rt of the life and consciousness of man so that the mere suggestion of
the act causes the reaction that doing it is wrong. No matter how long
some statutes are on the books, and how severe the penalties, many men
never believe that doing the forbidden act is really a crime. For
instance, the violations of many revenue laws, game laws, prohibition
laws, and many laws against various means of getting property are often
considered as not really criminal. In fact, a large and probably growing
class of men disputes the justice of creating many legal rules in
reference to private property.

Primitive peoples, as a rule, held property in common. Their inhibitions
were few and simple. They took what they needed and wanted in the
easiest way. There is a strong call in all life to hark back to
primitive feelings, customs and habits. Many new laws are especially
painful and difficult to a large class of weak men who form the bulk of
our criminal class.

To understand the constant urge to throw off the shackles of
civilization, one need but think of the number of men who use liquor or
drugs. One need only look at the professional and business man, who at
every opportunity leaves civilization and goes to the woods to kill wild
animals or to the lakes and streams to fish.

The call to live a simple life, free from the conventions, customs and
rules, to kill for the sake of killing, to get to the woods and streams
and away from brick buildings and stone walls, is strong in the
constitution of almost every man. Probably the underlying cause of the
world war was the need of man to relax from the hard and growing strain
of the civilization that is continually weaving new fetters to bind
him. There must always come a breaking point, for, after all, man is an
animal and can live only from and by the primitive things.

Children have no idea of the rights of property. It takes long and
patient teaching, even to the most intelligent, to make them feel that
there is a point at which the taking of property is wrong. Nowhere in
Nature can we see an analogy to our property rights. Plants and animals
alike get their sustenance where and how they can. It is not meant here
to discuss the question of how many of the restrictions that control the
getting of property are wise and how many are foolish; it is only meant
to give the facts as they affect life and conduct.

It is certainly true that the child learns very slowly and very
imperfectly to