Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1899-05-03
Education and Crime.

between crime and ignorance on the
one hand, and between education and
virtue on the other, is much disputed.
A New York contemporary has op-
ened its columns to the discussion of
this question, with the result that
some of it's correspondents assert that
crime and education are increasing
together, while others insist that the
more highly educated the people be
come the fewer crimes are committed.
And both parties to the argument
make n plentiful use of statistics.
In the time when FREE common
schools were first established there
were enthusiastic philosophers who
believed. aud largely persuaded the
world TO believe, that when every bov
and girl in the land was educated
there would tie an end of crime and
no more use for jails. It was assum
ed by these optimistic friends of ed
ucatiou that few enlightened minds.
knowing well the difference between
right and wrong. would deliberately
do wrong. IGNORANCE is the parent
OF vice. was their favorite maxim.
and they fondly believed when isno-
rance disappeared vice would vanish
with IT, But today. though few will
accepi that education increase, or in
any way stimulates crime. We are
bound to admit that there Is no pros
pect that We shall ever close up all
our iails by merely multiplying our
school houses.
No man living has studied tins
problem more carefully than Prof.
Cesare Lombroso. whose famous book
"Criminality," is the most exhaustive
analysis of crime and its relation To
the progress of civilized nations ever
attempted. His article in the De
cember North American Review on
"Why Homicide Has Increased IN
the United States has, therefore.
great value. Relying upon the best
official figures available, he finds that
in all civilized countries, except our
own, hOmicides are steadily decreas
ing IN number. In this country. as
1t appears, by our own census figures
of 1880 and 1890, homicides increas
ed 60 per cent. in the ten wears. while
the population only increased % per
cent.
Professor Lombroso seeks for the
causes of this apparent paradox, and
shows that education is not. after all.
discredited thereby. In the older
States of the Union, where educat on
Is the most general, and the standard
of civilization the highest, he discov-
ers that homicides are no more fire.
qnent than in Germany, France or
England. Murders are fewer. for
example, in Massachusetts and Yer
mont than in either England or
Scotland. 1t is only in the newer
States, or in those older States where
poorly educated immigrants from
Europe form large percentage of
the population, that the number of
homicides is conspicuously high.
Furthermore, the Professor asserts
the very interesting fact that the sew
eral nationalities represented in this
country show the same percentage of
homlcides as they do in their native
countries. Our Atlantic states show
the most notable increase in homi-
cides for the past decade, and the
great bulk of the enormous BODY of
immigrants from Italy, Russia and
Hungary-the countries that lead the
world in crimes of violence-has set.
tied in those very states.
1t is Furthermore pointed ont bv
this high authority that while the
white population of this country is
SS per cent. Of the whole, and the
black population but IL per cent,
only 60 per cent. of the homicides
reported are done by whites and 40
per cent. by blacks. "lt is clear" he
says, that were it not for the negro
population the crime of homicide
would be almost as rare in the Unit
ed States as it is in the most civilized
countries of Europe.
Education and refinement. then.
do tend to diminish crimes of VIC
lence. Yet, in the Judgment of
Professor Lom broso, education is not