The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1892-09-29
Crime-Causes.

Hon. Andrew d. White has been devoting time
and study to criminal statistics His deductions
on some points are not in harmony with many
publicists, whose opinions are valuable and well
sustained by facts. The learned gentleman,
however, has the lead on the subject matter
which relates to increasing criminality. Stats
tics are clearly on his side. Those who hold that
crime is not relatively on the increase buoy up
their claims by pleading that during the latter
decades court records have been more diligently
and accurately kept, and transgressOrs have been
punished in fuller ratio than heretofore as a re-
suit of more perfect police regulations This pO-
sitiOn is clearly untenable. There is large and
growing class in the great cities who have little
regard for law, and everyone notes daily the
amazingly large numbers of violations of law,
which while not specially mOnstrOus are still Of
fences against common morality and public
peace. Petty theft is aarmingly prevalent, and
the offenders often go unpublished. Gambling,
leWd braWls, intemperance and gross Sabbath
dissertation are rarely brought to the attention
of legal authorities. Wife-beating and parental
neglects, which should be made criminal by
prompt legal procedures, are noted in current
press reports, for which too often no penalties
are imposed. If statistics teach that all these
crimes are on the increase, the deduction is
readily accepted, because it is we'll known that
the court records do not embrace more than one
half of the cases of the kind which we have de-
fined. If the number reported on police Justices
dOckets show an increase at present over the
corresponding number of the past decade, taking
the present and past census as determinative of
ratios, then we must believe that our great CEN
tiers of population are becoming more and more
corrupt, and that the agencies for the prOpaga-
ton of virtue and morality are losing in eficen-
cy. OF course, all the grades of grOsser crimes
will show a corresponding increment. Assaults,
burglaries and murders are most frequent where
lesser crimes are rampant. DR.. White is very
severe in his structures regarding the laXits of
legal prosecutions and the infection of the full
legal penalties for all these crimes. His views
regarding the condition and treatment of crimi-
nails are not in accord, it may be remarked, with
penOlOgists. Those who have investigated the
criminal character most intently have reached
similar conclusions. PenOlOgy is assuming the
form of science, and demands considerable study
There is one view of the question which is not
often advanced, which we believe statistics would
sustain. We are drawing so heavily from the
lower classes of European countries that we are
Outdone by criminal element, which is not
American. The half-Savage, ignorant, supersti-
tiOus people who are drifting into our cities from
abroad are teachers of basest sedtiOns. They
are arrogant, and, in their habits of lfe are I'M
seemly. They multiply rapidly. and our institu-
lions are not able to bring them into subsection.
Anarchism is ineffective, and the faint is always
clearly shown whenever or wherever the public
peace is disturbed. The strike has its attending
riots, and no matter what the leaders may affirm,
there is always at hand large body of most evil
disposed persons, who. ever ready for robbery
and murder, find a shield for themselves in the
lawlessness of the strike. Eliminate this ele-
ment, and the judicial and police departments
will find immediate relief. American citizens
by birth and culture are not, we believe, corrupt
and cOrrupting in life and associations. If immi-
grafton were restricted for series of years, and
the effort made to AmericaniZe our population,
we believe that statistics would show signif-
cant decline in crime, and a very great advance
ment in individual prosperity and moral refine
ment.-Cdld,CeU ". IT, NeUs.
Dame Fortune Smiled.