Excess of Sympathy For Criminals Thurnwald Attributes To Law Not Keeping Up With Society--Lauds Swedish Dry Rule

"As men come into closer physical proximity, the spiritual common interests widen perceptibly. In the jostle and activity of our large cities, people lose some of their humaneness, and become calloused toward their fellow men. In the city men don't know or care about their next door neighbor, rural life alone develops human warmth of personality," Dr. Richard Thurnwarld, psychologist and sociologist of the University of Berlin, and visiting professor at Yale, declared in an interview yesterday.

"In America I find an unusual amount of sympathy for the criminal, which is because the law lagging too for behind the development of the social organization." There is so much tension between the law and individual behavior that thousands in pursuit of their natural course of life are automatically law-breakers. Law in any form, especially if it can be violated with impunity, brings out all the contrariness, of human nature. Your prohibition statutes are not nearly as effective as the Swedish measures, which I consider the best in the world, because they are based on a psychological understanding of human nature.

"A great deal of American efficiency comes from the informality of your social and commercial relations. On the whole, freer ties are beneficial even within the family. Although many decry the disintergration of the family, there is really no danger, because other more broadening institutions are supplanting, with no loss, the old circle around the fire."