ed. It is
needless to say that the sexes should occupy separate villages. This in
itself would cut off one very formidable source of new recruits for the
army of crime. Indeed, it is hardly too much to predict that, if this
plan of permanent segregation and isolation were carried out for even a
single generation, crime would sensibly diminish, our overcrowded courts
would be relieved, taxation be lessened, and the staggering shoulders of
modern civilization be to some extent unburdened from one of the
heaviest loads they are now condemned to bear. It may seem an ungenerous
thing to say, but it is to be feared that the opposition to any such
plans would be likely to come from those whose familiarity with the
vices of the present system should best fit them to labor for and most
earnestly to desire its improvement. Enlightened physicians gladly join
in any scheme which promises to prevent or lessen disease, in spite of
the fact that their living depends upon its prevalence. So, enlightened
judges, lawyers, and court officers might be expected cordially to
approve of any system of moral hygiene which gave promise of efficiency
as a prophylactic against crime. It is to be feared, however, that there
would be a numerically large contingent who, like "Demetrius the
silversmith," would feel that "this our craft is in danger," and who
openly or secretly would do their best, as they have in a hundred
instances in the past, to prevent the lopping off of a single twig from
that wide-spreading tree of evil, whose fruit brings little scruple and
no small gain to the cunning craftsmen who manage the costly and
complicated machinery of the courts.

If such a system as has been rudely outlined were made absolutely
secure, and the power of pardoning boards removed or greatly restricted,
it might be wise to abolish the death penalty altogether. Juries might
then have fewer scruples, and acquittals upon technical grounds, in
spite of plain and abundant evidence, become less frequent. Mob law
feeds largely upon the belief that even the worst criminals stand in
little danger of punishment, but that "by hook or by crook"--mostly
"crook"--especially if they or their friends can command means to hire
lawyers and invoke the dilatory machinery of the courts, they are almost
certain to escape. Whatever, therefore, tends to render the punishment
of crime more speedy and certain is a direct discouragement to these
sudden and savage outbursts of pop