the pelicans only twenty-seven individual fish of species sold as food were found, and even these were of the cheaper and less desirable kinds. The unjust slaughter has largely ceased, but since bad reports gain volume faster than good, there still exists in the minds of many thousands of people the conviction that the pelicans are responsible for the scarcity of fish.

The herons are eaters of fish and other inhabitants of the waters, and occasionally individual birds do much damage about hatcheries, where artificial conditions have resulted in vast numbers of small fish being readily accessible. So it frequently happens that herons, as well as kingfishers and certain fish-eating ducks and grebes, must be destroyed. This has resulted in one instance in authority being granted for the killing, at any time anywhere in a great State, of the members of about ten species of birds specifically protected by an international treaty. These birds need not be doing any damage to be killed. What may not be the possible effect on the minds of people who see this destruction of beautiful birds whose protection was deemed so desirable that an international treaty was entered into for their benefit?

To cite a less specific example, we may point out the terrific destruction of our fur-bearing animals, which have been so mercilessly slaughtered to supply a commercially-guided demand that a number of them are on the verge of extinction. Were steps taken to encourage the protection of these animals, and if only the surplus were taken each year, there could be no reasonable objection to the harvesting of this natural crop. But beyond certain seasonal restrictions, which are but poorly enforced, no curb is put on the cupidity of the trapper or dealer. The inadequacy of such protection may be illustrated by a suppositious case. If there be a hundred individuals of a species in a given area, and ninety of them are taken, it can make little difference whether the period of slaughter is three or six months. The progressive rapid decrease of all of our fur-bearers is admitted by those most concerned, but is it attributed to over-exploitation? No; and it would be amusing, were it not so serious, to listen to the supposed reasons for this decrease. It is laid to disease, drainage, floods, destruction of forests, natural enemies, inadequate legislation, and what-not, but there is not a word about the

influence of the dollar. As a matter of fact our game birds and animals are yearly decreasing with probably no exception. The cause is over-killing in the name of sport. And what is "sport"?

But we have apparently wandered far from the Bald Eagle, the bird that nearly a century and a half ago our forefathers selected as the emblem of a country that had just declared its independence. There are those who point out that all the attributes of the eagle are not noble, that he sometimes robs his neighbor or descends to carrion. But we must not expect a bird to possess all the ideal human virtues. In nature each species is in competition with others. The eagle, it is true, at times, robs the fishhawk. But this makes the hawk swifter, so that he can sometimes escape the eagle, and if he loses his catch, he can the more easily get another fish by virtue of the training.

And let us not forget that nations, like birds, need other qualities besides meekness. While admitting the eagle's faults, we still believe in him as an emblem. Who is not thrilled by the sight of an eagle soaring high in the blue heavens? We believe that the fathers made a wise selection when they picked this majestic bird to serve on our banners and shields. Of all our States there are only a few that do not protect him throughout the year. And even those whose fault after all is only one of omission do not pay a reward for his destruction.

Let us hope that the Legislature of Alaska will be moved to repeal this law that puts a price, even a small one, on the head of our National Bird. If a few thousand eagles have in the past been standing in the way of Alaska's development, may we not hope that, now they are dead, the waning industries may revive? Let us be a little more careful that fewer salmon are thrown out on the tide for lack of preserving facilities. If, perchance, we find an eagle casting sheep's eyes at a lamb, or looking with longing at a baby fox, let us drive him away, or if necessary, kill him redhanded. But let us not, for fifty cents, slaughter and throw away such a creature as this bird of the upper clouds, a bird the sight of which is an event to ninety-nine per cent. of the people of the land he represents. Let us allow him an occasional fish, or a duck or a fowl, not only in Alaska, but all over our land. Let us hold his image in reverence not only on our coins but in our hearts.

CRIME-A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

BY CORNELIUS F. COLLINS

Judge of Court of General Sessions, New York

DURING the last few years, great public alarm has been experienced in this country with regard to crime. Although there have been lacking substantial statistical data to prove it, there has been a widespread feeling that there has been a grave increase in lawlessness. Statements that "America is the most lawless nation in the world" and that "Crime in this country is overwhelming the people and submerging our very national institutions", are some of the typical exaggerations which have appeared in the public prints. Governmental cognizance has been taken of the situation. The National Crime Commission was created, and commissions in the various States were appointed by the Governors and the Legislatures. Among these bodies the National Commission and the Commission of the State of New York, known as the Baumes Commission, were outstanding.

According to a report of the National Commission, the working objectives of these commissions were "to go over the weak spots in the judicial armor of the different States and obtain legislative enactment of statutes which would remain after the crime excitement itself had subsided". Unfortunately there has followed on the heels of the crime wave agitation "an orgy of drastic penal legislation". In reviewing the work of the various crime commissions, the American Prison Association points out that "an index to widespread public concern is the statement prepared from legislative records in forty-two States, showing that there were 2,261 amendments to the penal codes introduced, 587 of which passed and less than twenty were vetoed by the Governors. It can be said with certainty that much of this legislation is punitive." Such action, the review continues, "is frequently referred to as an effort to put 'teeth into the law' and represents only one side of preventive effort, and too often neglects a con

sideration and study of the more deep-rooted reasons for the existence of crime."

Out of the so-called "crime wave" of the near past has come the attempt from some quarters to place the responsibility for that disturbing condition upon the newer, more humane scientific methods of dealing with offenders. Unfortunately for this reasoning, however, the alleged crime wave was no respecter of locality. States having the most restricted and repressive laws were visited; States having the determinate sentence, and States having the indeterminate sentence, with liberal provisions for parole, were also visited. States having probation laws with efficient administration and States having probation laws with inefficient administration, or lack of any attempt at administration, were likewise visited. Crime and disorder were rampant throughout Italy, France and England, and yet these countries have never been accused of coddling criminals. There was an increase in crime in Canada, and yet probation is practically unknown in that Dominion.

During the last two or three years, crime news has been given prominent attention in the public prints. A striking robbery or murder played up in the public press is taken by the average man to be certain proof of an enormous increase in crimes of violence throughout the nation. In some instances the presentation of crime news seems to have been guided by a pandering to the sensational rather than by devotion to an ascertainment of the facts. Newspapers also have displayed a tendency to blame the modern methods of criminal treatment for the alleged increase in crime. They have written freely of the "coddling of offenders", quartering of prisoners in "palace prisons", general "jail deliveries through the operation of parole laws, and the "soft treatment" afforded criminals on probation. As Dean Pound and others have insisted, we have as yet no adequate criminal statistics in this country. Hence we do not actually know whether crime is on the increase. However, notwithstanding this fundamental situation, wide publicity has been given to the thought that there is a crime wave and that stringent legal measures are necessary for its repression.

A fair example of this view is to be found in the recent message

of a Governor to the Legislature of his State, in which he said: "Misdirected sympathy and the highly developed expertness of penologists, reformers, and the parole advocates, who have lost sight of the rights and protection of the public and concentrated on the rights and reformation of the criminal, have aided to increase crime.”

Approving this statement, a widely-read newspaper adds: "What the Governor says on the subject in general is what many other persons are thinking. Not all the blame is to be placed upon the coddling of prisoners or the easy terms of obtaining parole. Much of it rests upon judges and prosecuting attorneys, but most of it can be placed squarely at the door of an outworn system of criminal jurisprudence and another thing which is needed and what at last seems to be on the way-is a quickening of the public sense that the present struggle against crime is war-war against a resourceful and implacable enemy who must either suppress or be suppressed."

What has been generally described as a "crime wave" in this country has had more to do with the nature and manner of the crimes committed than their number. It may be said that the volume of crime, collectively speaking, was not such as to justify great alarm, but the nature and audacity of the crimes of robbery, with their attendant violence, involving murder in many instances, were astounding. It was the sensational character of crime that gave it its terroristic effect. Holdups in large cities like New York were of a nature previously unheard of, and their audacity was unparalleled. Robberies in large places of business in broad daylight, in the most populous sections, were powerful justifications of alarm. As Dr. Kirchwey has well said: "Robbery is the crime wave." With the automatic gun and the automobile to insure a quick getaway, and with the newspapers dramatizing every detail of every holdup, one might express wonder as to why there have not been more depredations of this

nature.

Can it be truthfully said that the criminal outbreaks of the nature which occurred throughout this country had as their proximate cause the failure of the legal machinery for the protection of society? Let us examine the facts.