The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-26
CRIME IN CHICAGO.

The city of Chicago Is fast earning a reputation for crime and general law lessness that must be sickening to all good citizens. In recent issue The Journai uses this language:
 Law is not respected. Justice Is not feared Crime Is not punished. Crim- day days q s'i woman is seized Jx T in one es of the the most respectable of residence streets carried of by maip force. outraged, murdered. The next evening 2 .. eis,zen as the business district, stabbed so cru- ely that he cannot recover, robbed and left to die. The bandits are unknown.
 Another day a man Is held up in broad noon, beaten and robbed on an elevated railway platform on the loop, and the robbers are permitted to make citizens and disappear. X woman re- turns in the afternoon to find a burg lar in her flat. He kills her and van ishes.
 Two women, stroiIing after dinner in a fashionabie South side residence street. are assaulted by a footpad. one of them runs away; the. other is mur- dered The footpad escapes.
 There is a good deal more of the same sort. but that shows what one of the newspapers says of the condl- tions. We have no cause to believe that it exaggerates, for the other pa pers of the city are continually refer ring to the Iawlessness existing there. | The city has 5000 policemen, but at a recent meeting of the Council the Chief 1 of Police stated that at least 700 of 1 them are useless on account of age, Iaxiness or too much fat, and the Coun- ell passed an order allowing the em- l ployment of 500 more men. That makes total of $500 policemen in all, or, deducting the alleged useless ones, 1 there are $500 serviceable men on the i force, yet they seem unable to keep ] even decent order.
 Chicago Is a large city, with popn- Iation of nearly or quite 100000, and l in the population is some of the worst l clements on the continent. It Is not strange that there Is crime there, but 1t is strange that there should be so much of it. and that it should Haunt itself in the very faces of the police 1 and other authorities. That it is be- coming unbearable is not to be won dered at. but it is something of sur prise to find The Journal saying:
 Resort to lynch law would disgrace the community in the eyes of the whole world. However great might ne its | immediate benefits. in making lie m 1 result would be to bring justice into 1 even greater contempt than at present. 1 But there are some things so far be- good seems necessary, even at the cost l of ultimate evil. Let that be remem- 1 bered. One thing is certain: Chicago can not go~en much longer under the present criminal reign of terror. I While this language does not exactly advise iynching 1t borders on it, and that method of dealing with criminals may be resorted to. As said by the famous Edmund Burke; There Is a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue" and when that limit is passed law is forgotten. Unless conditions ini- prove we may yet hear of Vigilance Committees in Chicago and the result win not be pleasant from any point of view.
 But 1t seems that even the increase in the force above alluded to is not suf- ficient in the estimation of the Anti Crime League" and that organization asks that the police force be increased at once by the addition of 1000 more men, and that immediate steps be taken
 to rid the force of all inefficient men It is further proposed that in order te
 pay the expenses of the increased po-
 lice force all liquor licenses be in- creased from $500 to $1,0OO a year. Il is evident that the good sentiment oi the city proposes to mend matters, Il
 such thing is possible.
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