The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-24
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 No doubt citizens of Birmingham Ala, would deny and debate the asser- ton that it IS the worst city m the United States. No doubt the eIIl1ens of Atlanta would deny and question the assertion that 1t was, barring one, the worst city In the United States, in pro- portion to it's population. But such is the showing made in the police statis- tics contained in a late census bulletin giving city statistics of all cities in the United States having a population over 25,oo0.
 The latest period covered by the in vestigation embraces the years 1903 and 1908 The police statistics for these years shows the number of em- ployes and the number 0f arrests. giV. ing the causes therefor. The arrests are classified as to the causes, such as drunkenness. including all arrests for drunkenness; disturbing the peace. tn- cluding all cases of disorderly conduct not Attributable to drunkenness: asz sault and battery. including murder. manslaughter, etc, or compiicity in same; vagrancy, including arrests Of beggars. tramps. loafers and all per- sons without visible means of support; housebreaking. including burglary and all kinds of breaking and entering: larceny. including both grand and
 
 ! etc, and all other offenses, etc.
 Besides New Orleans, which Is cias- l siied with the group of cities having over Soo.o0o inhabitants. the Southern States, in 1903, had twenty-one cities I with a population over 25.ooo. They were. ranking as to population in the order named, the following:
 Memphis, Atlanta, Richmond, Nash vile, Savannah, San Antonio, Charles ton, Norfolk. Houston. Dallas. Bir- mingham, Little Rock, Augusta, Mo- bile. Knoxville, Montgomery, Jackson vile, Galveston, Chattanooga. Lexing- l ton and Fort Worth.
 Of these cities Atlanta shows the greatest number of arrests--l6 ,oSs--to population of 75.55o. Memphis had 6,054 arrests to a population of 1is.sss. Birmingham had 12,ss7 arrests to a population of s2,0S7. Nashville had l0,s3S arrests to a population of S2,27b. This shows for Memphis during the year one person in ever fs.77 arrested: for Atlanta. one in every 6; for Nash- vile, one in every I.4; for BirminG- ham. one in every S.27.
 Whether or not there is more viola tfon of law in one city than another. or whether the police are more vigil lant or superserviceable in one conn munity than another, the statistics and their commentaries give no hint, the student of the sociological side of the information may draw his own conclu- sions. Nevertheless. it is a fact that 9,799 persons were arrested for disor- derly conduct in Atlanta in 1903. The next city to Atlanta in number of arr rests for this offense was Birmingham, with 3,015. As bad as Birmingham was about violating the law, Atlanta people disturbed the peace three times as often as the folks of the Aiabama city. According to the figures of the census. Memphis has the best police record of all Southern cities in the proportion of arrests to population. The citizens who watch the police can tell whether this is to the credit of the city or to the discredit of the police.
 As drunkenness is populariy pre-. sumed to be a large source of viola ton of. the law and assault and battery and vaErancy offenses frequently tnci~ dental to inebriety. the figures for the twenty-one Southern cities under arr rests for these three causes along with the number of saloons in each city, may be worth considering:
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