Statewide-Kent County MI Archives News.....Clarence Darrow -Would Abolish Jail To Help Civilization February 2, 1916
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Marilyn Johnson McDowell texas26@gmail.com May 14, 2009, 9:38 pm

Grand Rapids Press February 2, 1916
Attorney Clarence Darrow Finds Poverty is the Cause of Most Crime.
Speaks in Grand Rapids.

"Man is the accidental product of heredity and law. Law, religion, and social
practices help him little. Imagination and brotherly feeling prompt us to work
together for the common good. The great need is to abolish bad economic
conditions and give every man a chance."
Agnostic on everything but the fact that economic conditions are bad for the
poor man and make most of our criminals Attorney Clarence A. Darrow of Chicago
Tuesday night at Powers Theater in an address on "Delinquency and Dependency"
summarized as above his social philosophy.
For an hour and a half he talked in a vein of satire interesting every minute,
while an audience representing every element of the business, professional and
social life of the city filled the theater.
Fatalism and rationalization were mingled with terse epigrams, flashes of wit
that brought frequent laughter or applause and a stigmatizing of the weaknesses
of common people which made the audience laugh when the speaker had a man in the
audience hard.
Lawyers, doctors, ministers and legislators got their share of humorous
criticism. Rockefeller and Morgan were pictured with all their attributes
credited to them by modern cartoonists.
That most criminals are not the result of evil in the human heart but grow from
evil conditions, accident of birth and poverty was one clear contention. Mr.
Darrow placed all humanity on an equal plane, denying that some persons are good
and others inherently bad and blamed society and government for allowing bad
conditions to continue. Yet, he flatly admitted he didn't know how to cure the
big social ills.
"Evolution is not reasoned out" said he, "it just happens, nobody made it, it
made itself. A man's heredity pretty nearly fixes what he is and what he does.
The doctrine that men are free agents is false. No two persons are created
equal. There is no clear line between good and bad.
"Some believe nature should be free to stamp out the weak or let them die. But
our civilization will not permit that; our imagination, love, sympathy have
developed so far that society in future must consider harm to one is harm to
all. You can't cure crime by sending them to jail. More and bigger jails, like
hotels and churches are signs of our civilization. Those who go to jail are the
poor. Most crimes of violence are committed by boys through mere love of
excitement or because they had no chance to no better.
In Chicago when things go wrong we pass allot more laws and create more courts,
but we fail to find out the causes of the evil.
"Poverty is the real cause. We must change condition's though I don't know how
we are to do it. No rules of logic will settle these questions. But poverty must
be wiped out. There is no such thing as a property right, yet, most crimes are
crimes against property.
No great man ever  made money; great men know to much to waste their times
piling fortunes. It is a trick, not a sign of brains or wisdom. Men are not paid
because of brains, but because they can make more money.
WOULD ISOLATE A FEW.
"I don't believe in jails for any purpose. I don't believe in any kind of
punishment; the whole theory is bad. If a person is anti-social I would isolate
him, but not in a prison. The few who are such, whether pickpocket or
millionaire should be sent to a social hospital to learn better ways".
Applause greeted Mr. Darrows rejection of punishments and his ridiculing of
monopoly and monopolists.
Mr. G. Johnson paid the rent of the theatre. Mayor Ellis and several alderman
sat on the platform. Ald. George W. Welsh opened the meeting and the mayor
introduced Mr. Darrow with some radical remarks about economic conditions. He
said the naming of Louis Brandeis for the supreme court suggested how "the
judicial mind," which some say Mr. Brandeis has not, might be a termed gained
"by being to friendly with big corporation."

Additional Comments:
Transcribers Note; The quotations are inconsistent, I have transcribed it as it
was written.

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