The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-06-26
WORSE AND WORSE.
HOW 1T is THAT STATISTICS SHOW
AN INCREASE OF CRIME.
Acts Not Formerly C1assed as Criminal
Now n1egal-Increase Of Facilities
for DetcctiOn-The 'tEnterprise''
of the Modern Newspaper.
ichicago Times.l


The census reports certainly do show
that the proportion Of population confined
Ia penitentiaries and various refornlatory
institutions Is increasing from decade to
decade with fearful rapidity We must
remember, however, that many acts are
now classed as criminal that were not so
regarded generation or two ago. Then
lotteries weT encouraged in almost every
state in the union. Now it is a crime not
only to sell lottery tickets but to advertise
a lottery scheme, Then any person
could sell cigars and tobacco as he may
now sell cloth and potatoes, but now it Is
a crime to deal in them without license
accompanied with a revenue stamp.
Then there were no convictions
for selling Intoxicating liquors to
minors or habitual drunkards, but now
such convictions are very common.
Teachers are now punished for correct
ing" children in school. New crimes are
created by statute every time the national
congress or state legislature meets. The
number of nominal criminals is increased
by adding new crimes to the calendar.
The facilities for detecting crimes and
for arresting criminals are much better
and more numerous than they were even
a few years ago. The microscope has
been improved and new chemical tests
have been discovered. Photography has
greatly aided the arrest and con-
victiOn of criminals by furnishing
the likeness of nearly every per
son belonging to the acknowledged
criminal class. In every considerable
town the police department have large
ard wellarranged "rogues' gallery. As
new pictures are taken, duplicates are sent
to every city in the country The Illus
trated papers have made the faces of the
more noted criminals familiar to almost
every person. The daily papers give very
accurate descriptions of the men who
make their escape after the commission of
a crime. Not only the railroad car and
the steamboat but the telegraph and tele-
phone are employed in the arrest of per-
Sons implicated in the commission Of
crime. The governor of nearly every
state has been authorized to offer, at his
discretion, large rewards for the arrest and
detention of persons presumed to be guilty
of crime.
tended and greatly improved during the
past thirty years. During the same period
the private detective system has been ex-
tended, till now 1t is the terror of Grimm
ais Escape from justice by fight has
been rendered almost impossible. whereas
it was very easy before the era of steam
and electricity. The criminal courts have
come to look upon flight as confession. In
nearly every section of the country the
elevated moral sentiment of the community
demands the arrest of parties implicated
in crimes at any cost They are accord
ingiy followed over the continent and
brought back from countries beyond the
seas. With no more crimes committed,
we should expect to find a much larger
number of persons confined in prisons
When a large portion of the country
was sparsely settled and the means of con-
veying information were poor, thousands
of crimes were committed that were
never reported to the public. The ger
sons committing them found little diff
Guilty in making their escape, and were
not likely to be pursued and captured.
Their names never appeared to swell the
list of offenders confined in penitentiaries.
Newspapers then displayed little center
prise " in collecting criminal news. 1t was
very difficult and expensive to do so.
The newspaper, in the proper sense of the
word, is a very modern institution 1t had
its rise with the introduction of the means
for the rapid transmission Of intelligence.
1t gives an account of more crimes and Of
more charities than the old-time paper
did The science of statistics as well IS
the art of making newspapers has made
its greatest progress during the last thirty
years. 1t becomes easier every year to
show by statistics that the world is grow
ing wicked and society is becoming moro
demoraliZed