"AMERICAN LAWLESSNESS": AN INQUIRY VICTOR S. YARROS
A thememuchdiscussedin a superficial way,in newspapers, of is after-dinner speeches,sermons, thelack respectforlaw which is supposedto be an Americancharacteristic.Even menin public than arraign life,who would ratherflattertheirfellow-citizens them,makesweepingstatements regarding Americanlawlessness. Men ofjudicialtraining and judiciousviewsfrequently supportthe chargein questionwithoutmaterialqualification. The themeis a seriousone, and deservesa littledeeperand closer study. Are the Americansa lawless or law-neglecting people? Are theypeculiarin any real,palpableway withregard ? If they to theirattitudetowardlaw,regulation, socialdiscipline are,howis the factto be explained? And is the explanation, or to them? are theexplanations, creditableordiscreditable We mayset out on ourlittleinquirywitha fewrepresentative utterances embodying theapparentindictment ofthenation. In a speech to the Young RepublicanClub of New York, SenatorBorahofIdaho used thesewordsa fewmonthsago: "We are even now,in our youth,the mostlawlessof any of the great civilizednations. There is no countryof firstimportance where thereis so littlerespectforlawbecauseit is law [as here]." PresidentTaft, who followedthe Senatoron the occasionin question,subscribedto the statement. "I believeit is true,"he said, "thatwe do notholdthelaw as sacredas we should,"and he addedthathe doubtedwhether"we heldanything as sacredas we should." Professor FranklinH. Giddings,thehead of thedepartment of in an addressdeliveredat a sociologyat ColumbiaUniversity, or twenty Schoolof Philanthropy, statedthatin the last fifteen inprivateandpublicconduct"had deterioration years"a profound takenplace in thiscountry. On all sides,he continued, "we see a desperateindifference" to moralsand manners. 77