St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-05-08
CRIME INCREASING.

zeal Times. thoroughly rellaDle paper,
that the census Of the United States in
1850 showed one criminal in $500 Of
population, while the census OF 1890
showed one in 1855. 1t is an undis-
puted fact that America contains a
greater per cent of criminals than any
other civilized country. The reasons
for all this seem plain. In 1850 crime
was very much more grave i'll the eyes
of law-abiding people than it is today.
Then, to permit a man to go free be-
cause he had stolen only a small
amount, or because he had influential
friends, was almost unheard of. The
sentiment against crime was so strong
that it was not an uncommon thing for
parents to turn their erring sons over
to the law, to be punished for their pub
lie 0ffenSes. Respectable women dld
not attend murder trials and carry bou-
quets to brutal murderers. And Jurles
in 10 criminal cases were so filed with
maudlin sympathieS that they could not
find a man guilty if the evidence
showed beyond reasonable doubt that
he was.
But the time soon came when siclly
sentiment gained the mastery. Lawyers
who made specially of defending Grim
inalS seized the opportunity and pre-
vailed upon legislatures to pass laws
making it easier for the defense of Grim
inalS. At the beginning they were not
able to gain much advantage through
the legislatures, but they have persist
emily kept at it until the chances for
conviction under the criminal codes are
many times smaller than they were
forty years ago. One point OF vantage
gained is in having the salaries OF
states attorneys kept down to figure
where only young or Inferior lawyers
can afford to take the positions. Today
in most places the Office of states at
torney is considered only a stepping
stone for promising young attorneys;
and when there are no such, failures at
the bar are elected. LII the forty years
the American sympathy for criminals
has grown so great that to be accused
of murder is to be elevated to a hero.
Nearly half the press of the country IS
ready at any moment to jump to the de-
Tense Of the rankeSt murderer who mas
been captured and brought to trial.
Women flock into the criminal court
rooms and bestOW their influence in
every way possible in behalf of the ac-
eused, frowning at the damaging evil
dence and applauding the favorable.
They flock to the states prison to carry
flowers and sympathy, not to the ones
who are imprisoned for inferior Of
lenses, but to the men whose entire
lives have been devoted to the most
daring and terrible crimes. 1t may be
Justly said that the American sympathy
for criminals has run mad.
ARCHIBALD, in his great work on
criminal law, has laid it down that the
safety of a commonwealth does not de-
pend so much upon the severity of the
punishment of criminals as upon the
certainty. If our American mills Of
Justice ground so surely that every man
who committed crime was sure to be
punished, we should soon see marked
decrease in the amount OF crime. But
that time is not likely to come soon.
We will without doubt continue to &C.
Quit men who should be hanged, or to
send them to the penitentiarles for life
only to see them pardoned in few
years.
There is another and still deeper
cause for the increase of crime than the
ones referred to. In the old time par
entS kept their young children off the
street at night time. A boy was not
permitted to be out after dark until he
was we'll along toward twenty years old.
Today the streets of every city are
filled till late at night with boys under
ten years. The majority OF these youths
are constantly schooling III crime. and
very many of them are growing up TO
follow criminal careers. Many of these
little fellows do not consider it wrong to
steal from fruit stand, and if they are
caught at it the chances are 100 to l
that they will not be punished either by
the courts or their parents.
At the rate the American population
is travelling in the direction of crime, we
may we'll expect the time to come when
the one who is not criminal will be the
exception.