The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-11-08
The Increase of Crime.

One or the mOSC alaFul uS tehueh
cies of this age is the rapid increase OF
crime, and when we look at the statis-
tics we are tempted to ask whether or
not our ninteenth century civilization
ia after all a failure. 1t is naturel to
expect a considerable growth in crime,
since the population of the country is
increasing at the rate of about ,25O, 600
a wear: and the fullness and accuracy
with which news is collected are con-
,stantly becomcng greater. But the
increase in murders, roberies, suicides,
lynchings and embezzloments is out OF
all propotion to the growth OF popu-
lation, and the causes must lie else
where. Over 1000 murders have tax
en- place within the United States
already during the present year, as
compared with 6,792 in 1897, ., 9O6 IN
1891. 4, ,2O9 in 1890 and 1857 in 1889.
So rapid an increase may well alarm
the student of social problems and
cause grave apprehensions on the part
of all who love our common humanity.
In four years the number OF murders
has about doubled. .
Equally discouraging is the increase
in the lynchings. The record for the
wear 1882 was 296, of whom 23l were
men and five were women, and this
wear will exceed that number. In
1891 the number of persons Iynched
was 1876, an increase over 1891 OF forty
one. -,
Suicide is increasing as rapidly as
murder. There $3.50 in 1892, as COM
pared with 1881 in 1891, 2,640 in 1890,
and 2,224 in 1889. According to these
figures a man had about one chance in
1889 of committing suicide in 1892,
estimating the population at 65,ooo,'
600.
Train robbing seems TO have become
a business, and scarcely week passes
that some outrage of this description
does not take place. Expert robbers
of the most desperate character waylay
entire trains and plunder and murder
by the wholesale. More than double
Eenumber of train roberies has taken
place this year, and many of these
niscraants have escaped with impu.
nifty. We may well inquire what
forces are at work terminating crime
and disorder. The. great army OF un,
employed men, the demand for bread
to satisfy positive hunger and want
the Financial stringency, the luxury
and artificialism of our modern civil.
zation, the struggle for wealth and
social position, the pursuit ol sensuouS
qualification, all these are powerful
factors. But Henry Wood has an
article on 1.-THE Psychology Of Grim e''
in the current Arena, which suggests
q more potent element decentralization
than any of these, and which should
arrest the attention of every student
of sociology. He declares that this
element is found ''in the deluge OF
deliniated crimnality and other NOR
bid reading matter, in which the
community mentally dwells, the
malaria of which it is constantly
inhaling."He believes that the most
powerful factor in promoting crime is
the publication in the daily press OF
every outrage against man and society,
with all the revolving details. Every
one knows that the principle part of
our great dailies every morning is
filled with sensational accounts of
crimes and criminals, while flashy
: illustrated weeklies, and cheap "blood
and thunder" fiction are pouring their
torrents Of slime all over the coun-
Mr.. Wood we'll says: 1.-The sidi-
ment whichsettles from all these tur-
bid agations furnish the soil out of
which murders, suicides, sexual i'm
moralities, thiefts and numberless
other disorders are the continual
growth and fatigue. If unsound meat
or decayed vegestibles are palmed off
upon the public, the guilty offender
is arrested and punished; but youth
full and pure consciousness may be
invaded and poisoned, and all is taken
as a matter of course. Criminals do
not come by chance, but grow, and
their growth is through suggestion"
There is no question of the correct
ness of this diagnosis of the case. 1t
is terrible arrangement to bring
against the secular press, but criminals
are made by reading the history OF
crimes.
The descriptions of murders, train
roberies, suicides and nameless out
RACES with which our dailies are large
ly filled, are 80 many pictures framed
and hung up in the mental chambers
of millions. And what men mentally
dwell upon, they become or grow like.
No fact ofphyscholo is better establish
ed than this. Our characters are mod
fed by every picture thrown upon the