The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-04-13
Percentage

NlCtoy 81 Z67 DO7
If two murderers had not been pardoned last
2S. ~ "o"'D nave re"'neu
In 1851 our population was 5S1 $50; in 1880 it
is 64o ,45; increase in 20 years, 81 265, or less
than 10a per cent.
The large percentage of youthful convicts is
painfully suggestive Nearly IS per cent were
convicted during their minority, and more
than 64 per cent. under the age of so. The av-
erage age OF commitment is only 25. Great in
Justice has been done to our foreign-born pop
ulation, and particularly to the Irish, by the
loose talk of many of our writers and speakers.
Out OF the 199 felons confined in the State
Prison proper, only 80 are of foreign birth; only
10 are natives of Europe, and only four are
Irish; 123 were born in Maine.
In 1870, our population was about 800, 900,
and in 1910, about 100000. During the first
twenty years of Maine, only2 convictions of
murder or arson known to have occurred.
This is at the rate of one case to 4,OOO, 900 in
habitants annually.
In the single year of 1880, the Attorney Cen
erals report shows convictions, 5 of which
were OF murder, being at the rate of one con-
vlction to every $4,000 persons.
This reveals the appalling increase of 43 fold
IN what until 1876, was called capital crime,
within 40 years.
The first month of 1881, has been stained by
convictions of homicide, one of wife murder
IN the first degree, in Portland, and the other
OF boy OF years for the slaughter of his play
mate, aged 8, in afemote country town.
repeat that the official figures, which any
OF your readers may verify by the Warden's
reports for 1851 and 1880, prove that felony
has increased nearly twenty times as fast as the
population during the past % years of the his
tory OF Maine, and murder more than 40 times
as fast. Although your accuracy upon subjects
to which you have given due attention, justi-
hes the remark of DIR. Warren, that Everybody
knows that carefully prepared statement
from that source is entirely worthy of conf
dence," your editorial in refutation of my sta
tistics is full of serious misstatements, some of
which beg leave to correct
L. Your assertion that the annual inpriSon-
nent Of some 20 liquor dealers tends to inydIi-
ddte my statistics, is incorrect. If you will do
me the favor to read my statements, you will
see chat it deals with murder and other high
crimes and felonies, solely. Lauor-selling is
not felony, and with all other msdemeanors
is excluded from my statistics.
IL. Your assertion that comparative stats
ties Of persons in prison and in jail before and
since the aodr can gioe little idea Of the ertent of
crime at those taoo periods, is another mistake,
growing out of the assumption that included
in my statistics jail sentences; whereas, 1 ex-
pressly limited my statements to State Prison
convicts to telonS.
III. Your assertion that judges under the
discretion giUen them by the statute haze grad
ually enlarged their term of sentence, by aohich
the number ofconUicts has been increased acith-
out an increase Of CRIME, is another mistake.
If you mean to refer to liquor convictions or
other misdemeanors, then you are laboring un-
der the misapprehension already corrected.
But if you allude to felonies, deny the state
ment, and should be glad to see any evidence
to sustain IL. 1t is true that in 1872 judges
were empowered at their discretion to punish
assault and battery by imprisonment in the
State Prison, but the discretion has been
very rarely exercised, so that L believe that
there are but three snch convicts in the Pris-
on. But in the same year the minimum PEN
atty for rape and burglary was reduced from
life imprisonment to confinement for single
year, and in 1879 judges were authorized, for
the first time in our history, to ease off the
adulterer with trihing fine instead of incar-
cerating him in the State Prison.
~. Your assertion that n, 1879 there aUere
only 191 cOnUicts IN oar State Prison is elrOne-
ous The warden's report for 1879 gives 207 as
the number of felons actually undergoing pun
ishment aoithin the acalls of the State Prison,
an error of 16. But to those 2O7 you must add
6S, or about that number, of other felons, who
have been sentenced to State Prison for terms
ranging from one year to three, but who have
to be Kept in the five jail workshops, (all built
since 1879 because our State Prison, in spite of
all its repeated and costly enlargements since
1851, cannot hold the increasing number of fell
nearly A per cents
V. Your assertion that only one out of 5000
Of oar population acaS a State Prison conUict in
1879 is another mistake. The truth is, one in
1857.
vi. Your assertion that there is less crime
an Maine proportionally than IN any other
State in the Union is a statement for which YOU
offer no proof and which is believed to be in
correct
VII. Your assertion that since 1869 there has
been dineinution Of crime, tohere offences
against the liquor laao are separated from ordi-
nary crime, ie another error In the first place.
as has been stated, neither iquor-selling nor
any other jail offence is "crime." accurately
speaking, but 'misdemeanor," and is exclud-
ed from my statistics of felonies. Now, ac-
cording to your own figures, which have not
had the leisure to verify, and therefore assume
to be correct, the average commitments to
State Prison during each of sthe nine years pri-
or to 1869 was only 30, while in each of the
eleven years since 1863 it has been So, to which
probably should be added, since 1873 several
felons who have been crowded out of the pris-
on into the five Jail workshops. But if you
include Jail commitments, then the case is
still worse for you, because your figures show
an annual average of n commitments since
1869 and only 80 prior to 1869. Either way
your assertion is incorrect on your own show
ing: That felony and especially murder and
high crime has been enormously on the in
crease in Maine since 1851 and even since 1869
is a notorious public fact, which the slightest
attention to the records will make as clear as
monday, and 1t is amazing that an editor and
public man of your ability and intelligence
should have overlooked or forgotten it, War
den Rice in his report for 1877 says
The whole number of persons committed to
our jails during the year has been 1854.
The number committed last year was 1898.
Crime is on the increase (page S)."
In the same report the warden goes on to
say:
"Foreseeing considerable increase in the
number of convicts last year, in my report
recommended an enlargement of the prison,
which was then very nearly full. At the sug-
gestion of the legislative committee which Wis
tied the prison, 1 submitted plan for the ex-
tension of the west wing of the prison, at an
estimated cost of $4,000 Up H."
In the same volume the inspectors say:
There are thirty-six more convicts in the
prison than there were year ago; and the
probabilities are, that there will be more the
year to come than during the past year page
10" r"eO
might 60 on in this way indefinitely.