The Washington herald., 1907-08-11

Now that the excitement over the so
called crime wave in New York has
subsidized. it is seen that il was simply
the product Of newspaper exaggeration
of ordinary criminal conditions in
crowded city. Those who are in a posi-
ton TO know says the New York Even
ing Post, magistrates. judges, and char
ity workers. now lift up their voices TO
say that the record OF this summers
crimes is not az abnormal one. but that
the police and hospital blotters are merely
being Transcribed in the press without
the usual selection and rejection" That
is, crimes which would ordinarily pass
unnoticed have been given prominence in
the newspapers, which have printed ac-
counts of them by no means free from
inaccuracy, where they were not absO-
Iutely untruthful. and the daily criminal
business OF the police and the courts
has been punched so as 70 give an effect
Of something quite extraordinary. II
would not be difficult in any large city to
create a crime wave" Of this character
Simply gather the doings of the under
world. commonly ignored In the news col
umns, or given snly a passing mention,
and display them with sufficiently start
ling headlines, and you have all the in
gradients of a crime wave. Add to
that hysterical injunctions TO citizens 70
take the law into their own hands. and
you supply incentive 10 riot and public
panic.
The responsibility Of the press for con-
diuons like those which have digraced
New York during the past week or so is
a serious one. 1t is doubtless as well
known TO yellow journalists as it is to
criminologists that the volume of crime
in any community is tolerably constant
and that just about so many crimes
against the person and so many against
property may be expected to occur in any
given period Yet the yellow journalists
ignoring this great fact o. human ma
ture, have played upon the ignorance and
credulity of their readers by representing
that the ordinary volume Of crime, which
becomes known. as a rule. only through
criminal statistics, is a sensational de-
velOpment Of the moment, due to tenn
porary and evanescent causes, instead OF
10 permanent and continuously operating
causes, If it were possible to chronicle all
the fits of bad temper displayed in a COM
munity. it would be easy enough to make
it appear that wave of anger was sweep
ing over the Populace. but the fact would
have no significance save its demonstra-
ton that the bad traits of humanity still
assert themselves So the crime wave, q"
being simply a distorted picture Of COM
mon fact proves nothing but that the
evil propensitles Of human nature exist
and manifest themselves pretty steadily.
even though that unhappy circumstance
be not proclaimed in red headlines every
DAY of the year. 1t may seem astonishing
that so many hundreds Of women and
children fall victims of mans lust in a
city like New York every year. as if some
cruel fate apporuoned an annual toll Of
human virtue to the monster of passion;
yet it happens. not in waves of crime,
but with persistent regularity that is
one OF the awful things OF human exist
enCe. And there is no possible chance
that anything yellow journals can do will
mitigate the criminal propensities of
mankind. We know that nearly or quite
i0.000 persons viii commit murder in this
country during the next twelve months,
but what sort Of newspaper agitation or
journalistic Mysteries would avail 10 pre-
vent Shat terrible slaughter?
TO the preventable causes Of crime must
be added sensational newspaper exploita-
ton of criminal dofngs. The duty of tbs.
press with respect to criminal news is to
minimize and not TO exaggerate it. TO hold
Up the criminal 10 the execration. not
the admiration, of the crowd, and to pre-
serve sanity in the description of and in
comment on horrible and unusual crimes.