Academy of the Holy Angels - Echoes Yearbook (Fort Lee, NJ)

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4 C' is.. cs fx Ecnoss 6 ,3 Q 1'9'Q,'8 Q ,X L if V 5 , '9 J, ll!il'llllll'f4 xf V 5 in X .'f yrgxxxx k..x wxwxwxnxwxxmuu Announcements The Alter Gold Medal, donated by Reverend Karl J. Alter of Toledo, Ohio, for the best essay on The Current of Sympathy with the Criminal, has been won by Miss Helen Oliva, '28, Miss Eleanor Hennessy, '28, received Honorary Mention. This year, as for some years past, Christopher R. Stapleton, Ph.D.,of Fordham Univerf sity and New Utrecht High School, acted as Judge of these Essays. We appreciate most sin' cerely the honor which Dr. Stapleton does us in consenting to act as Judge in our Contest , year after year, and we take this occasion to thank him and to assure him of our grateful appreciation. Miss Grace Christ, '28, was chosen to represent us in the Cratorical Contest on the Constitution. At the Semifinals, held at the Englewood High School on April 20th, Miss Christ was one of the three chosen to compete in the Finals. The latter will be held in Rutherford on the evening of May 4th, but as our copy goes to press before that date, we are unable to publish the result. However, we feel that our speaker will do credit to her Alma Mater. As the winner in our own school, Miss Christ was presented with a beautif ful bronze medal by the New 'York Times, the Contest having been sponsored by that paper. The Lincoln Essay Medal, offered again this year by the Lincoln Memorial Association of Springfield, Ill., has been adjudged to Miss Helene Kleiser. 72

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, Vg -s a NXX Ecnoss sf! 9 2 s I-411 JIU! A-'Bus 9..,X ru lllllllfl nn una f'fQ, -7,f.1'e-QF 2 457231 Wx, ,mm ra ,W W , ,g , , u I IF l 'iq-N C - V 5 1 . . . 5 T 5 i.f.1yv ' ' -n N, ,. -.. f I 4,.3',,1g,f gn, E4 .- A 1 'Lg 4.2352 xx xx xwvuxxxnnwxwxux i Us! The whole world's been ringing lately With praise of what Lindbergh has doneg But I'd like the fact brought to notice, That he's not the only brave one. He dared face the mists of the ocean, But I don't think that was so great, Imagine the perils so fearful we dare, Each day at three'thirty and eight. For those are the hours when We are on hand, Our trustworthy pilot and bus. The flight that we make every day to H. A., It surely plays havoc with us. With our hearts beating fast but our hopes beating high, We enter the little machine, With a leap and a bound it glides clear off the ground, And begins right away to careen. Our ears have been trained to catch each slightest sound, We listen for rattle or clinkg Ah ha, the machinery's all right today, We'll arrive there in safety, we think. So we settle back snugly and hold on so tight, To prevent being dashed to the ground, For that little machine is most careful to take Every rise in the road that is found! We never use four wheels at one time at all, We sway to the left and the right, And we all feel relieved when our dear old H. A., With its lofty red dome, comes in sight. We alight from the bus with a dignified CPD air, With hair tossed and hats all awry, And say with a gay smile, The ride was so nice, When we really feel ready to cry. Yet, strange it may seem fbut I said we were bravej, Threefthirty we're all gathered there To embark on the perilous flight once again, And the dangerous journey to dare. So cheer, if you wish, that brave hero called 'LWe, And praise him and fete him and fuss, But we'd rather praise our brave pilot and plane, So here are three cheers just for L'Us. -GRACE M. C 71 HRIST, '28

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B c x::37.k 'S 6 Q EcHoEs . ri 3 . 1-9'2'8 Q 9, 'u Q e I nuun 1ll1r111ll141lA Y The Current of Sympathy with the Criminal CPrize Essayj There can be no doubt that the attitude of society toward the criminal has changed. It was not so very long ago that the combat with crime was waged with most inhuman cruelty. Extreme and barbarous penalties were inflicted, since it was thought that these constituted the best means of checking or deterring crime. Indeed, the whole action of the law was instigated by the principle of vengeance. Today, as we know, all this has changed. There is no longer a spirit of vengeance in the infliction of punishment. As a matter of fact, the very principle behind the administration of the law has changed. It is directed now, not only towards punishing the criminal, but, in a larger measure, towards reforming him, and most of all, towards deterring the mass of potential wrongfdoers. As I have said above, there can be no doubt that the attitude of society towards the criminal has changed. This changed attitude has not only manifested itself in the preceding reforms, which I have but touched upon, but in many ways besides. At the present time there appears to be a general tendency on the part of society to side with the criminal. This tendency exists to such a degree that today we speak of the current of sympathy for the criminal. By this expression we mean, of course, the same general tendency to side with the criminal. In a more specific way, we mean the lenient treatment of prisoners, the juries' recommendations to the presiding judges for leniency, the light sentences imposed, and Hnally, the many loopholes of escape from punishment open to the criminal. Sympathy for the criminal has actually grown out of the realization that the harsh methods formerly in use did not constitute the best means of checking and deterring crime. These harsh methods and laws had an effect, of course, upon those persons who come under their immediate jurisdiction, but they accomplished nothing towards reforming the criminal and deterring those who were at liberty to commit crimes. Society realized that the law had a higher mission than merely punishing wrongfdoers. That higher mission was, not only to punish the criminal, but to reform him and, if possible, to send him out of conf finement fitted to again take his place in the community. To accomplish this difficult but, on the whole, praiseworthy plan, milder penal laws and punishments have been introduced. Now the question is, just what is this sympathy? Is it actually the expression of a sloppy sentimentalityf' as some have termed it? It is highly improbable that any humane civilization would deliberately sympathize with a criminal and seek to ameliorate his conf dition and lighten his punishment, disregarding the consequences of his crime and the fact that he deserves a punishment in proportion to his crime. Humanity condemns the crimif nal for his crime. At the same time, it cannot check the natural feeling of pity that arises from the realization that, in spite of all, the criminal is a human being like the rest of hu' manity, and that if he had been rightly directed in his youth, he would never have been guilty of his misdeeds. Indeed, this realization is actually the foremost cause of the symf pathy for the criminal. There are, of course, certain people today who cling to the argument introduced by criminologists like Lombroso and Fererro, and propagated today by Charles Darrow, that the criminal is a special type of the human race, half lunatic, half savageg in short, that there is a criminal class who, because of certain conditions of heredity, poverty, and environment, cannot be classed with the rest of humanity, but must be regarded as a special type. But the people who uphold this argument are relatively few. 73