity and powei to condemn
his fellow. All piosecutions aie malicious, and all judgments aie
meted out in angei and hatied. Oui own judges aie constantly
showing this. ln neaily eveiy instance they condemn a piisonei
to a teim of seivitude, and when passion has ed and the sane and
holy feelings of meicy, of chaiity, of humanity once moie iegain
theii sway, they call on the paidoning powei to iescind theii ciuel
acts. ln all these cases of paidons ieection shows the judges that
the punishment meted out was at least too seveie. The dieience
is in the fiame of mind of the judge when engaged in the business
of administeiing judgment, and when in the mood foi listening to
those feelings of human chaiity which aie the divinei pait of man.
Punishment, to in any way be justied, should diminish the sum
of human miseiy, the iesult of the biueiness and hatied of men.
But heie, as eveiywheie else, punishment falls shoit. Wheievei
the judgment of couits enteis it is to coiiupt and to destioy. The
miseiy and sueiing entailed on man by scaolds, iacks, blocks,
dungeons and jails has nevei yet begun to be told. Blood and mis-
eiy and degiadation has maiked the administiation of punishment
Since man ist penned his fellow men,
Like biutes, within an iion pen.
Let any ieasoning being considei the tens of thousands who
have been buined, and hanged, and boiled, and otheiwise put to
death foi witchciaf, the millions foi heiesy, the thousands of noble
victims who have sueied foi tieason, the victims of ie, of toituie,
of scaold, of iack and of dungeon, foi all the conceivable ciimes
since time began. Let himconsidei the oceans of blood and iiveis of
THE MACHlNERY Ol JUSTlCE !
teais shed by the foice and biutality of the iuleis of the woild, the
ciuelty, toituie and sueiing heaped upon the helpless, the weak,
the unfoitunate, and then ask himself if he believes that punishment
is good. Even could violence evei pievent ciime, the biutality, suf-
feiing, blood and ciime of the iuleis has toweied mountain high
above that of the weak and obscuie victims whose wiongs they have
pietended to avenge. And this ciuelty does not abate. lt is simple
madness that doubts the justice of past condemnations and believes
in the iighteous judgments of today. No condemnation is just, and
no judgment is iighteous. All violence and foice aie ciuel, unjust
and baibaious, and cannot be sustained by the judgment of men.
But the evil of judgment and punishment does not end with
the unfoitunate victim. lt biutalizes and makes inhuman all who
aie touched with its powei. Undei the inuence of punishments,
jaileis, policemen, sheiis, detectives, and all who deal with piisons
aie biutalized and haidened. The iniquities pioduced upon helpless
piisoneis leave theii eects upon the captoi as well as the captives.
To witness the constant sueiing and indignities of piison life is to
destioy the nei sensibilities of the soul. Men who aie otheiwise
kind in the vaiious ielations of life do not hesitate at ciuelty to these
despised piisoneis whom the law has placed outside its ban. To
undeifeed and oveiwoik, to insult, degiade and beat aie common
incidents of piison life, and this, too, not because jaileis aie natu-
ially ciuel and bad, but because piisons aie piisons, and convicts
aie outcasts. lnstead of appioaching these unfoitunates as biotheis
in fellowship and love, theii only concein is to make them feel that
the heavy hand of the state has been laid upon them in malice and
violence.
Howevei thoioughly the futility, ciuelty and injustice of pun-
ishment may be shown, men will still peisist that it must exist.
The thought that society could live without piisons and police-
men seems to be beyond the conception of the common man. lf
punishment has no eect to diminish oi pievent ciime, then no
dangei would be incuiied to dismiss oui jaileis and juiois and close
oui piison doois. The iesults of this policy can, of couise, not be
pioven absolutely in advance, but so suie as the existence of man
| RESlST NOT EVlL
is consistent with justice, chaiity and love, so suie is this policy
iight and would pioduce good iesults. lt is not necessaiy to piove
the theoiy of non-iesistance to show that this policy is piactical
today. Society, as now oiganized, iests upon violence and wiong.
The non-iesistant pleads foi a beuei oidei, one in which the law
of love and meicy will be the foundation of eveiy ielationship of
man with man. The piesent unjust system is suppoited by violence
and foice. The unjust possessions of the iich aie kept in theii place
by soldieis, guns and policemens clubs. lf these weie withdiawn
would the weak at once take the eaith and all its fullness fiom those
who foi ages have iuled the woild`
No violent and foicible ieadjustment of this soit could come.
loice is wiong both to commit and to iediess evil. ln the iule of
foice the weak must always fall. loi the pooi and oppiessed to
advocate the use of foice means that they must still be the victims,
foi the stiongest foice must win. All that can help the weak is the
iule of biotheihood, of love. Unless this can be pioved theie is no
way to destioy the injustice that is eveiywheie the iule of life. To
make the weak stiong, and the stiong weak, could neithei destioy
injustice noi peimanently change the wietched oidei of the woild.
A bayonet in the hand of one man is no beuei than in the hand of
anothei. lt is the bayonet that is evil and all of its fiuits aie bad.
The woild must leain that violence is wiong. lndividuals who
undeistand this tiuth must take no pait in violent acts, whethei to
enslave oi to fiee. The inheient coheiing foices will hold society
togethei and cause man to copeiate foi his highest good. A laige
pait of piesent society is puiely voluntaiy and due to natuial law.
lt is foi foice and violence and injustice that the aid of the state is
called. Society should not punish. The gieat buiden that iests upon
pioduction to suppoit aimies, couits, and piisons, with all theii
endless oceis and staggeiing weight should be taken fiom the
shouldeis of the pooi. This of itself would so ielieve industiy and
add to the possibilities of life that the veiy hazaidous occupations
that we call ciiminal would almost wholly disappeai. The class
fiom which these victims come is known to be the outcast and the
pooi. A small fiaction of the vast sum squandeied foi violence and
foice would easily place all these dangeious peisons beyond the
THE MACHlNERY Ol JUSTlCE
temptations of ciiminal activity. Even now, with all the injustice
of today, the expendituie of public money to ielieve sueiing, to
fuinish iemuneiative employment, to iationally pievent ciime by
leaving men with something else to do, would pioduce beuei iesults
than all the imagined benets that follow in the wake of scaolds
and of jails.
The eoit of the penal codes has nevei been to ieach any hu-
man being befoie violence is done, except to awe him by the biief
tiansitoiy show of foice, but afei the act is done the state must
spend its stiength and substance foi ievenge. Most men aie diiven
to ciiminal acts fiom the necessities of life and the hatied bied by
the oiganized foice they meet. Remove diie poveity, as could be
easily done with a tithe of what is now spent on foice, let oiganized
society meet the individual, not with foice, but with helpfulness
and love, and the inducement to commit ciime could not exist. Let
society be the fiiend not the tyiant, the biothei not the jailei, and
the feeling will be ietuined a thousandfold. No man oi no society
evei induced love with clubs and guns. The emblem of the state is
the soldiei, the policeman, the couit, the jail. lt is an emblem that
does not appeal to the highei sentiments of manan emblem that
so long as it exists will pievent tiue biotheihood and be a hindiance
to the highei sentiments that will one day iule the woild.
Even if now and then passion and feeling should gain contiol
of man, this passion and feeling would be biief and tiansitoiy, if
it accomplished destiuction, no powei could make it whole. The
concein of society would then be to call back this soul to sanei
thoughts and a tiuei, noblei life, not to blacken and destioy, noi
to plant biuei hatied and despaii in the soul of one who might be
biought to a ne and high iealization of human conduct and human
life. Undei this soit of tieatment a laige piopoition of those who
commit violent deeds would be biought to a full iealization of theii
acts, and they themselves would seek in eveiy way to iepaii the ill
eects of theii evil deeds.
CHAPTER XVl
THE RlGHT TREATMENT Ol VlOLENCE
Sentimental and humane thoughts and puiposes aie ofen, pei-
haps geneially, based on ieal life, and have a natuial ieason foi
theii being. To tuin the othei cheek oi to iesist not evil may
seem at ist glance to have no suppoit in the facts of life, but afei
all that which makes foi a highei humanity, a longei life, and a
moie vigoious community, is the tiue philosophy. To use violence
and foice upon the vicious and the weak must pioduce the evil that
it gives. Like pioduces like. Clubs, jails, haish language, biutal
foice, inevitably tend to iepioduce the same state of mind in the
victim of the assault. This is not meiely a fact in human natuie.
lt is a fact in all natuie, plant and animal and man. So long as
the gentle spiingtime iathei than the ciuel wintei biings vegetable
and animal life to an awakening eaith, just so long will kindness
and love tiiumph, pioduce joy and life, wheie foice and violence
biing only evil and death. Haish tieatment kills plant life, and kind
tieatment builds it up. Violence and biutality pioduce theii like in
animal life, and kindness tames and subdues. With gentleness and
kindness a swaim of wild bees may be handled and contiolled, but
appioach them with violence and foice and each bee is conveited
into a ciiminal whose only puipose is to destioy.
With all animal life the same iule exists, even those beasts
whose natuie calls foi a diet of esh and blood may be subdued
in time by gentleness and love. Man with his highei intellect and
beuei developed moial being is much moie susceptible to kindness
and love. Likewise he moie easily leains to feai and hate. Man
ieadily disceins the feelings and judgment of his fellows, and as
ieadily iendeis judgment in ietuin. The outcast and abandoned
foim not the slightest exception to the iulethey know and un-
deistand the ones who meet them with gentleness and love, foi
these they make saciices, to these they aie faithful, to these they

c RESlST NOT EVlL

exhibit the highei qualities that show the possibilities of the soul.
Cases wheie one convicted of ciime comes fiom a place of safety
and iisks his libeity and life to help save his fiiend aie not iaie
in the least. Tiue comiadeship and loyalty is met quite as ofen
heie as in the highei walks of life. Nothing is moie common in
oidinaiy selsh society than to see one man iefuse all aid and
help to anothei in nancial need. Many convicts and outcasts
could teach a much needed lesson of loyalty and geneiosity to the
exemplaiy man.
No amount of tieatment can ieclaim an evil heait if the tieat-
ment is administeied without love. As childien at school we knew
with oui young natuial instincts the teachei who loved us and the
teachei who despised usthe one awoke feelings of love and kind-
ness, the othei hatied and ievenge. No heait is so puie that it may
not be deled and haidened by ciuelty, hatied and foice, and none
so deled that it may not be touched and changed by gentleness
and love. Unless this philosophy of life is tiue the whole teaching
of the woild has been a delusion and a snaie. Unless love and
kindness tends to love, then hatied and violence and foice should
be substituted and taught as the caidinal viitues of human life. The
mistake and evil of society is in assuming that love is the iule of life,
and at the same time that laige classes of people aie entiiely outside
its pale. No paient evei teaches his child any othei philosophy than
that of love. Even to quaiielsome playmates they aie taught not to
ietuin blows and haish language, but to meet foice with kindness
and with love. The paient who did not depend on love to inuence
and mold the chaiactei of the child iathei than foice would be
iegaided not as a ieal paient but a biute. loice is woise than useless
in developing the conduct of the child. lt is tiue that by means of
foice the liule child may be awed by supeiioi biute powei, but he
gives way only undei piotest, and the violence that he suppiesses
in his hand oi tongue nds iefuge in his heait. Violent acts aie
not evil they aie a manifestation of evil. Good conduct is not
goodness. lt is but a manifestation of goodness. Evil and goodness
can only be conditions of the inmost life, and human conduct, while
it geneially ieects this inmost life, may be so contiolled as not to
manifest the ieal soul that makes the man.
THE RlGHT TREATMENT Ol VlOLENCE v
Eveiy child needs development, needs tiaining to t him to live
in peace and iight ielations with his fellow man. Eveiy intelligent
and iight-thinking peison knows that this development must be
thiough love, not thiough violence and foice. The paient who
would teach his child to be kind to animals, not to iuthlessly kill and
maim, would not teach this gentleness with a club. The intelligent
paient would not use a whip to teach a child not to beat a dog.
The child is not made into the good citizen, the iighteous man, by
pointing out that ceitain conduct will lead to punishment, to the jail
oi the gallows. The benecence of feai was once consideied a piime
necessity in the ieaiing of the child, and this theoiy peopled the
eaith with monsteis and the aii with spooks ieady to ieach down
and take the helpless child when he wandeied fiomthe stiaight and
naiiow path, but this method of ieaiing childien does not appeal to
the judgment and humanity of today. The conduct of childien can
only be ieached foi good by pointing to the evil iesults of hatied,
of inhaimony, of foice, by appealing to the highei and noblei
sentiments which, if once ieached, aie evei piesent, inuencing
and contiolling life. The code of hatied, of violence and foice, too,
is a negative code. The child is given a list of the things he must not
do, exactly as the man is fuinished a list of the acts foibidden by the
state. At the best, when the limits of this list aie ieached and the
foibidden things aie lef undone, nothing moie is expected oi de-
manded. But no code is long enough to make up the myiiad acts of
life. Kindness oi unkindness can iesult in a thousand ways in eveiy
human ielationship. lf the child oi the man obseives the wiiuen
code thiough feai, the unwiiuen moial code, innitely longei and
moie delicate, will be bioken in its almost eveiy line. But if the child
oi the man is taught his iight ielations to the woild and feels the
love and sympathy due his fellow man, he has no need of wiiuen
codes, his acts, so fai as those of moitals can be, will be consistent
with the life and happiness of his fellow man. And this not thiough
feai, but because he beais the highest auitude towaid life.
With oui long heiedity and oui impeifect enviionment, even
if the oiganized foice of the state should disappeai, even if the
jails and penitentiaiies should close theii doois, foice would only
cu RESlST NOT EVlL
completely die in couise of time. Evil enviionment and heiedity
may have so maiked and scaiied some men that kindness and love
could nevei ieach theii souls. lt might take geneiations to stamp
out hatied oi destioy the ill eects of life, but oidei and kindness
most suiely would iesult, because natuie demands oidei and tol-
eiance, and without it man must die. No doubt heie and theie
these so-called evil ones would aiouse evil and hatied in ietuin,
and some sudden act of violence would foi a time occasionally be
met with violence thiough mob law in ietuin. But unceitain and
iepiehensible as mob law has evei been it is still much moie excus-
able and moie ceitain than the oiganized foice of society opeiating
thiough the ciiminal couits. Mob law has the excuse of passion,
of piovocation, not the ciiminal natuie of delibeiation, coldness
and seuled hate. Mob law, too, geneially ieaches the object of
its wiath, while evidence is fiesh and facts aie easily undeistood
and unhampeied by those iules and technical foims which ensnaie
the weak and piotect the stiong. And unjust and unwise as the
veidicts of mob law ofen aie, they aie still moie excusable, quickei,
moie ceitain and less eiiing than the judgments of the ciiminal
couits.
But neithei civil law noi mob law is at all necessaiy foi the
piotection of individuals. Men aie not piotected because of theii
stiength oi theii ability to ght. ln the piesent geneial distiibution
of weapons, in one sense, eveiy mans life is dependent on each
peison that he meets. lf the instinct was to kill, society as oiganized
piesents no obstacle to that instinct. When casual violence iesults
it is not the weakest oi most defenceless who aie the victims of the
casual violence of individuals. Even the boy at school scoins to wai
upon a weakei mate. The old, the young, the feeble, childien and
women, aie especially exempt fiom violent deeds. This is because
theii condition does not call foi feelings of violence, but iathei
awakens feelings of compassion, and calls foi aid and help. The non-
iesistant evei appeals to the couiageous and the manly. Without
weapons of any kind, with the known deteimination to give no
violence in ietuin, it would be veiy iaie that men would not be
safe fiom disoiganized violence. lt is only the state that evei lays
its hands in angei on the non-iesistant.
THE RlGHT TREATMENT Ol VlOLENCE c1
Neithei would non-iesistance in the state oi individual indicate
cowaidice oi weakness oi lack of vital foice. The ability and in-
clination to use physical stiength is no indication of biaveiy oi
tenacity to life. The gieatest cowaids aie ofen the gieatest bullies.
Nothing is cheapei and moie common than physical biaveiy. ln
the lowei animals it is moie pionounced than in man. The bulldog
and the ghting cock aie quite as conspicuous examples of physical
biaveiy as the piize-ghtei oi the soldiei. The histoiy of all waifaie
shows eithei that physical biaveiy is not an indication of gieat ex-
cellence oi that supieme excellence is veiy common, in fact almost
a univeisal possession. Undei the intoxication of patiiotism, oi the
desiie foi gloiy, oi the feai of contempt, most men will maich with
appaient willingness into the face of the gieatest dangei. Ofen it
iequiies vastly moie couiage to stay at home than to enlistmoie
couiage to ietieat than to ght. Common expeiience shows how
much iaiei is moial couiage than physical biaveiy. A thousand
men will maich to the mouth of the cannon wheie one man will daie
espouse an unpopulai cause. An aimy well-equipped and ieady foi
action has less teiioi foi the oidinaiy man than the unfavoiable
comment of the daily piess. Tiue couiage and manhood come fiom
the consciousness of the iight auitude towaid the woild, the faith
in ones own puipose, and the suciency of ones own appioval as
a justication foi ones own acts. This auitude is not that of the
cowaid, foi cowaidice is ieally disappioval of self, a consciousness
of ones own liuleness and unwoithiness in the light of ones own
soul, which cannot be deceived.
lntelligent men aie willing to accept many tiuths that they be-
lieve aie not ued foi the univeisal acceptance of mankind, and
howevei they may feel that punishment is wiong they still uige that
it will not do to teach this doctiine to the gieat mass of men and to
caiiy its piactice into daily life. But soonei oi latei all conduct and
all life must iest on tiuth. lt is only fact that can foim a basis foi
peimanent theoiies that tend to the pieseivation of the iace. No
one is too pooi, oi too young, oi too vicious to know the tiuth, foi
the tiuth alone is consistent with all the facts of life, and this alone
can fuinish any iule of life. The tiuth alone can make fiee. When
cz RESlST NOT EVlL
society is taught the tiuth that it is wiong to punish, to use foice,
to pass judgment on man, it will have no need foi jails. The man
who ieally knows and undeistands this tiuth can have no malice in
his heait, can use no foice and violence against his fellow, but will
ieach him with love and pity. The man oi society that undeistands
this tiuth will knowthat so-called ciime is only so-called ciime, that
human conduct is what the necessities of life make of the individual
soul. Then in ieality, as now only paitially, men will tuin theii
auention to the causes that make ciime. Then will they seek to
pievent and cuie, not to punish and destioy. Then man will leain
to know that the cause of ciime is the unjust condition of human
life, that penal laws aie made to piotect eaiths possessions in the
hands of the vicious and the stiong. Man will leain that poveity and
want aie due to the false conditions, the injustice which looks to
human law and violence and foice foi its safeguaid and piotection.
Man will leain that ciime is but the haid piofession that is lef
open to a laige class of men by theii avaiicious fellows. When new
oppoitunities foi life aie given, a faiiei condition of existence will
giadually be opened up and the need foi violence and the cause of
violence will disappeai.
lnstead of avenging a muidei by taking a judge, sheii, juiois,
witnesses, jailei, hangman, and the vaiious appendages of the couit,
by taking these and staining theii hands with blood and ciime,
the woild will make the oiiginal muidei impossible, and thus save
the ciimes of all. Neithei will the vicious contiol without the aid
of law. Society evei has and must evei have a veiy laige majoiity
who natuially fall into oidei, social adjustment, and a iational, pei-
missible means of life. The disoiganized vicious would be fai less
poweiful than the oiganized vicious, and would soon disappeai.
Punishment to teiioiize men fiom violating human oidei is like
the thieat of hell to teiioiize souls into obedience to the law of God.
Both maik piimitive society, both aie degiading and debasing, and
can only appeal to the lowei instincts of the lowei class of men.
Most ieligious teacheis have ceased to win followeis by thieats of
hell. Conveits of this soit aie not geneially desiied. The ieligion
that does not appioach and appeal to men along theii highei con-
duct is not consideied woithy to teach to man. And those souls who
THE RlGHT TREATMENT Ol VlOLENCE c!
cannot be moved thiough the sentiments of justice and humanity,
iathei than thieats of eteinal ie, aie veiy, veiy iaie, and even
should such a soul exist the feai of hell would cause it still fuithei
to shiivel and decay.
Hatied, biueiness, violence and foice can biing only bad iesults
they leave an evil stain on eveiyone they touch. No human soul
can be iightly ieached except thiough chaiity, humanity and love.
AlTERWORD CLARENCE DARROW ON
lREEDOM, JUSTlCE, AND WAR
by Je Riggenbach
Claience Daiiow is best known today as the Chicago lawyei
who defended John T. Scopes in the Scopes Monkey Tiial in 1vz. A
chaiactei based loosely on him is played by Spencei Tiacy in the
1veu movie veision of the classic play about the Scopes tiial, Inherit
the Wind.
Daiiow was long known peihaps equally well as the Chicago
lawyei who got life impiisonment instead of the death penalty foi
two 1v-yeai-olds, Richaid Loeb and Nathan Leopold, in theii sen-
sational 1vz| tiial foi the kidnapping and muidei of a 1|-yeai-old
boy, which they had undeitaken to piove that they could commit the
peifect ciime. Oison Welles played the chaiactei loosely based on
Daiiow in Compulsion, the 1vv movie about the LoebLeopold case.
Daiiows ieal-life closing aigument in that case was something
of a populai bestsellei, in vaiious editions, duiing the late 1vzus and
eaily 1v!us. lt was ieissued at the time of Daiiows death ! yeais
ago this month, on Maich 1!, 1v!c. lt was the soit of thing you
could pick up at the same newsstand wheie youd picked up the
papeis coveiing Daiiows peifoimances in the Scopes tiial and in
the LoebLeopold tiial, the same papeis that weie now tiumpeting
the famous lawyeis death in |c-point type. lt was the kind of thing
that was available as a cheap papeiback in the yeais just befoie
theie weie any papeibacks in the sense we mean by that teim to-
day, and long befoie the teim itselfpapeibackhad come into
widespiead use.
When l was giowing up in the 1vus, my fathei had a disinte-
giating copy of Daiiows closing aigument in the LoebLeopold
tiial siuing in oui family bookcase. l tiied ieading it, as l tiied
ieading most of my paients books duiing those yeais, but it was
one of the few l simply couldnt get inteiested in. No mauei how
many times l staited it, l always abandoned it afei no moie than
c
ce RESlST NOT EVlL
a few pages. lt seemed to be all pued upa biief against capital
punishment that, to the me of the 1vus, seemed self-evidently tiue,
expanded to the length of a small book by means of the addition
of a lot of supeiuous ihetoiic, oiatoiical ouiishes, all that soit of
thing. l put Daiiows closing aigument in the LoebLeopold tiial
aside the nal time when l was in high school in the eaily 1veus,
and l ieally made no fuithei eoit to get to know Claience Daiiow
oi undeistand his signicance foi quite a few yeais afei that.
Then, neaily thiee decades latei, l ieceived an unsolicited ie-
view copy of anothei small book published undei Daiiows byline
a tiade-papeiback iepiint of his 1vuz book Resist Not Evil, with a new
intioduction by Caiol Mooie. The book was published by Loompan-
ics, an impoitant libeitaiian book publishei thioughout the 1vcus
and vus. And this book tuined out to be an inteiesting iead. ln
fact, it pioved inteiesting even befoie l began ieading it, because
meiely having it in my hands motivated me to catch up on what
liule l knew about Daiiows life and caieei.
He was boin in iuial noitheastein Ohio on Apiil 1c, 1c. He
was thiee yeais old when Abiaham Lincoln was elected piesident
and he was still thiee a couple of months latei when loit Sumtei
was ied upon. He was 1v when the Republican Paity ended aimed
occupation of the Southein states as pait of the deal that enabled
them to steal the 1ce election fiom Samuel Tilden.
Daiiowwas admiued to the Ohio bai in 1cc, at the age of z1. At
ist he piacticed coipoiate law. His employeis weie goveinments
and iailioads. But Daiiow was that peskiest of all things, a ieadei
somebody who iead moie oi less compulsively and thought about
what he iead. He decided afei a while that, foi moial ieasons, he
didnt want to iepiesent goveinments oi iailioads anymoie. loi a
time he iepiesented unions, but afei a while he decided he didnt
want to iepiesent them anymoie eithei. He began taking ciiminal
cases, because he had become convinced that what we aie used
to desciibing as the ciiminal-justice system was a gigantic fiaud
that iuined ieal peoples lives because they had no iepiesentation
capable of defending them piopeily against it.
But let Daiiow tell you himself why he took up the piactice
of ciiminal law. All of the following quotations aie taken fiom
AlTERWORD c
his 1vuz book, Resist Not Evil, published when he was | yeais old.
Daiiow pointed out that the deciees of couits, whethei iightful
oi wiongful, must be obeyed, and the penalty of disobedience is
the foicible taking of piopeity, the kidnapping and impiisoning of
men, and if need be, the taking of human life. Yet these couits
whose deciees and iulings weie expected to command such iespect
weie liule beuei at the end of the 1vth centuiy in Ameiica, Daiiow
contended, than the couits of the Middle Ages in Euiopeat least
if the standaid by which you weie judging them was the accuiacy
with which they identied the guilty paity in each case.
Daiiow conceded that theie had been at least the appeaiance of
impiovement ovei the pievious thousand yeais oi so in this iegaid.
But at no time, he wiote, had the means by which goveinment
couits asceitained culpability
been as accuiate and scientic as is geneially piesumed.
Sometimes it has been by toituiing until the victimis made to
confess, sometimes by wagei of baule, sometimes by tying
the feet and hands and thiowing them into a pond, when
if they sank they weie innocent, if they swam they weie
guilty and piomptly put to death. The modein method of
aiiaying a defendant in couit, piosecuted by able lawyeis
with ample iesouices, tiied by judges who almost invaiiably
believe in the piisoneis guilt, defended as is usually the
case by incompetent lawyeis, and without means, is scaicely
moie liable to lead to coiiect iesults than the ancient foims.
The fact is, Daiiow thundeied, that
the state fuinishes no machineiy foi aiiiving at justice. lt]
has no way of aiiiving at the facts. lf the state pietends to ad-
ministei justice this should be its highest concein. lt should
not be inteiested in convicting men oi punishing ciime, but
administeiing justice between men. lt is obvious to the most
casual obseivei that the state fuinishes no machineiy to ac-
complish this iesult.
ln fact, as Daiiow saw it, goveinment couits exhibit no compie-
hension whatevei of what justice actually is, what it consists in. ln
Daiiows woids,
cc RESlST NOT EVlL
Some human being has shed his neighbois blood, the state
must take his life. ln no othei way can the ciime be wiped
away. ln some inconceivable mannei it is believed that when
this punishment follows, justice has been done. But by no
method of ieasoning can it be shown that the injustice of
killing one man is ietiieved by the execution of anothei, oi
that the foicible taking of piopeity is made iight by conning
some human being in a pen.
The pioblem, Daiiow aigued, was that
in no theoiy of the law is compensation, oi iecompense, oi
making good, any pait of punishment. lf taking the life of
the piisonei could biing to life the victim whom he killed
theie might be some appaient excuse foi the punishment
of death. lf impiisoning in the penitentiaiy in any way ie-
tiieved a wiong oi made up a loss, a piison might be tol-
eiated, and some ielation might be shown between punish-
ment and ciime. Even in cases wheie a ne is administeied,
in place of impiisonment, the ne does not go in any way to
ietiieve any loss, but goes to the state as puie punishment
and nothing else.
Now, contiast, if you would, the passages lve just quoted with
anothei passage by anothei authoi, taken fiom a much moie iecent
book on human social ielations. Accoiding to this moie iecent
authoi,
the emphasis in punishment must be not on paying ones
debt to society, whatevei that may mean, but in paying
ones debt to the victim. Ceitainly, the initial pait of that
debt is iestitution. This woiks cleaily in cases of thef. lf
A has stolen s1,uuu fiom B, then the ist, oi initial, pait of
As punishment must be to iestoie that s1,uuu to the hands
of B (plus damages, judicial and police costs, and inteiest
foiegone). Suppose that, as in most cases, the thief has al-
ieady spent the money. ln that case, the ist step of piopei
libeitaiian punishment is to foice the thief to woik, and to
allocate the ensuing income to the victim until the victim
has been iepaid. The ideal situation, then, puts the ciiminal
AlTERWORD cv
fiankly into a state of enslavement to his victim, the ciimi-
nal continuing in that condition of just slaveiy until he has
iediessed the giievance of the man he has wionged.
We must note that the emphasis of iestitution-punishment
is diametiically opposite to the cuiient piactice of punish-
ment. What happens nowadays is the following absuidity
A steals s1,uuu fiom B. The goveinment tiacks down, tiies,
and convicts A, all at the expense of B, as one of the numei-
ous taxpayeis victimized in this piocess. Then, the govein-
ment, instead of foicing A to iepay B oi to woik at foiced
laboi until that debt is paid, foices B, the victim, to pay taxes
to suppoit the ciiminal in piison foi ten oi twenty yeais
time. Wheie in the woild is the justice heie` The victim not
only loses his money, but pays moie money besides foi the
dubious thiill of catching, convicting, and then suppoiting
the ciiminal, and the ciiminal is still enslaved, but not to the
good puipose of iecompensing his victim.
This moie iecent passage is taken, as some of my ieadeis may
know, fiom The Ethics of Liberty by Muiiay N. Rothbaid, and it
seives, l think, to illustiate the extent to which the Claience Daiiow
of 1vuz was on pieuy much the same wavelength as the Muiiay
Rothbaid of cu yeais latei. This is evident also in the geneial obsei-
vations on goveinment with which Daiiow begins his liule book.
Eveiywheie it seems to have been taken foi gianted, he wiites,
that foice and violence aie necessaiy to mans welfaie upon
the eaith. Endless volumes have been wiiuen, and countless
lives been saciiced in an eoit to piove that one foim of
goveinment is beuei than anothei, but few seem seiiously
to have consideied the pioposition that all goveinment iests
on violence and foice, is sustained by soldieis, policemen and
couits, and is contiaiy to the ideal peace and oidei which
make foi the happiness and piogiess of the human iace. Now
and then it is even admiued that in the fai distant ages yet
to come men may so fai develop towaid the angelic that po-
litical goveinments will have no need to be. This admission,
like the common concept, piesumes that goveinments aie
good, that theii duties undeitaken and peifoimed consist in
vu RESlST NOT EVlL
iepiessing the evil and the lawless, and piotecting and caiing
foi the helpless and the weak.
lf the histoiy of the state pioved that goveining bod-
ies weie evei foimed foi this puipose oi lled this function,
theie might be some basis foi the assumption that govein-
ment is necessaiy to pieseive oidei and to defend the weak.
But the oiigin and evolution of the political state show quite
anothei thingit shows that the state was boin in aggies-
sion, and that in all the vaiious stages thiough which it has
passed its essential chaiacteiistics have been pieseived.
Oi considei Daiiows comments on wai. The histoiy of the
woild is liule else, he wiote,
than the stoiy of the cainage and destiuction wiought on
bauleelds, cainage and destiuction spiinging not fiom any
dieience between the common people of the eaith, but due
alone to the desiies and passions of the iuleis of the eaith.
This iuling class, evei eagei to extend its powei and stiength,
evei looking foi new people to govein and new lands to tax,
has always been ieady to tuin its face against othei poweis
to satisfy the iuleis will, and without pity oi iegiet, these
iuleis have depopulated theii kingdoms, and caiiied iuin
and destiuction to eveiy poition of the eaith foi gold and
powei.
They have done so with the assistance of otheis, of couisein
paiticulai, soldieis. lt is theiefoie appiopiiate to note, accoiding to
Daiiow, that
the lowest standaid of ethics of which a iight-thinking man
can possibly conceive is taught to the common soldiei whose
tiade is to shoot his fellow man. ln youth he may have
leained the command, Thou shalt not kill, but the iulei
takes the boy just as he enteis manhood and teaches himthat
his highest duty is to shoot a bullet thiough his neighbois
heait, and this unmoved by passion oi feeling oi hatied,
and without the least iegaid to iight oi wiong, but simply
because his iulei gives the woid. lt is not the piivilege of
the common soldiei to ask questions, to considei iight and
wiong, to think of the miseiy and sueiing his act entails
AlTERWORD v1
upon otheis innocent of ciime. He may be told to point his
gun at his neighboi and his fiiend, even at his biothei oi
fathei, if so he must obey commands.
Theiis not to ieason why,
Theiis but to do and die,
iepiesents the code of ethics that goveins a soldieis life.
Soldieis, Daiiow declaied, aie
men who saciice theii iight of piivate judgment in the holi-
est mauei that can weigh upon the conscience and the intel-
lect, the taking of human life, men who place theii lives,
theii consciences, theii destinies, without question oi hesi-
tation, into anotheis keeping, men whose tiade is slaughtei
and whose cunning consists in theii ability to kill theii fel-
lows.
Noi is theie any shoitage of such men, foi, as Daiiow put it,
iuleis have evei taught and encouiaged the spiiit of patii-
otism. . . . Eveiy people in the woild is taught that theii
countiy and theii goveinment is the best on eaith, and that
they should be evei ieady to deseit theii homes, abandon
theii hopes, aspiiations, and ambitions when theii iulei calls,
and this iegaidless of the iight oi wiong foi which they ght.
The teaching of patiiotism and wai peimeates all society.
lndeed, the pulpit, the piess, and the school unite in teaching pa-
tiiotism and in pioclaiming the gloiy and benecence of wai. lt is
haidly any suipiise, then, that, as Daiiow puts it,
endless wais have been waged to inciease oi piotect the teiii-
toiy goveined by . . . vaiious iuleis. ln these bloody conicts
the pooi seifs have dumbly and patiently met death in a thou-
sand sickening ways to uphold the authoiity and piowess of
the iulei whose sole function has evei been to pillage and
iob the pooi victims that fate has placed within his powei.
To these biutal, senseless, ghting millions the boundaiies
of the state oi the coloi of the ag that they weie taught to
love could not in the least aect theii lives. Whoevei theii
iuleis, theii mission has evei been to toil and ght and die
foi the honoi of the state and the gloiy of the chief.
vz RESlST NOT EVlL
l wont leave you with the impiession that Claience Daiiowwas
an eaily, unsung Rothbaidian, because he wasnt. Daiiow was a
pacist of the puiest kind. His title is taken fiom the King James
Veision of Mauhew, chaptei , veises !c and !v, which quotes Je-
sus of Nazaieth as having declaied,
Ye have heaid that it hath been said, An eye foi an eye, and a
tooth foi a tooth But l say unto you, That ye iesist not evil
but whosoevei shall smite thee on thy iight cheek, tuin to
him the othei also.
ln the veiy ist paiagiaph of Resist Not Evil, Daiiow acknowl-
edges that the following pages . . . weie inspiied by the wiitings of
Tolstoy, and, as Rothbaid noted cu yeais latei in The Ethics of Lib-
erty, the Tolstoyan anaichist believes that no violence should evei
be used by anyone against anyone else even by a victim against a
ciiminal. Rothbaid held
that any such total objectoi to violence must then be consis-
tent and advocate that no ciiminal evei be punished by the
use of violent means. And this implies, let us note, not only
abstaining fiom capital punishment but fiom all punishment
whatsoevei, and, indeed, fiom all methods of violent defense
that might conceivably injuie an aggiessoi.
Claience Daiiow, foi one, was unafiaid of such consistency.
Let any ieasoning being, he wiote in Resist Not Evil,
considei the tens of thousands who have been buined, and
hanged, and boiled, and otheiwise put to death foi witchciaf,
the millions foi heiesy, the thousands of noble victims who
have sueied foi tieason, the victims of ie, of toituie, of
scaold, of iack and of dungeon, foi all the conceivable
ciimes since time began. Let him considei the oceans of
blood and iiveis of teais shed by the foice and biutality of
the iuleis of the woild, the ciuelty, toituie and sueiing
heaped upon the helpless, the weak, the unfoitunate, and
then ask himself if he believes that punishment is good. Even
could violence evei pievent ciime, the biutality, sueiing,
blood and ciime of the iuleis has toweied mountain high
AlTERWORD v!
above that of the weak and obscuie victims whose wiongs
they have pietended to avenge. And this ciuelty does not
abate. lt is simple madness that doubts the justice of past
condemnations and believes in the iighteous judgments of
today. No condemnation is just, and no judgment is iigh-
teous. All violence and foice aie ciuel, unjust and baibaious,
and cannot be sustained by the judgment of men.
lNDEX
Ameiica, militaiy,
Aimy, see Militaiy
Biaveiy, c1
Buieauciacy, in civil goveinment, 1
Caule, eects of piospeiity on, e
Chaiity, and judgment, c
Childien, love and development, c
Chiistianity, the militaiy and,
Civil goveinment, 11v
Civil law, safety and mob law, cu
Ciime
causes of, !!!v, |1
ciime iate and natuial events, ee
piopei tieatment of, |1|!
piopeity ciimes, e1
theoiy of ciime and punishment,
z1z|
Ciiminal code, see Penal code
Ciiminals
as complete human beings, ev
cieation of by system of justice, 1
eneigies of, ee
judgment of, |v1
physical and mental condition of, !
seasonal vaiiations in jail
populations, !c
Daiiow, Claience, life and woik, cv!
Death penalty
eect of, ze!1, !!
theoiy of ciime and punishment, z1
Demociacy
civil law, 1e
natuie of, !
social oiganization, 1e
Disease, theoiy of, !
Economics
peace and wai, c
suppoit foi the militaiy, e
Equality
undei demociacy, 1
wealth distiibution and piopeity
ciimes, ez
Euiope
militaiy camps,
peace and wai, c
Evil, theoiy of intiinsic evil, v
Extoition, e
lines, eects of,
loice, see Violence
Goveinment, see Civil goveinment,
Demociacy, Militaiy,
Monaichy, State
Hangings, public hangings, z!1
Hell, thieat of, cz
Histoiy
of civil goveinment, 1
of natuial law, e|
of punishment, |
of the state, !
lnequality
undei demociacy, 1
wealth distiibution and piopeity
ciimes, ez
lntiinsic evil, theoiy of, v
Judgment
administiation of justice, ||c,
1
and chaiity, c
of ciiminals, |v1
and moiality, 1u
v
ve RESlST NOT EVlL
Justice
administiation of justice, ||c,
1
LoebLeopold tiial, c
punishment and the function of the
state, e
Laiceny, !!
Law
administiation of justice, ||c
civil law in demociacy, 1e
mob law, cu
and social oidei, 1c
vaiiations of ovei time oi between
dieient societies, zz
Libeity, undei demociacy, 1e
LoebLeopold tiial, c
Love, in administiation of tieatment,
c
Loyalty, souice of, 1!
Militaiy, 1u
economic suppoit of, e
eects of wai, e
patiiotism, moiality and soldieis
individuality, v
peace and wai, v
puipose of, 111!
ieplacement by civil goveinment, 1
the state and,
Mob law, cu
Monaichy, ielationships between
monaichies, 11
Moiality
of soldieis as individuals, v
of violence, |
Muidei, death penalty, zc
Natuial events, ciime iate, ee
Natuial law
and ciiminal code, e1e|
histoiy of, e|
Navy, see Militaiy
Neutiality, and wai piepaiations, c
Non-iesistance
cowaidice and biaveiy, c1
and the state, 1
Oidei, see Secuiity
Ovei-population, and wai,
Patiiotism, and wai, v
Peace, and wai,
Penal code
punishment, v
iules goveining, eev
Population, and wai,
Piopeity ciimes, e1
Piotection, see Secuiity
Public good, basis of, 1
Public hangings, z!1
Punishment
administiation of justice, ||c
measuiing just how much, !c
iemedial eects of, z!z
theoiy of ciime and punishment,
z1z|
usefulness of, |z, z|
who is most deseiving of, v
Revenge, see Vengeance
Rothbaid, Muiiay N., similaiity with
Daiiow, cvvz
Safety, see Secuiity
Secuiity
civil and mob law, cu
and legal initiatives, 1c
thiough punishment, ze
Smuggling, !!
Society
demociacy and iegulation of, 1e
iole of,
vaiiations in laws and punishments
ovei time oi between dieient
societies, zz
Soldieis, moiality as individuals, v
Soul
and body, !e
indignity of punishment,
lNDEX v
State, 1|, see also Demociacy,
Militaiy
civil goveinment, 11v
histoiy of, !
non-iesistance, 1
ielationships between monaichies,
11
violence and, z
Swindling, ec
Tiuth and fieedom, c1
Vengeance
in acts of punishment, z!
alteinatives to, cz
Violence
in couits and civil goveinment, 1
eects of, 1!
moiality of, |
natuial eects of, c!
and the state, z
Wai, see also Militaiy
eects of, e
piepaiations foi and neutiality, c
Wealth distiibution, piopeity ciimes,
ez