Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1904-12-02
NATION in CRIME GRIP.
Figures Show Startling Increase In
Hou1ic:(as in Race-,t Yeors

Figures Show Startling Increase In
Homic;des in Recent Years.
There are at present four and half
tunes as many murders mad homicides
tor each million of people in the United
States as there were in 1851
With this statement OF fact, based
upon statistics. S. S. Mcclure, in the
current number of McClure's Magazine,
makes startling showing of the in
crease of lawlessness in this country, and
follows with a singing criticism of the
reign of Il criminal oligarchy,' of chron-
&c nfraction of the law by many classes
and Of general failure in the enforce
ment of the statutes. to which causes
the condition is attributed. Comments
Gil the prevalence Of crime and lawless
ness, taken almost at random from rep
resentatiye and serious newspapers and
from published statements of judges and
citizens, form the supporting evidence.
Conditions il Chicago are strikingly
set forth by comparisons with the GRIM
NAL records of the two lending cities of
Europe. London, with an area of 6SS
square miles and a population Of G,5O0,-
UUo, had tWenty-fOur murders last year.
There was no undiscovered crime" as
the mGrderers were all arrested except
In four cases, where they committed sui
eide
Chicago, with less than one-third of the
population and area covered by the Lon
don or metropolitan police, had 1913 homi
cides. In eighteen cases the murderers
were killed at the time of the crime or
committed suicide; four other cases were
those of officers who did the killing in
the performance of their duties, leaving
lO6 cases for the police to work upon.
Out of that number thirty-four convic-
lions We're secured, while in nineteen
cases no arrest was made, and in fifty
three cases arrests did not result in con-
viction. Only one man was hanged in
Chicago.
In Paris only fifteen murders or at
tempted murders were committed in the
same period. More than eight times as
many murders in Chicago as in Paris, six
times as many as in London.
In the United States last year there
were 1916 murders and homicides in a
population of about SOO00,00O. In 1881,
when the population was $780, 900,
there were only ,266 crimes of this class.
The high record was reached in 1896,
when there were 1864 murders and
homicides in a population of 100000.
In 1899 conditions improved, but since
then they have steadily grown worse.
The loss Of life through crime is made
more prominent when compared with ia
talities in war and on railroads. In three
years the horlicides in the United States
numbered 81 ,395. The British loss in
the Boer war was $4,000 In the same
nnrio1 tbnpa lyi11n1 roi1 rooIS 81
S47. These figures were given recently
in a charge to a grand jury by Judge
Thomas of Montgomery, Ala.
Violence attending labor troubles, the
burning of negroes, lawlessness in Colo
RADIO, riots and murders in New York are
referred to in detail, and the following
summary of conditions in few locali-
ties is made:
Pittsburg reports twenty-six murders
between Jan. 1 and Nov. II last. In
twelve cases there was no arrest.
In San Francisco since Oct. IA, 1893,
there have been ia murders, exclusive
of Chinese killings. No one has been
sent to the 'gallows, and in forty-seven
cases there has been no arrest.
In recent years there have been TWEEN
ty-eight assassinations in one county
(Breathitt in Kentucky, the victims in
Guiding three women.
South Carolina had 222 homicides in
1903.
A Georgia judge recently declared
from the bench that more homicides were
committed in that State than in the
whole British empire. There one per-
son in a hundred is convicted and pun
ished, while in England one in three is
made to suffer.