New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-11-14
OUR DANGEROUS CLASSES.

We have before us the returns from the
census of 1870 concerning Paupensm and
Crime Ii is pity that the laws regulating
the census, as regards this department, could
not be governed by at least measurable
degree of uniformity in the different States,
as for the want of it, the total report is
untrustworthy and even ludcrous In Its
manifest incorrectness. The Superintendent
himself calls attention to this fact; for exam
pie, in one State he says only convictions
"before courts of record are taken note of for
census returns; in another, all police and
Justices courts" In 1850 NewYOrk was
credited with 5SOG7 convictions for crime,
while PENNSYLVANIA washed her hands in in
nocency with an exhibit Of only $780, "lluman
mature" remarks the Superintendent, drily,
" with its opportunities and temptations does
"nOt vary to that extent with two degrees OF
Latitude Owing to these reasons, he frankly
Confesses that the statistics Of Pauperism
and Crime for the year are inaccurate, but
claims that the plumbers of prisoners and
paupers returned for a given day, June l.
! 1870, are strictly correct. Combining our OBJ
| seryatOns TO this return, therefore, we find
! some curious facts, oddly at variance with the
popular precOnceved opinions of the moral
! character of some of the States. For instance,
| Illinois. with a population of about two mil
| hons and half, supported on that noted
! June morning 2,363 paupers, while her sister,
Indiana, with but half the population, Shout
dered heavier burden by $500 more. The
percentage of crime, however, was more
evenly divided. One wonders whether these
unaccountablo paupeTs for whom the State IL
/ fhn NH nt
dirorcees TO whom she has kindly granted
furlough from their family ties to look ont
new afimities. NewYOIk, with population
of from 100000 to 100000, supports 14OO1
paupers. Pennsylvania, with but million
less, shows but little more than half that num-
ber--a difference due doubtless to the larger
charity of the larger State rather than to
greater Idlcness, as we find on looking into
the army of criminals the good Quabers and
| sober Dutch produce their full quota to match
| our own. SO far from pauperism and crime
! gong hand in hand, as is usually supposed,
! il Would appoar that idlcuoos WAS rather con-
| ducive to the moral health of Il community:
Maine. for instance, whose pauper list ranks
among the highest, coming off clean-handCd
in the matter Of vice. Montana, that to many
rood Doople is O region devoted to the sound
of horse pistols and the glitter Of bowie knives,
produced not two dozen paupcrs on that pleas
ant june morning, and but sixteen immoral
citizens. Still greater matter for surprise lies
in tie fact that the shameful prominence as
leader in the maiorities of both Of the dan
gcrous classes belongs not to a turbulent
Western State nor 10 disalicctcd Southern
one, buf 10 moral, enlightened Massachusetts,
that State as well as Connecticut Ouranki1g
both New-York and Pennsylvania in both
these helpless elements OF the bOGy polite
notwithstanding their larger burden of cmi-
grant population.
The farming system is asserted by the SUI
perinfendent to be the most economical for
allnshouses; as it certainly is the most whole
some morally aud physically. His judgment
on another point does not seem to us so wise
| ly founded; we mean his exclusion of all in
| mates of the State Insane, Deaf, Blind, or
| other Asylums from the list of paupers, and
of those of Houses OF Correction or Refuge
| from those Of crime. His reason for this is
| ludicrous enough: that the students of any
college or university whose fees are lessened
| by the endOwments equally deserve place
| "a public paupers with the benefciaries of
such asylums Apart from this error, MS it
seems to us, the management Of this depart
| ment has been conducted with judgfhenU anu
| care, and it will furnish safe data for legisa-
lators and political or social economists
|