The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip., June 01, 1926, Page 7, Image 7

June 1926
THE UNITED AMERICAN
Page Seven
Crime, the Cancer that is Gnawing at the Vitals of Society
By DR. ALEXANDER LYONS, Brooklyn, New York
[The following treatise on crime and society, written by Dr. present situation with regard to criminality requires com­
Lyons of the Eighth Avenue Temple in Brooklyn, which ap­
posite treatment. No single element is adequate to the prob­
peared in a recent issue of “Kiwanis,” is one of the most
lem. Furthermore, the problem cannot be solved over nigh’:.
candied discussions of the cause and the effect of our present Its origins are too far-reaching. It has required time to
crime problem ever presented in the public press. In seven­ develop and will necessitate a longer interval to be brought
teen, crisp points the writer submits ths opinion how society to a noticeable decline. With these considerations in view
may handle this matter so that the American crime record
I would submit the following suggestions for handling what
may be diminished ere we shall pile up more damaging dis- is not only a pressing problem but a damaging discredit to
credit to our national life. There is food for thought in Dr.
our American life.
Lyons’ suggestions. There are plenty of indictments against
I. Confession must precede correction. Let us acknowl­
certain common social sins that breed criminality and some
edge that we have fallen short orally in the tremendous
very severe arraignments of the common display of lax social present proportions of criminality and in our inability till now
morals which feed the criminal tendencies of our' growing
to cope successfully with it.
generation. Every man and woman who has an interest in
II. We must take ourselves and the situation seriously,
the nation’s life and what it shall be tomorrow will find
plenty of challenges in Dr. Lyon’s, snappy thoughts, and an not with spasmodic virtue, but with an insistent, consistent
and persistent moral determination. Criminality
~............ is an ex-
incentive to live more circumspect lives in order to set a
ponent of our moral inconsistency and vaccilation, carried in
better example.
— The Editor]
certain individuals to a higher and logical degree. Criminality
BELIEVE that criminality -like poverty will always be is ourselves written large.
with us. Indeed criminality is poverty, either of property
III. We must insist upon the respectability of moral
or of principle. Like poverty it cannot be handled individu­ propriety in the little even more than in the large, for if we
ally either with regard to the culprit or his victim. It is a
safeguard the lesser, the larger which grows out of it can
social disease. It expresses social unsoundness — physically,
extensively be left to take care of itself. This insistent re­
mentally or morally. I do not believe that we shall ever en­
spectability and consistency must be specially exemplified in
tirely cure and eliminate it any more than we shall com­ people of prominence in place, possession or intelligence, since
pletely do away with poverty as Jong as there are human
as Shakespeare says, “What the great ones do the less will
differences. Yet there is ground for ambition and effort, if
prattle of.”
we can rob criminality of much of its present terror as I
IV. We must place the greatest emphasis upon morality
think we can, and reduce it to such proportions as will not
in its social reference and implication. Our children must be
reflect discredit upon our civilization. Under present con­
trained, and we ourselves must consistently conform to the
ditions the magnitude of our material achievement and the
principle that wrong is never personal but social and that
vaunt of our civilization suffer eclipse and detraction in our by reason of the inclusion of its influence, to commit wrong is
helplessness at the blood-stained hand of the robber and as-
to be guilty of social treaehery. Our code of ethics must
sassin. What’s to be done?
reserve a place of special contempt and exclusive scorn for the
In the first place be it noted that the solution of our
(Continued on Page Eleven)
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