Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1895-07-25
OF SUICIDE.
st. Louis Republic.

dill uAACAAO III UnOy
teal study. The rapidly in
creasing frequency of the crime
in the United States, as we'll as
in all the highly civilized coun-
tries of the world, is just now at
tracing the attention of expert
neurologists, who are working
with a two.fold purpose in view:
To discover the cause, as well as
a remedy that will check the
suicidal tendency.
We say crime of self-mur-
der simply because the act of
taking ones life is contrary to
Gods injunction, "Thou shalt
not KILL" and antagonistic to the
laws of men in most States and
countries. Anything that is con-
trary to law, be that law human
or divine, is a crime, aud in
that light suicide should certain>
ly pe regarded.
Neurologists, biologists and
philosophers like the representa-
tives among the un~classifed
thinkers, are slowly but surely
coming to the conclusion that
suicide is a product of higher
civilization. The statistics of all
countries which are sufficiently
enlightened to appreciate the
value of mortuary tables point
to that fact. AS civilization has
advanced So has the practice of
suicide.
Nor is this all. It occurs with
greatest frequency in the very
centers of enlightenment, and it
is almost invariably the case that
the suicide is an Intelligent man
or woman.
This may all sound queer to
the reader who has not given the
matter serious consider alton, but
the figures will bear out the as
sertion. The Germany of to-day
is a leade~ in civilization. Yet in
civilized Germany, the ''hot-bed
of philosophy" the ratio of sui
eide has increased and is increas-
ing as rapidly or even more rap
idly than the race has evoluted
from the lower to the higher
sphere.
It has been proven time and
again that this species of crime
is unknown or almost unknown
among savage tribes, and that it
occurs very unfrequently among
the half-civilized nonadic bands
of the Orient. On the other
hand, it RACES sometimes almost
al an epidemic among the cultur-
ed, intellectual nations of the
globe and is rapidly becoming a
prominent question in sociology
and economics.
Exactly why civilization should
offer greater temptations to self
destruction than barbarism and
savagery; why health, wealth
and refinement are more condu-
Give to the crime of self slaughter
than are disease, poverty and
degradation, are questions thai
might we'll tax the clear reason
ing faculties of a Kant, a Berke
ley, a Hamilton or a Hume.
Some assertions made in ar
editorial which recently appeared
in one of the Eastern metropol-
itan dailies are wide of the mark
In the article referred to the
writer says: 1.-The statistics o.
suicides show that the number O.
them does not greatly increase
year by year. They d.
not increase as rapidly as does
the population"
What are the facts in the case
as shown by the figures?
A careful study of the crime''
statistics show TINT in 1889, 2.
224 citizens of the United States
died by their own hands. In 1885,
the number had only increased
to 2,64O, but it is the figures fo1
the years between 1890 and thu
present time that exhibit alarm
ing features.
For the four years following
the ending of 1890, or down tx
January 1. 1895, the suicide fig
ures of the United States r a
follows: 1891, 1881; 1892. 1850
1892, 4,46o; 1894. 4,912.
In the light of these figures
what fair-minded person can sa.
that there has not been an enor
NOUS annual increase in the sui