COMPARATIVE MORALITY

New Zealand Tablet, 26 September 1912, Page 45

COMPARATIVE MORALITY

The following is a summary of a paper read before the Newman Society at St. Patrick’s College, Wellington, on September 1, by Rev. C. J. Yenning, S.M. : The taunt is sometimes hurled at Catholics that they 'are no better than their neighbors. They are likewise told that Catholic countries compare unfavorably with countries that have never known clerical control. Occasionally the objection is advanced in a less crude form, thus: ‘ Better' ethical results are obtained in non-Christian than in Christian, lands.’ Should a Catholic, or even a fair-minded nonCatholic, chance to interrupt the objector and ask for proof, he runs the risk of having volumes of statistics thrown at his head. The individual who acts in this way is usually the victim of statistical hallucinations. He is so fascinated by figures (which often have merely a mathematical value) that if he saw a fifty-horse power engine, he would at once look inside it for the fifty horses. His credulity is limitless. tie has a simple, child-like faith in a book of statistics, which are not always what they seem.’ Pie is extremely careless of the pedigree of his facts. He is really a study, and would baffle the most careful student of psychology. It never dawns on him that his logic may be half-baked or his authorities lop-sided. He has the frequent habit of stumbling on to reckless and hasty generalisations. He may not have a scientific, statistical sense, but he has at least a poetical sense. It may be said of him what Brougham said of Lord Liverpool —‘ The noble Lord is a person of that sort that if you should bray him in a mortar, you could not bray the prejudices out of him.’ One of the most common methods used by the adversary in dealing with the question of comparative morality, is to deduce from a few cases —we might say, a negligible quantity and utterly worthless as scientific data—a general and sweeping conclusion as to the morality of any people. These conclusions are usually the outcome of superficial reading, imperfect assimilation, premature generalisation, total lack of grasp of his subject, and strongly marked sectarian feeling. It is always an arduous task definitely to determine casual relations, and at no time is the task so arduous as in dealing with so vast and complex a subject as society. To get at the moral condition of a people by means of statistics alone is really impossible, for- the inquiry would lead from what is mere legal crime into the region of moral philosophy, and to distinctions between vice and crime. We should have to trace the cause and current of society’s more hidden sins and immoralities as they operate before they end in crime and come under the ken of the policeman. Racial differences would have to be examined—each its separate and peculiar vices, some deep, corrupting, and cunning; others exploding openly into breaches of the human statute. We cannot measure and weigh these things by statistics; yet they count most truly in the formation of human conduct and character’ (Dr. —Secular versus Religious Education). The Use of Statistics. Statistics are mischievously misleading—aye, a delusion and a snare’ unless most carefully handled. To the genuine seeker after truth, statistics possess a real value, but to him who merely uses them to establish an already prejudged case, they are a two-edged sword. In all that concerns comparative morality, we re • many variant elements that blunt or impair the efficiency of figures. In fact, an appalling condition ° i moral degeneracy may co-exist with a W criminal j calendar an external conventionalism and aestheticism. Conversely, a high calendar of legal crime may, in given circumstances, be perfectly compatible with remarkable moral purity and cultivated goodness. Even it statistics were complete and perfect (and they certainly are not), their use would be definitely limited to one aspect of a problem, i.e., the numerical aspect, {statistical results are essential when judgment is to be

formed on any question that involves quantities or values, but must always be brought into relation with • non-quantitative considerations (they are many) that \nay be. of greater importance in deciding on a course of action. ‘Some people,’ says Newman, ‘no more dream of considering the value of the arguments they use against Rome than they ; would think of stopping to consider the geological formation of a stone which they pick up to throw at a dog.’ ‘ f; Sin and Crime. ‘We may lay down one proposition—that all sin against God, seen or unseen of men, is an offence against ' society, lowering the moral tone and preparing for open acts against law. Legal crime and sin (or transgression of the moral law) are not convertible terms. Violations of the civil law are not always and everywhere trans- 1 gressions of the law of God nor are sins (moral offences) always regarded as offences against statute law. There is, for instance, a vast and noisome world of degrading and even diabolical vice that the statute law takes no cognisance of’ (Dr. Cleary). The world has its scale of offences as well as the Church; but referring them to a contrary object, it classifies them on quite a contrary principle : so what is heinous in the world is often regarded patiently by the Church, and what is horrible and ruinous in the judgment of the Church may fail to exclude a man from the best society of the world. When the world contemplates the training of the Church and its result, it cannot, from the nature of the case, if for no other reason, avoid thinking contemptuously of fruits, which are so different from those which it makes the standard and token of moral excellence in its own cpde of right and wrong. The world’s measure of good and scope of action are so different from those of the Church. No All-round Uniformity of Statistical Methods. In making comparisons between Catholic and nonCatholic countries, why are such factors as the following omitted from the argument 1 (a) An over-population in cities; (b) a rich or poor country in natural resources; (c) enormous taxation, etc.; (d) industrial strife; (e) effects of famine, plague, emigration, immigration, war; (f) effects of bad government and anti-Christian legislation. Moreover, there is no all-round uniformity in statistical - methods of recording crime (or legal offences). Then, too, what is a crime in one country may not be so regarded in another country, or even in the same country at a different period . The following short notes may be interesting and when well weighed will . throw considerable light on statistics. They will show how careful one must be in making comparisons: The comparative amount of vice in densely populated cities offers no true test of the general morality 1 of a whole country. A cosmopolitan city may be the centre and focus of the worthless and frivolous and even notorious for sexual immorality, but how much of this is due to the fact that it is frequented by visitors from other countries Illiteracy is not a cause of crime, neither is it a condition likely to result in an increased proportion of crime. The very contrary is the case; the illiterates furnish in any country a very small quota to the number of criminals of any description. Every census, official document, statistical work, reports of prisons and reformatories, every serious treatise on social science show this to be true. In fact, many criminals are experts in caligraphy, as the numerous instances of forgery only too plainly attest Learning may. alter the direction of crime, but not its amount. Knowing how to make dynamite without knowing what are the rights of property and the rights of life, do not make the pupil a safer member of society. Again, the statistical method of recording illiteracy varies. In Ireland, for _ years, babes were called illiterate. In Italy, illiteracy starts with the age of six, in the United States at ten. In Spain many have to speak and write the Basque and Castilian languages, otherwise statistics’ will call them illiterates. I wonder what the percentage of illiteracy would be in New Zealand if all Maoris had to know English as well as Maori, or all white folk had to know Maori as well as English!

- Why are we. not told that in Spain and, Portugal, " the provinces with largest percentage of illiterates are those where the influence of the Freemasons and the Government is greatest Why are we not told of the wholesale expulsions of religious and religious teaching Orders during the past century? Who, then, is to blamesecularism or religion * There is no connection between religious and criminal conviction. The criminal class abandon religion, therefore they cannot be called the product of religion. Membership of the Catholic Church begins at Baptismmembership in many other religious communities begins at 1 conversion ’ or some subsequent form of admission. In the former case it continues, but in the latter it ceases on defection. It is not for us to cut off the branches that have lost all life. Because a man may belong to the Church by the fact of his Baptism, the Church has its duty towards him, but this is a very different thing from saying that the Church produces criminals.. Moreover, the bulk of criminals (and any that may have been baptised Catholic) live defiant to the laws of the Church. So far as their lives go, their proper designation is not Catholic, but practically pagan. They do not acknowledge the authority of the Catholic Church, or, having once acknowledged it, they decline her guidance, reject her ministrations, and snap defiant fingers at her laws. Crimes must be weighed as well as counted. The quality of the crime is more important than the quantity. One particular county or province'may have a very low calendar of crime—until a sudden spasm of energy and increased vigilance on the part of the police will inflate the criminal statistics to such an extent as to rob it of all pride in its law-abiding proclivities. A low standard of morality is indicated more by the prevalence of crimes of deliberation requiring skill and calculation in cold blood than by those resulting chiefly from sudden impulse and violent provocation. Under the first heading we can place burglary, robbery, forgery, fraud, perjury, , embezzlement, assaults on woman and children, infanticide, foeticide, and suicide. While crimes of sudden impulse and violent provocation are murder, stabbing, etc. Statistics are misleading in the records of murders. ‘ Under the item of murder ’ (in reference to Ireland), Mulhall says, ‘ are included deaths from aggravated assault, which in some countries are put down as “deaths from fracture.” Then, again, some countries (as Italy) include infanticide. In other countries, killing an infant is not accounted murder, and even where so accounted by law, is winked at and almost wholly escapes either registration or punishment.’ If all the murders of infants (born or otherwise) were brought to record, to what alarming figures would not the statistics of homicide run up ? Statistics do not tell of the enormous crimes committed by those who pitch their tents towards Sodom and economise in children.’ Fashionable murders and the ‘slaughter of the innocents’ do not appear in statistics. Offences settled by military law, as well as offences against collection of public revenue and taxes are excluded from the tables (statistics) in Germany. Russia has some 74,000 exiles in Siberia. In France the lists do not include persons tried for misdemeanors in the police courts, but only those in Assize Courts and Correctional Tribunals; yet the number through the police court in 1905 was 449,000, of whom 43.5,000 were convicted. These do not appear in statistics for comparison. The case for New Zealand is not unfrequently trotted out. Some would try and persuade us that the present generation is wonderfully virtuous. We would certainly like to think so, if any proof could be brought forward. Detected crime may have decreased, but the prevalence of crime is certainly on the increase! There has been a great moral slip-away. That detected crime (or more properly convicted crime) should have decreased is not to be wondered at, if the following factors are taken into account; The increased policeforce and more efficient methods; the benefits of probation to first offenders; the children’s court; the marvellous growth of charitable societies and philanthropic organisations for the prevention of some causes and

occasions of crime; the improved condition of the poor; ; the establishment of refuges, homes, orphanages, and rescue societies. At the present time all the orphan•ages and industrial schools in New Zealand are full. But on the other hand, crime is really on the increase,though statistics may not prove" the fact. Consult our medical men, chemists (even grocers), our judges, magistrates, lawyers, and police, school ;■ teachers—in fact, all who are brought in touch with “ human nature.’ They will open your eyes to the lack: of reverence in our youth, the distressful ignorance of. God, the rapid increase of. race suicide, divorce, tandem-polygamy, prevalence of prenatal murder, juvenile depravity, the constant and portentous increase of sexual offences even in young children—these things do not appear in statistics.