The Van Buren press., 1897-10-02
ARP TALKS OF CRIME.
Gives Comparative Statistics on
Lawlessness North and South.
Amazing Result Is ShOwn-There Are
500 Per Cent. More FeIonics COM
mittcd by Whites In New York
Than In Georgia.

| Eight years have passed since the peo-
pie made their returns, and the time is
nearing when they will be called on
again. 1t takes a long time and costs
millions of money, but it is big thing
and diffuses knowledge among the peo-
pie. 1t is better that the money be
spent that way, for there are no private
schemes nor corporation swindles in it
and it gives employment to thousands
of needy people. The census is the only
mode of getting at the true condition
of the nations affairs and compare
tive view of the wealth, resources, edu-
cation and morality of the people of the
different states.
| have been very much interested in
these comparisons, and feel prouder
than ever before of my state and sec
ton. For more than half a century
the partisan and sectional literature of
the north has oyershadowed and hui
inflated us with unfair, untrue and
slanderous statements. By these un-
christian methods of their press and
pulpits their own good people have
been poisoned against us, and immi-
grafton influenced in the northern
channels. Personally, | do not COM
plain of this, for | esteem 1t blessing
that neither northern fanatics nor for
eign paupers have to any alarming eN-
tent infested our fair lands The nat
ural increase of our own people willsoon
enough occupy the south and secure to
us a homogeneous citizenship that will
continue to be the most moral and the
most patriotic of any this side of the
Atlantic. Not long ago an Ohio man
had the cheek to publish a letter about
our lawlessness, and said it was amaz-
ing impudenee of Georgia or the south
to invite northern people to settle here.
Well, we don't invite him nor any of
his kind An unknown friend writes
me from Nebraska and says: Call off
your dogs. Let the Yankees alone
and blow your horn for Germans. |
have lived for 10 years right here where
both abound and | will take the Ger
mans or the Swedes or the Swiss every
time. The Yankees have hated you
for generations. They are born hating
you, and raised up in schools and
churches to hate you. They can't help
it. But these foreigners have no such
prejudices. They don't like your ne
groes, but have got nothing against you.
They are a fair-minded, industrious
people, and | have found them honest
and kind and good neighbors whom you
can depend on in time of trouble"
But to the census. Look to these fig
ures on crime and criminals in some
of the states north and south in 1905
Massachusetts, convicted criminals in
prison OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES OH@i
New York, convicted criminals in
prison 800
Ohio, convicted criminals in prison.. 2909
Illinois, convicted criminals In prison 1896
Total ...............,........... .23 $40
Now deduct the negroes. s............... l795
Leaving whites. es......................H H 745
Now let us take four southern states:
Georgia, whites. az
South Carolina, whites. es...................,.l1
Mississippi 5is
NlrGlnla
Total OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES 'ooo
Now, the total white population of
the four northern states is 15,477,000,
uIu lut lOldl NulhC BpDhliAiCh VI AhN
four southern states is 3,000400, being
about one-fifth.
The negro has been eliminated In
both statements, and as the population
of the four northern states is five times
that of ours, we will multiply our CON
victed white prisoners by five, which
would give us 1890, against 21,745. |
- 1a4 ho tbaro
so per cent. more of felonies in New
York or Massachusetts, than in Georgia.
| was mistaken. There are five times
aS many, which is 500 per cent, and this !
is the ratio according to- white popula-
tion. l tell yor, my brethren, this cen
sus compendium proves an alarming
condition of things up north, and it is
high time our southern churches were
organizing boards of missions and send
ing missionaries up there. We send
them to Mexico and China and Brazil
and to the Indies in the west, why not to
Massachusetts, and New York and Ohio,
where crime and immortality prevail to
n greater extent than in any civilized
country? That is just what Mr.. Stetson
said-the statistician of Massachu-
setts. His language as published was:
"There is no country upon earth where
crime is so fragrant and so frequent as
in Massachusetts," Her population is
double our white population, and yet
she has Is times as dnany white Grim
inals in her prisons-and what is worse
than all, my brethren, 7ls of them are
women. Jsst ponder over it, and like
the prophet, exclaim: How are the
mighty fallenl" Only one white woman
in the jails or chaingangs of Georgia,
and 74s in the Puritan state Of New
England What shall we do about it?
What can we do? But this is not all
that the census tells. In addition to
this vast army Of prisoners Massachu-
setts has 700 juvenile prisoners, while
New York has 3,676 and Ohio1 $50. Then |
there are over 5000 paupers in the four
states, besides the thousands that are
In private benevolent institutions. How
in the world do those states up north |
support such a vast army OF criminals,
paupers, tramps and non-producers?
No wonder they want protection and !
pensions; no wonder they plumber the
public treasury. They are obliged to
do it. Ninety per cent. of all the money !
that goes into it comes out into their |
noclfets in some way or other and still !