epend upon the relative strength of the motive and make of
the machine. It is for this reason that intelligent people have always
taken so much pains to fortify the machine, so that it would respond to
what they believed was right. To say that one could ever act from the
weakest motive would bring chaos and chance into a world of method and
order. Even punishment could have no possible effect to deter the
criminal after release, or to influence others by the example of the
punishment. As well might the kernel of corn refuse to grow upward to
the sunlight, and grow downward instead.

Before any progress can be made in dealing with crime the world must
fully realize that crime is only a part of conduct; that each act,
criminal or otherwise, follows a cause; that given the same conditions
the same result will follow forever and ever; that all punishment for
the purpose of causing suffering, or growing out of hatred, is cruel and
anti-social; that however much society may feel the need of confining
the criminal, it must first of all understand that the act had an
all-sufficient cause for which the individual was in no way responsible,
and must find the cause of his conduct, and, so far as possible, remove
the cause.

IV

ENVIRONMENT

The acorn will inevitably produce the oak tree and it will grow true to
its pattern. All seeds and cells will do likewise. Still if the acorn is
planted in good soil, where it is properly nourished and in a spot where
it is sufficiently sheltered, the tree will be more likely to become
large and symmetrical, than if it is planted in poor soil or in an
exposed spot.

In one sense heredity is the seed, and environment the soil. The whole
structure and pattern and inherent tendencies and potentiality are in
the seed and cannot be changed. The child has nothing to do with its
early environment during the period when impressions sink the deepest
and when habits are formed. It is then that the meaning of facts is
interpreted. At this time the child is fashioned by the teachings and
environment in which it is placed. As the child receives its first
impressions, and all along through its development, it is forming habits
from those about it. These habits come to be strong, dominating forces
in its life. Very few people, if any, can trace definite views of
conduct or thought to their conscious effort, but these are born of
their structure and the environment that formed their habits after