Evening Star Newspaper, January 5, 1930, Page 83

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., ]ANQARX 5 _1030. BY ARRETTA L. WATTS DGAR WALLACE—top-speed British writer of crime and detective stories, to say nothing of his novels, plays and sideline activities—is visiting America after & nine years’ ahsence. This writer of British best-sellers, who wrote one of his 140 novels between a certain Thurs- day and the Monday following and whose insight into the life of the criminals whom he has studied the world over is revealed in his ingenious mystery stories, is convinced that ‘America can never successfully combat her in- creasing crime activities under existing laws, many of which he considers as archaic as those of Russia. “You cannot deal with the crime problem in America as you can in England,” said Mr, Wallace as he glanced up from a manuscript- piled table in the suite of his New York hotel, “You have too large a population of aliens and no uniformity of laws between States. The matter of offense and punishment in America differs to an extraordinary extent from one State to another. For example, a crime in one State is punishable by life imprisonment, while in another the punishment may be only a $50 fine. “¥You cannot compare the crime problem of » New York with that of any other great city in the world. Take Berlin, for example: there you have a great city in a country under one rule and obeying one set of laws. In New York the laws are very different from those of New Jersey, just across the river. Therefore, the police work under a great handicap. “I consider the police of New York tremen- dously efficient, ranking with the police of London and Berlin—the three cities which have the finest police in the world—but New York Ppolice are working under conditions over which they have no control. I can’t see how it is possible for them to do more than they are doing. They are working under a system that is obsolete and doesn’t function.” RIGHT there Mr. Wallace let it be known that he didn’t come to New York to in- vestigate the Rothstein murder. Furthermore, in that matter he considers there is nothing more to investigate. Nor is he out to dig into the Chicago underworld. But he is willing to discuss the critne problem and what he con- siders practical ways of combating it. “Until you take the administration of Justice—judge, district attorney and the rest, down to and including the humblest police- man—out of politics,” said Mr. Wallace, “it cannot be completely efficient. It is absolutely necessary to divorce these servants of justice from all political machines. “Personally, I feel that what America needs (and I say this with all respect for American laws and institutions) is a Magna Charta, a tearing up of the old Constitution. In some respects America is as archaic as Russia. In some respects she is as retrospective and reactionary as the most reactionary countries, She is too closely welded to ancient formulas which are no longer practical. “In an electric, wireless, aviation age—an age of new life and new conditions—it is absurd to maintain the same system of laws that were in use a century ago. You have stage coach laws to deal with airplane conditions “But this condition is not peculiar to the United States alone. It is true of almost every country except England, where the methods of government are such that laws may be changed when necessary without any reference to the people, but where the masses are protected from eccentric changes by a “I Have No Sympathy With Criminals,” Says Famous English Detective-Story Writer—“Majority Go Crooked Because They Are Too Lazy to Earn an Honest Livin g—lee.Real Criminal Cannot Be Reformed.” useful and permanent body of legislators—the House ‘of Lords—who will never consent to radical changes. ‘‘Every country should revise its laws at the end of each hundred years to meet the chang- ing conditions which no group of men could possibly foresee when those laws were made.” As to the recent prison outbreaks in the United States, Mr. Wallace is convinced that overcrowded conditions, plus the excessive heat of late Summer, were primary causes. “Prison hysteria is not an unusual phenom- enon,” he said. ‘“The overcrowding of the prisons is due as much to the practice of giving Edgar Wallace, famous English anthor of detective stories, has made an in- tensive study of crime and criminals and has arrived at the conclusion that crooks are neither clever nar courageous. o Reform a Crook, Shoot or Segregate Him Says Edgar Wallace. long sentences as to prohibition. If your Nquos laws were modified, the United States would b the soberest nation in the world. This defiance of law is just a gesture of resentment.” This student of crime, who has a better acquaintance with the lawbreaker, perhaps, than any save the “high command” of Scot. land Yard, is convinced, after 30 years of such observation, that the only way to reform s crook is to shoot him or segregate him. He believes in the death sentence. “I HAVE no sympathy with criminals” said Mr. Wallace, “not even a sneaking sym- pathy. They are a little less interesting than lunatics and a little less romantic than sewer- men. Their lives are drab and ugly. The majority go crooked because they are too lazy to earn an honest living. “Roughly speaking, there are three types of criminals: First, criminals through oppor- tunity; second, criminals through real or imaginary necessity; third, criminals through deliberate intention. “The good-time motive largely operates with the first and second classes, that is to say, these classes commit criminal acts with the idea of getting money to enjoy themselves, To the second category belong most mur- derers. It may be noted that very few who come under the first and second headings are criminal in the strictest sense of the word. “To the first class belong the pilferers— people who would steal stamps, open letters and extract their contents. They are thieves while acting as caretakers or in positions of trust. In the second class are those who efther seize or make opportunity with the idea of having a good time. “The first and second classes are peculiar in that they never imagine their offenses will he detected. They never prepare for detection. They have complete faith that the cleverness with which the offense is committed—the abe sence of all observation and the certainty tha® suspicion will be distributed over a wide area— will afford them a minimum amount of danger. That is one reason why I count most mure derers in this class. They include, for thg most part, men above the average in the ma®e ter of education and worldly knowledge. They meet inquiry with the greatest self-confidence. They are conscious—the majority of them—of their intellectual superiority to those whose business it is to bring them to justice or who will be in charge of the investigation. “Swindlers on a grand scale have the same mental attitude. But these men, as I say, are not criminals in the strict sense of the word. They have not spent their lives in criminal practices. Only about 10 per cent of convicted murderers have had any previous conviction; and the majority of the 90 per cent are men and women who have lived nearly blameless lives except for the offenses for which they are charged. “Most criminals by intention are specialists on the job. I have never yet met a clever criminal. The vast majority are illiterate, while not a few are on the border line of inmw becility, Nor have I ever met a criminal whe was not as vain as a peacock, nor one who not an unconscionable liar, The first mo sense that atrophies in a continuous crimin is the sense of truth. The faculty of lying is an inevitable stigma of an ineradicab® sense of dishonesty. “There are many amazing instances of crinyy inal vanity. There is a type of criminal vanity which prevents a man from committings small offenses but urges him on to commit greater Continued on Twenticth Page '