This very bald statement of a stupendous fact ought to make us think.
Thousands, tens of thousands of young fellows, two inches below their proper height, fourteen pounds less than their proper weight, twenty-eight out of every hundred physically afflicted, and forty out of every hundred reconvicted again and again!!
Who cares to trouble about their psychology? Not I! But I do care and want others to care a great deal about their bodies, so I say let psychology go hang! Let us concentrate on their bodies.
And my own observation, in prison and outside prison, confirms these startling facts.
Hundreds of young fellows who have served short sentences of imprisonment find their way to my house or to my office. I rarely find a full-sized and well-developed fellow amongst them, for, mostly, they are of the class described by the Prison Commissioners.
Round shoulders, flat chests and flat feet, poor teeth, sore eyes, are ever noticeable, while not a few point me to their maimed hands or other limbs and tell me of their illnesses.
I am heartily tired of meeting with such afflicted humanity that I cannot help or assist in any useful way.
But I want no specialist or professor to read me their minds, for their bodies are their minds.
These young fellows are not particularly wicked; they have no great passion that dominates their lives. They are not anxious to do ill; they have no great aspirations for good. If they were free agents, which they are not, they would prefer good to evil. But being good does not happen to fill their stomachs, but doing evil does, either in prison or in the lodging-houses.
Now, I myself will venture into psychology, and I will voice their opinions. “We are poor, weak and afflicted, but we are not to blame; no one will give us work, for we have had no training; we cannot do hard work, we are not big or strong enough; we do not want to be dishonest, but we must live somehow. If we are caught we go to prison, where we have food and lodgings and no hard work to do; and they are good to us in prison.” This, I contend, is a fair statement of the condition and temperament of thousands that we call criminals!