The automobile has made its list of criminals, and it is making them every day.  Probably it will continue to make them until the flying machine is perfected, and then to some extent at least the airplane will take its place.

The truth is that man is not adapted to the automobile.  His reactions are too simple; his inherent needs are not adjusted to the new life; he has not been built up with barriers to protect him from this insidious temptation which is claiming its victims by the hundreds every day.

The boy is perfectly helpless in the presence of this lure.  He wants to do what others do.  He is by nature active and venturesome and needs to keep on the move.  The mechanism itself appeals to him.  He wants to work in a garage.  He is anxious to be a chauffeur.  He cannot resist an automobile.  No such temptation should be placed before a boy.  It has added a great deal to the responsibility of parents and teachers, and so far they seem not to have been able to meet that responsibility in any way.  Aside from the boys’ thefts it has played a great part in crime.  The doctor, the real estate agent, the business man cannot afford to be without automobiles.  No more can the burglar, the hold-up man, the bank robber, if he would keep up to date.  The automobile has raised the robbery of country banks from a vagrant crime, infrequent and dangerous, to a steady occupation coupled with a great deal of excitement and some chance for profit.  So far no one has ever suggested anything to counteract or lessen the evil effects except to increase penalties.  The crimes committed with and for automobiles are a result of the conditions of life.  Out of a thousand men and boys, a certain percentage must commit these crimes just as a certain percentage must die of tuberculosis.  The temptation is very great.  The human equipment is not strong enough in many people to withstand the temptation.  They either buy them when they cannot afford to own them, or they steal them, and either way leads to disaster.  No doubt men will some time become adjusted to the automobile as they have become adjusted to the horse, but until that time comes, it will demand its heavy toll of unfortunates.

Not only, it seems to me, does the growth of civilization mean the growth of crime, but that civilization likewise leads to decay.  The world has seen the result over and over again, but it cannot learn.  Man is an animal; the law of his being demands that he shall live close to nature; he needs the outdoors, the country, the air; he needs to walk and run; otherwise his digestive apparatus will fail, his brain power will decay, and the strength of his legs will be impaired.  Civilization runs too much to stomach and nerves, and Nature will have revenge.  To be sure, the professional American rhapsodist points out that we are immune from natural law because we have a chance to vote for presidents once in every four years.  But there are ample signs that Nature knows little about political institutions or other man-made devices and that she will have her way.