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Legislation of Social Guardianship

rapid and successful that other nations, even though more rich, begin to fear being vanquished?" Nay, it is because of these very things, this wonderful development, that new penal legislation is necessary; and thus the multiplication of criminals is at once both a result of this upward growth, and a cause of its continuance, and of the nation's prosperity. As the author, just quoted, tells us, in his valuable little pamphlet upon "The Statistics of Delinquency in Europe:" "The increase of delites (i. e., new social prohibitions) in Germany, both those of the Code and those provided for by other laws, has been continuous and progressive. That these last have been more than tripled, during less than fifteen years, is due to the deliberate intention to extend imperial legislation specially concerned with the tutelage of the laboring classes; and it is but natural that infractions also should have increased, with the introduction of these laws upon the cleanliness and healthfulness of factories, upon workmen's insurance and the orderly arrangements of labor."

The growing mass of the criminal population of Germany is registered in the official records of the convicted, as follows:

2

GERMANY. THE TOTAL NUMBER OF CONVICTIONS FOR CRIME UNDER THE IMPERIAL CODE AND SPECIAL LAWS OF THE EMPIRE.

2 See Statistik des Deutschen Reichs, 1888, 1893, 1896-8.

The persistent coming of this social and industrial legislation-this legislation of social guardianship-is one of the most distinctive characteristics of the modern state. Not one of the great industrial civilizations of Europe has been able to escape from the necessity of creating such laws in ever larger amount. This is no less true of England, the home of free trade, where business interests have prospered so long and very greatly under doctrines of individualism and laissez faire that they have been exalted almost into a national creed-than it is true of Germany, where the opposite doctrine of paternal oversight and regulation, even of the minutest details of life, is accepted as a most important function of the government.

The effect of this new legislation upon the criminal population must be looked for under contraventions or misdemeanors, and especially under transgressions of special laws. The statistics of such offences are precisely those that show the greatest and most persistent increase for all the great nations of Europe. This new industrial and social legislation is, of course, but one of many causes influencing the rapid growth of criminality in modern times, but it is probably the very strongest and most important of the forces in operation, although in Austria, France and Italy political legislation also has been influential.

Thus Austria, since 1860, "has renovated most profoundly her constitution and political form, has lost and acquired a province, and through the midst of a struggle, ever more active, between the nationalities and races that compose her population: a struggle in which ethnic and historic causes are associated with those of an economic nature-has progressed continuously." One result is seen in the large increase of minor offences, administrative, fiscal and economic, which have been multiplied during twenty-five years (1871 1 Bosco, p. 56.

to 1895) in the ratio of four to one. "The energy with which this nation has renovated, in large part, her ordinances, and enforced obedience to new legislation, is clearly manifested in these figures of the penal statistics:"*

AUSTRIA. THE TOTAL NUMBER OF PERSONS CONdemned for CONTRAVENTIONS UNDER THE Code and for OTHER MINOR OFFENCES Provided for BY

Italy. "The principal traits of the movement of crime in Italy," writes Professor Bosco, "during the past 20 years, are these: The lessening amount of crimes of violence, especially of homicide; the increase in those of fraud and against the authority of the state; and the small variation in those against property-robbery and theft." There are, as Professor Bosco tells us, two distinct trends of delinquency in modern Italy one toward crimes of violence, and one toward fraudulent and political crimes. "These are here associated together, although they are properly distinctive of two diverse moments of historical evolution. In the other great nations of Europe delinquency presents itself therefore in another manner than in Italy, with a much greater development of the second than of the first type of crime. We are approaching the condition of the other states." The various regions of Italy differ very greatly in the degree and form of their civilization. In the northern states modern industrial

1 Bosco, pp. 57-8.

* Ibid., p. 16.

and commercial life is rapidly developing. Central Italy remains, as it has long been, essentially the home of art; while Sicily, Sardinia and Southern Italy are backward in civilization and somewhat resemble Spain, both in social conditions and in the character of their criminality. Therefore it is only natural that we should find in northern Italy crimes of fraud, and in southern Italy crimes of violencesuch being the distinctive expression, in delinquency, of two different stages of social development.

ITALY. THE TOTAL NUMBER OF PERSONS CONDEMNED FOR CONTRAVENTIONS UNDER THE CODE AND FOR MINOR CRIMES PROVIDED FOR BY

Turning from the study of these three nations, Germany, Austria and Italy, that have recently been developing so rapidly, politically, industrially, and intellectually, it is sad to contemplate the backward condition of civilization in poor old Spain, once the foremost nation of all Europe.

Philip the Second forbade the education of girls, and ever since the women of Spain have continued to be exceedingly illiterate. In the entire population of both sexes, only 28% per cent. know how to write. Religious faith is yet alive among them, but has degenerated into superstition and mere worship of externals. Their entire social life seems organized within the narrow and worn-out customs of many centuries ago. With the exception of a single province, the development of industry is very slight. Although Spain possesses some of the best iron fields in the world," she

1 Bosco, p. 60.

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Nineteenth Century Spain

"imports 30 per cent. of what is used in her foundries," paying nearly £700,000 a year for such material. The cultivated area of land is believed to have been much greater in former times than it is to-day. Ways of earning money are few, and the people are ground down by taxation. From 1832 to 1888 the average annual accumulation of wealth was probably not more than 27 shillings per inhabitant, while the taxation in 1887 equaled 35 shillings.' The nation has repudiated its debts many times, twice within the last sixty years, yet the excess of government expenditure over public revenues goes on increasing. Politics are thoroughly corrupt and organized upon the spoils system. Civil war and the insurrections of her grievously oppressed colonies have gone far to ruin Spain. Everywhere throughout the peninsula may be seen the mournful effects of the economic depression, which, through varying years, becomes ever more acute and serious."

What effect has all this suffering, want and ignorance upon the nation's criminality? Is crime very prevalent in Spain as compared with other states of Europe; and in what forms does it manifest itself?

If we may believe the official statistics, the total of Spanish criminality is not only relatively small, but it is also sensibly decreasing at the present time, especially in proportion to the population. Both delites and contraventions under the Code, after beginning to increase from 1883 to 1890, a time of great improvement in Spanish affairs, industrially and politically, have since diminished during the later years of deepening economic gloom and of national defeat and depression.