Omaha daily bee., 1901-03-22
EPLDEMICS OF CRIME.


No one who has been at all faithful
In reading the newspapers during the
last few months can have failed to
notice the unusually large number Of
crimes committed during that time and
the violent public outbreaks which they
have engendered No note of petty
offenses Is taken in this In fact. IL is
apparent that minor infractions of the
criminal law are not so numerous as
in many other similar periods. Muir
ders in which peculiarly atrocious cir
cumstances figure. robberies In which
large sums are involved and in which
the perpetrators exhibited great bold.
ness, assaults upon women and kid.
naping stand out as the most common.
With the solitary exception of kid.
naping there would appear on the sur
face no moving cause for this epidemic
of crime which has swept over the
country. The ease with which such n
large sum was extorted from Mr..
Cudahy undoubtedly stimulated the
preparation of this class of crime, but
the relentless search for the perpetra-
tors and the failure to secure rewards
elsewhere is having the effect of stop
ping this new criminal industry. Ordi-
narily an unusual number of murders
can be accounted for by the fact that
the public mind Is inflamed by some
great issue or event, when nerves and
passions are tense and IL only requires
tha aliyhtost nroyocotion for no sinns IN
break their bounds. No such condition
exists at present. The country Is quiet;
no great political or social questions
divide or agitate the people Times of
great public distress, when men are out
Of work, hunger and possible starvation
which prompt desperate men to take
from those who have and appropriate it
to their own use. The people of this
country are today more generally EN-.
ployed. better clothed and better fed
than ever before in its history.
There Is II moving cause in this world
for everything which happens. Human
passions do not move as the idle caprice
| of the March wind. One cause will ac-
count for portion of the crimes. The
| commission of one starts others along
the same channel of thought and to
the same results. This will furnish the
| clue TO the sequence of similar crimes
accomplished by similar methods, but
| there is broader cause beyond this
| Many who have watched the current of
popular thought and the growth of Gus
| tom and law see the pendulum swing
| backward to puritanical ideas, TO the
| theory of government which would
make the law the regulator Of every
| mans habits and of his comings and
goings. This drift is noticeable in the
| closing of places of amusement, which
are of themselves harmless, on Sun
| day; in the designation as crimes of
things which the statute books formerly
failed to recognize and the branding as
criminals of those who violate these
laws. The men and women thus
branded are relegated to the society of
criminals and ultimately in many in
stances develop genuine criminal in
stincts. Such laws violate the first
principles OF tnc correct lreullnenl VI
criminals and the eradication of crime,
the object of which should be to raise
up those who ar not lost in crime and
| to put those whose cases are hopeless
beyond the power of doing harm.
| Puritanical legislation is adding to the
class which tends toward crime and
| from which comes the overt act which
| follows in the wake of the example of
others. An epidemic of crime cnsues.
such as is manifest in recent months,
| which subsidies for n time when the
strong arm of the law is reached out
| effectively.
| The correct solution of the social
problem Is to build up to better things
those who are raised in the atmosphere
of crime and not recruit the class from
those who are not criminals by brand.
ing them as such for the committing of
petty offenses, or robbing them of the
opportunity for pastime and pleasures
which are not harmful; to seek them
with those who court pleasure and recre-
alton IN defiance of law.