New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-07-19
rs CRIME INCREASINGY

Doubtfully, and sometimes almost deSpalring-
w. men ask whether the world is really grow
ing better They read the multiplying accounts
Of fraud and crime, of cruelty and OF shame,
and as the gloom of all this accommodating evil
settles down over their spirits they find 1t hard
to believe that there could ever have been
time when the people of this country were worse
in character or conduct than they are now.
Then some statistician reciteS records purpoft-
ing TO show that arrests for crime bear much
larger proportion to the population than they
did twenty or fifty years ago, and these seem
to confirm the dismal impression which read
ing of the days dispatches so often creates
Others again fortily pessimistic theories WIN
plausible explanations of causes for increase
in vice and crime, and tell Of the growth OF
luxurious habits, and of the passion to get men
more quickly than by honest labor, OF the In
creasne cons,rmption of intoxicating liquors, OF
the multiplication of cheap and impure liter
allure, and of the enormous immigration from
foreign countries and the prevalence OF vice
among those imported from OldWorld cities
In the presence of all these things some
thoughtful persons seem forced to question
whether the standard of morals is not rapidly
declining in this country. They lament @e
neiTicacy of educational, reformatory or religious
institutions grieve over the suppanting OF an
Gent Puritan customs by the habits OF foreign
lands and of intidelity, and seem disposed to
doubt whether all sacred teaching has not
proved in this fair land something like failure.
1t is fact not to be ignored that large
share of the vice and crime in this country
comes hither from abroad. Out of 10000 prs
oners, according to the census OF 1851, ABOUT
49, 900 were of foreign birth, though the for
eign-born population was only little over an
eighth of the whole at that time Mulntudes
of records in the different States show that o
larger proportion of arrests are made among
the foreign born than among the native popula-
ton, and this is not in the least surprising when
il is considered how much foreign Governments
have done to get rid of dangerous classes by
deportation to this country. But when all TINS
has been admitted, the question yet remains
whether the standard Of morality is indeed de-
Ginning Records of arrest in various cihes ana
States, all students are now aware, are peculiar
" Enthusiastically, if for no other reason, because
the laws change from year to year. and the
modes of enforcing them change with each local
administration.
gloomy views OF things. In 1866 the number
of Western Union telegraph offices in this
country was $3.50; it is now about 10000
Zach telegraph office is a centre OF information.
The items of news, including accounts OF vice
and crime, which were nowhere recorded twenty
or thirty years ago, or only in the local columns
of thousands of small papers, are now brought
together from all parts Of the country to an eX-
tent formerly unknown. 1t follows that there
are printed, and would naturally be printed,
hundreds of such accounts where there were
formerly published only few. The change In
facilities for collecting information has enor-
mously increased the knowledge of offences
throughout the country and the chances OF
arresting criminals.
1t is not to be hastily assumed that the people
are treading the downward road. Even the
great cities, always centres of vice and crime,
are in fact less dangerous than they formerly
were notwithstanding the importation of dan
gerous classes from abroad. There is far less
intemperance than there was in earlier days,
and the memory of almost any man of advanced
years will satisfy him that the so-caled stats
tics of consumption of liquors in those days are
of little value. The country demands from its
| public servants better standard of personal
conduct han formerly prevailed. The pessimist
has yet to face the fact that in a great many
ways the public does more to prevent, detect
and punish crimes, more to elevate and reform
the degraded and ignorant more to save chill
dren from debasing influences, than it used to
do in bygone years. 1t remains to be proved
that all these endeavors have not avaied to
raise the standard of morality or to diminish
the proportion of vice and crime.