It seems to me that the imperfections of this system might most easily be corrected by the committing magistrates. It is the largest problem which confronts these officials; therefore they might very well afford the time necessary to study it carefully. Concerted action by this group of the judiciary might accomplish worthy results almost immediately. As matters are at present organized, the committing magistrate may do any one of four things with an inebriate who has been brought before him: he can release him without penalty, he can put him on probation, he can fine him, he can imprison him. I have yet to discover any one capable of telling me why measures of this sort can possibly be expected to have a beneficial effect upon a person who through over-indulgence has set up in his system a demand for alcohol.
I have no wish to appear publicly as the critic of our petit judiciary, but no class of men is less informed upon this subject--the one subject upon which they should be best informed--than the committing magistrates not only of the United States, but of every other country in the world. A year or two ago I made a somewhat comprehensive European tour, and studied carefully the methods of dealing with inebriety. Nowhere did I find the faintest indication of a tendency for real intelligence in regard to the matter. We insist upon special education for the professors of our colleges; yet the influence of a committing magistrate upon the human life that is brought under his direct sphere of influence may be greater even than that of a college professor or a college student, and of our committing magistrate we make no educational demand whatsoever, and have never established even a minimum standard of intelligent information for our petit bench. It is my belief that expert sociological knowledge should be required of every man considered for the important post of committing magistrate.
The fact that in New York State a colony for inebriates has been established by law makes this special knowledge more necessary there than it was before. Wherever such institutions have been founded, and the courts may contribute to their population by commitment, an unintelligent magistrate finds it within his power not rarely, but every day, to do more harm during one session of his court than he is likely to find it within the scope of his intelligence to do good during the course of a year's sitting. I find it impossible to be otherwise than bitterly pessimistic in regard to the work our courts are doing with alcoholics.