Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1872-12-06
The Chief Cause Of Crime.


of crime, have completed their labors.
| The result is embodied In a report made
to the Committee of Fifteen, of which re-
port liberal extracts are subjoined:
"a clear appreciation Of those causes
that predispose to, or favor the commits
sion of crimes, is of great Importance to
the welfare and prosperity OF any commu-
nifty. Reasonable security to life, health
and property, is essential alike to pubic
order and individual happiness. The fre-
| quency with which crimes have been
committed, and especially those invoiv-
ing personal violence, during the last few
years, has Justly awakened the attention
of all classes of the community. The real
causes of crime are divisible into two
classes, viz those that predispose to, or
prepare the way, by inducing such men
tai development or condition as is capa-
BILE of being melted to criminal acts; and
those which, acting on such mental pre-
disposition, more directly induce the
commission of crime. The first may be
termed predisposing and the second erctting
causes. To the first belong neglect and
errors in the training or education OF
children; the reading of an obscene, inn
moral and imaginative literature;
neglect to inculcate and enforce
obedience and respect for existing
laws, both in the family circle and
the community at large; and especially
the tolerance of open and constant VIOLA
tions of law by larger classes of the COM
munity. To the second, or class OF d1-
rect exciting causes. belong all those so
cial customs by which numbers OF lndl-
viduals are brought together at late hours
of the night or on the Sabbath, without
any accompanying moral restraint, and
| the use of such drinks as have the power
| to influence human passions and diminish
| the controlling influence of reason and
conscience. OF all the customs OF so
cial character favoring the assembling OF
men at unreasonable hours, and beyond
| the restraining influences of either the
family circle or the church, which has
become almost universal, is that OF Keep
| ing liquor saloons open large part OF
the night and all the Sabbath, thus Afford
| ing a convenient rendezvous alike for the
unwary laborer after his hours of toll, the
| idle, the victims of a vicious appetite, the
ignorant, and the designedly vicious. IL
| ii were conceded that alcoholic drinks
| are legitimate articles of trade and COM
merce, there can be no good reason why
those who traffic in them should not con-
form to the same customs as regulate all
other traffics, and close their places of
business at suitable hour in the even
ing, and keep them closed on the day
recognized as the Sabbath.
:" A rigid and careful examination will
show that, if these places were simply
closed at the times indicated, thereby de-
priving the bad elements of the commu-
nity of convenient place of meeting, it
alone would diminish the number OF
crimes in any given community nearly
100 per cent But, of all the direct exist
ing cauees of crime, alcoholic drinks, by
their power to excite the passions and
impair the control of reason and con-
science, stand out pre.eminent and all-im-
portant. This will appear more distinct
ly by the presentation of afewwell authen-
ticated statistical facts.
More than twenty-five years since, g
gentleman of talent and reliable character,
visited all the prisons, jails, and poor
houses in the State of New York, and per-
sonally examined the inmates, and, as far
as practicable, ascertained the causes of
the crimes committed by the prisoners,
and of the causes which had led TO the
poverty of the paupers. The results were
| published, giving the number of prisoners
and paupers in each county in the State.
! To allude to these figures in detail would
be unnecessarily tedious. 1t is
sufficient to say that they showed
four ffths of the criminals to have
been brought to the commission of their
criminal acts by the use of alcoholic
drinks; and that three fourths of the pau
pers were made such directly or Indirect
ly by the same agents. The results thus
obtained in New York quarter of CEN
tury ago have been fully confirmed by
the examination of the jails and prisons,
as well as of the records of the Criminal
Courts, made since, either in this or other
civilized countries. Thus, within the
last three years, DR.. Elisha Harris, than
whom a more careful and reliable OBJ
server cannot be found, after an official
inspection of several of the prisons in
New Y York, stated that eighty per cent. of
all the criminals he had found had been
made such by the use of intoxicating
drinks. If we pass from the jails and
| prisons to the police stations, Bridewells
and Houses of Correction, we shall find
the results pointing in the same direc-
ton"
The report proceeds to quote many par
ticular facts, showing that nine tenths of
! the crime committed in the world is
caused by drunkenness. A careful exam
nation of list of about one hundred
murders and manslaughters committed
in this city and county during the last
seven years, shows that at least ninety
out of the one hundred resulted from the
influence of alcoholic liquors.
The report proceeds: $50 we might
multiply facts in relation to every species
of crime drawn from the police and ju-
dicial records of every civilized country;
but the sameness of this recital would
only weary the reader, without imparting
additional force to the conclusions"
'"There is, however, another aspect in
this which statistical comparisons will
show results so fully corroborative of the
| foregoing that we will briefly indicate it.
| By careful comparison of the amount of
| liquor consumed in different States or
counties relative to the population as
shown by revenue and census returns,
with the number of police and criminal
arrests in the same States, as shown by
the police and court records, it is found
that the latter hold remarkably close di-
rect ratio to the former, and that in some
States and municipalities, where the con-
sumption of alcoholic drinks varies, one
year from another, the number and mag
nitude Of crime varies in the same ratio"
This view is supported by abundant
examples, among them the example or
| Vineland, New Jersey, where entire pro-
hibition of the traffic in intoxicating
drinks has been enforced from the begin
ming. The result is an almost absolute
absence of pauperism and crime. The
entire police force of the city consists of
one civil constable, and the expense to
the public only $75 year, or about So
to every 1000 inhabitants. In Chicago
it costs So, 900 year to each 900 inhab"
itants, and crime of all grades is constant,
even with this large expenditure.
The report closes as follows: "If you
want local fact go and live in Evanston
a month, and then inBridgeport, and you
will soon discover the difference between
prohibition aud license in the matter Of
producing crime. The facts here produc-
ed, or those of similar nature, might be
extended almost indefinitely; but enough
has been given to establish the axiom in
this country, quoted with reference to
England, that the crimes of people are
proportioned to the facilities of obtaining
intoxicating beverages"