After all, the great majority of men must do some kind of manual labor.
Until the time shall come when this kind of work is as easy and as well
paid as other employment, no one will do manual labor if he can do any
other kind. Perhaps the time may come when the hardest and most
disagreeable work will be the best paid. There are too many unskilled
workers in proportion to the population to make this seem very near. In
the meantime--and that is doubtless a long time--some one must do this
work. Much of it is done under supervision and requires no great skill
and need not be very disagreeable or hard. In a complex civilization
there is room for everyone to contribute to the whole. If our schools
are some day what they should be, a large part of their time, in some
cases all of it, will be devoted to manual training and will be given to
producing skilled workmen. This sort of school work can be made
attractive to thousands of boys who can do nothing else. And if easier
conditions of life under fairer social surroundings could be added to
this kind of education, most boys who now drift into crime would
doubtless find the conventional life more profitable and attractive.




VIII

THE FEMALE CRIMINAL


Women furnish only one-fifth to one-tenth of the population of penal
institutions. Probably the percentage would be still lower if among
these were not a number of rather common convictions for acts which are