The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-05-15
A MURDEROUS COUNTRY.
Proportion of Homicidcs Larger
Here Than in Any Other Land.
CWorIds Work.

Judge Thomas of Alabama makes the
startling statement that in the year 1906
there were 11S homicides in the United
States for every million of population.
In Germany there were 4.6 to the mil
lion: in Canada. 1874; in Britain, 81.
The proportion in the United States is
larger than in any other advanced coun-
try Why is this so?
There will be many answers, but they
will gradually sift down to one, name
Iy. that the people of the United States
have not been properly taught respect
for law. either human or divine. The
law against murder is primarily di-
vine law, but it is also a human law
in every civilized country in the world.
AS such it depends for its enforcement
upon human agencies and upon the CO.
operation of the people whom it pro-
tects So long as the consequences of
the breaking of the law are not certain,
swift and terrible, so long will the
breaking of the law continue.
Here in the United States the chances
of conviction are probably less than in
any other civilized country. In the first
place, the police organizations in our
larger cities leave much TO be desired.
The machinery of detection is less near
lv perfect than it is in either London
or Paris. Of the twenty or more muir
ders that happen every day in this
country it is probably quite safe to say
that FIVE are not followed by the arrest
of the SLAYER OF the other fifteen, ten
are not followed. by conviction. Of the
last FIVE perhaps not more than half
bring men to the ga1lows or the electric
chair.
1t is easy to adduce other causes. the
negro population, the mixture of races
in the great cities, the ignorance and
iliiteracy prevalent not only in the low
er orders of the cities, but also in large
rural communities but these are very
small contributory causes. The quick
temper of the Italian immigrant might
be adduced but for the fact that even
Italy has had this last year smaller
percentage of murders than the United
States. The real cause must be faced
squarely 1t is our national disregard
of law, perhaps one might even say our
national contempt of law.
The voice of the law is not sufficient
ly terrible. Too many extraneous con-
siderations enter into the administration
of this terrible law which demands a
life for a life. Maudlin sentiment, the
plea of a child, the pressure of polit-
| icsl machine, the "unwritten law" If
you will. the actual expenditure Of
money in large quantities. the agitation
of the press-all these and many other
similar agencies have sufficed, at times,
| to turn aside the merited punishment
| of the murderer.
| The murder rate" is advancing in
| this country. 1t is time to face the
truth to put aside forever our half
way measures in the enforcement of the
stern. hard law that is our only safe
guard against the slayer. If there be
not in the United States a steadfast-
ness, a certainty. a sternness in the en-
| forcement of this law, such as there Is
| for instance. in Germany or in Canada
then the United States cannot hope tC
stay this terrible retrogression. How
many years will it be before we sink &c
the level of Mexico, where nearly IA;
men are slain each year out of every
million inha bitants?