Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-04-30
RECORDS OF CRIME.
THE DIFFERENT KINDS THAT FLOUR
 tsH IN SEVERAL STATES.


 The Average of sovte sections Lowered by
 the Influx of Rbreigners-Aeeording to
 the Records, Ohio Seems to be the Best,
 Michigan aud Florida the Worst.
 Nine out of every ten men if asked in which part of the country was the most wickedness would answer the Atlantic seaboard. Their assumption would be based on the fact that the large cities and particularly New York are situated there and almost every body thinks New York city is the wick edest place in the United States.
 The records of crime do not bear out this assumption and comparison of the police records of Eastern and West ern cities is quite favorable to New York, Philadelphia, Boston or any of the Eastern cities.
 The population must, of course, be taken into consideration when a com parison of States is made just as it is when their relative illiteracy is made the subject of statisticians' reports. Thus considered, the Empire State compares most faYorably with any other State in the Union. And thus l judged also, the two worst States are Michigan and Florida. Michigan's crime list is swelled, it is said by the influx of lumbermen to the upper half of the State, while certain parts of Florida being almost in their primitive state may account for its condition.
 The average of certain manufactur- ing States is lowered by the influx there of foreign workmen who bring their crimes with them. Massachu- setts and Connecticut would have the reputation of having the best people in the country were it not for the P0rtu. guese and other foreign laborers at- tracted to Fall River and similar places where there are big mills or manufactories of various kinds. Some of the most dreadful crimes in the an- nals of the law have been perpeuated in those extremely law abiding States. That is why they do not rank very high among the yirtuous.
 The same is true of New York city or rather of New York State because of the city. It's .'crime" record is pro digiously swelied by the rapid knife of the Italian, and the imported citizens of other nationalities.
 The records show that the very best people in the United States are the men and women of Ohio Out of every hundred thousand inhabitants of Ohio, only 54 commit serious crimes during year. And when the police report best they practically mean most honest. If you take any hundred crimes committed in this vast coun- try, you will find that 90 of them are thefts, burglaries or robberies
 The second, third, fourth and fifth l best States, that is. most honest, 1Vv4,, Ohio, like Indiana. Pennsylvania. Miss ouri and Kentucky. Those eonspie- u9Hs in the other direction are some of the Western States, particularly California. and some of the Southern States, including tive of the Gulf States.
 Some people will tell you that drunk tnness is the cause of all other crime. But the criminal annals show that there is no truth in this statement In the Eastern States twice as many in- dietable serious o1fenses are committed as in the Western States. But the i Western man becomes intoxicated three times to the Eastern man once.
 Assaults and other crimes of violence also seem to have small relation to dis honesty and very little connection with drink. The most violent of all are the people of Tennessee, but in point of honesty they are third best; and with regard to drink they occupy sixth place among the States.
 It is safe to say that almost every one has somehow formed the impress sion that the inhabitants of North Carolina are a shiftless as well as wicked set of people This, however, is one of those general impressions which will not stand investigation; it is a slur on the State which has fur nished excellent citizens and supplies magnificent scenery. As matter of stern fact North Carolina ranks bet ter than fourth in the pyramid of yir- tue formed by the various States and the cause of it's crimes, illiteraey, keeps them down to a somewhat innocuous or petty grade.