TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 20 April 1912, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Sir Robert Anderson, after many years' experience as head of the To Stop police in London, lias pubBurglaries, lished the opinion that society does not protect itself against criminals as it ought to do. He holds that if all men who are proved to be trahied and dangerous criminals were shut up, for life society would rid ; itself of serious crimes in a few years. Youths do not take to housebreaking and burglary of themselves or by instinct. They are trained by older criminals, and if the teachers are kept in gaol there would be no pupils, and scarcely any burglaries; since the bunglers would soon be caught. But we turn out our convicted burglars after a few years of imprisonment, to train youths as assistants, to make tTie business of the detestable receivers profitable, and so maintain the war upon society in a truly vicious circle. There is much food for thought in Sir Robert's suggestion, though it has never been entirely acted upon in British communities. Under the present system the main dtity of the detective is to keep a list of the offenders who have been released from gaol. PIo knows the methods of these men, and when he is called in to investigate a case of house-breaking he mentally says. Ah, this is the and he inquires the whereabouts of "Bill." and when he finds him sends him once more back to gaol. This is certainly taking the bull by the horns; but it is hardly in accordance with the latest ideas in the reformative treatment of prisoners.

Mr G. K. Chesterton's unusual personality and capacity for Chesterton's producing startling paExuberance, radoxes keep him well in tho public eye. In fact, with G. K Shaw and G. K. Chesterton in the literary circus ring it is difficult for anv other norformcr to get any notice of his "act.".Mr Chesterton's latest production is cast in the form of •■ novel whi.-h is entitled "Manabye. The prnicinal character is a brilliant Bedlamite known as Innocent Smith, who appears in a London suburban boarding house, and presently infects " tl,„ other boarders with his own ™ysterious eccentricity. The sardonic Irish journalist, the suspicious heiress, the capable managing young woman, the materialistic doctor, and many others undergo curious changes of nature. There is some sudden love-making, and eventually a strong suspicion, fostered bv the arrival of an American criminolorrist. that Innocent Smith is a criminal lunatic. An elaborate innuiry, however, shows that he is merely exuberant. Mr Chesterton energetically preaches the doctrine that peonle in general go on doing the same things too consistently.

He proclaims a new gospel of exuberance, activity, and variety, on general grounds, apparently that the social world needs shaking up. A strange book. But this seems to be an ago of strange books. And the writer who bangs the big drum loudest gets the largest audience at his show.