Progress and Crime.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 6, 5 February 1903, Page 18

Progress and Crime.

The go-ahead citizen of modern days is apt to plume himself upon the advantages which he enjoys over his forefathers in the way of facilities for intercourse. He 8 !£* IL gly com Pares automobile or the express train with the stage coach, or even more primitive waggon. He contrasts his home with that of generations ago, where food was coarse, floors were strewn with rushes, and draughts were excluded with hangings. He can hardly imagine a world without a telegraph and telephone. An age without newspapers was the stone age m hia estimation, and life without the thousand and one itTC^. ? • modern days would hardly be worth living. vet thinking men are beginning to wonder whether the world is gaining by all this hurry and tension of excitement, and an American specialist on education has just made a report to Congress on the subject. He points out that 'during the last thirty or forty years there has been an increase, relative to population, in crime, suicide, insanity, and other forms of social evils, and asserts that one of the main causes of thds is the rapid development of society. This state of civilisation,'he points out, involving many transition periods, puts an abnormal strain upon the nervous system as compared with the muscular system. Thus the electric car, automobile, and the telephone tend to make people exercise less and think more. A reaction has set in already through the development of svsrtems of physical culture. The less cost of hvmg and the increase of wealth, with the luxuries of the table, have tended to overeating, which, in connection with the lack of exercise, has had its evil effects, and, doubtless, produced an additional reaction on the nervous system. When the nerves are unstrung by over-pressure the will may become weak, depression and pessimism set in, and loss of self-control follows with its consequent abnormal actions leading on to crime and other social evils.' These remarks may be considered in connection with those we made last week respecting the excessive use of meat as food. If a sedentary man will ride to and from his office by train or tram, when it would do him far more good to walk ; if he will go to the telephone receiver instead of walking briskly round the corner, and if nature rebels and makes him first nervous and irritable, and then ill, he must not throw the blame on the extent of his business ; he should indict himself.