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Crime: Its Cause and Treatment by Clarence Darrow
page 37 of 223 (16%)
sound. He uses poor judgment as to how he shall spend the little money
he gets. He is generally driven by debts and harassed in all his efforts
to get a living. A large family adds to his trouble and his existence is
a constant struggle with what, to him, is an almost hopeless fate.

Industrial conditions for the most part are relentless and hard. The
poor man is thrown into competition with his fellows for work. He may
get along when work is easy to get and wages are good, but in dull times
he falls behind, and is in hopeless trouble. His life is a long, hard
struggle to make adjustments to his environment, and it is not strange
that he goes down so often before the heavy task. Failure to make proper
adjustments directly and indirectly often means prison to him.

Again, the ordinary and especially the weak man is hopelessly puzzled by
his environment. It must never be overlooked that man has a lowly
origin. The marks of his humble birth are in his whole structure and
life. His make-up has been the work of the ages. He is a late
development of a life that knew nothing of law, as law is understood
today. His ancestors were hungry and went out after food, they killed
their prey and took their food by main strength whenever they had the
power. They were subject to certain customs which were very strict, but
which were few and did not seriously complicate life. They knew only the
law of force. Their existence was simple and primal, and they were
governed by no "rights," except such simple ones as were made by might
and custom.

Civilization is a constant building-up of limitations around heredity; a
persistent growth of environmental control as it progresses, or at least
moves along. This structure, especially the legal structure, is built by
the more intelligent and always by the strong men. It is always shifting
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