If it were established even that the criminal type is inferior mentally and physically and that they have all misshapen heads, this alone ought to be sufficient to raise the inquiry as to who was responsible for their acts. Long ago a wise man said that no one could by taking thought add a cubit to his stature, and yet we hang and pen because these unfortunates have not grown as tall, as large, or as symmetrical as the ordinary man. But the mental actions of man have been shown to be as much due to law and environment as his physical health,—certain sections of the world are indigenous to men who kill their fellows; and more than this, certain portions produce men who kill with guns, others who kill with a knife, others still who administer poison. In certain sections, the chief crime is horse stealing; in others, running illicit distilleries; again, burglary; in some places, poaching; sometimes, robbery; and again, smuggling. A study of conditions would reveal why each of those crimes is indigenous to the particular soil that gives them birth, and just as draining swamps prevents the miasma, so a rational treatment of the condition caused by the various crimes would cure them, too. If our physicians were no more intelligent than our lawyers, when called to visit a miasmic patient, instead of draining the swamp they would chloroform the patient and expect thus to frighten all others from taking the disease. Observation as to so-called crime has gone much further. The number of inmates of our jails is much larger in winter than in summer, which ought to show that there is something in the air that produces a wicked heart in the winter, or that many persons directly or indirectly go to jail because in winter, food and warmth are not easily obtained and work is hard to get. For many years it has been observed that jails are very much more crowded in hard times than in good times. If work were sufficiently plenty or remunerative both jails and almshouses would be compelled to close their doors. Long ago it was ascertained from statistics that the number of crimes rose and fell in exact accord with the price of bread. All new communities, where land is cheap or free and labor has ample employment, or, better still, a chance to employ itself, are very free from crime. England made Australia its dumping ground for criminals for years, but these same criminals when turned upon the wide plains with a chance to get their living from the soil, became peaceable, orderly citizens fully respecting one another’s rights. England, too, used certain portions of her American colonies where she sent men for her country’s good. These criminals like all the criminals of the world were the exploited, homeless class. When they reached the new country, when they had an opportunity to live, they became as good citizens as the pilgrim fathers who were likewise criminals themselves. As civilization has swept westward through the United States, jails have lagged behind.