Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-27
CRIME MENACES
SOCIETY'S LIFE
REPORT TO CONGRESS TELLS
APPALLING STORY
official Figures of Leading Countries
Testify to Increased Percent
age of Insanity and
Suicide

Crime-the invasion Of individual
ri~hts-in the view of the Prison Re
form league-saps the very life blood
of society, converting its most product
i've asset, man, into a ruinous liability
From an economic standpoint the un-
fortunate lunatic is in the same class
as the criminal, for he, too, must be
fed. clothed and housed at the expense
of the producer; while he who commits
suicide serves notice on the public that
L considers its civilization a failure
and declines further cooperation. An
increase of any one of these classes,
therefore, works for the impoverish-
ment of society; an increase of all
three threatens it with ultimate bank
ruptcy. In the light of which obser-
vations we pick up statistics of Crime,
Suicide, Insanity and Other Forms of
Abnormality," prepared for the benefit
of Congress by Arthur Mcdonald,
specialist in the United States bureau
of edu .ation, and submitted to the SEN
ate by Platt of New York, December 3,
1902. 1t begins with the following SOM
Der statement:
''It may be said, with few exceptions,
that within the last thirty or forty
years there has been an increase (rel-
alive to population) in crime, suicide,
insanity and other forms of abnormal
ity. This is the general verdict of the
official statistics of the leading coun-
tries of the world"
The alarming allegation then follows
that increasing education, looked to
by former generations with such con-
fidence as a panacea, has proved fall
ire. eff we take in our own country"
says the report, 1.-The group of states
that show the greatest education and
intelligence, as the north Atlantic,
north central and western, we find that
tbey also exceed it's patho-social evils,
as insanity, suicide, nervous diseases,
Juvenile criminals and almshouse pau
pers."
In a brief discussion of the causes
of these most serious conditions much
stress is laid on the rush of modern
civilization, the criticism being that
'iyyhen the nerves are uDstrung by over
pressure the will may become weak,
depression and pessimism set in and
loss of self-control follow, with its sub
seuuent abnormal actions leading on to
crime and other social evils" In other
words that, given certain conditions,
crime inevitably will result-a conclu-
sion that gives the death-blow to the
philosophy of revenge.
But, unhappily, to tell the masses OF
mankind that they will become health
1er ana Sdn6I WIlC1l NlAg AAAC 0bSA~
becomes less desperate is like telling
the public that it will become more
moral when 1t is more moral. The real
question is why civilization has brought
with it this nerve-racking, sanity-de-
stroying struggle, and fortunately the
report in question, pref ared in connec-
tion with bills to establish a laboratory
for the study of the criminal, pauper
and defective classes, gives us some ass
TW, m nd 1fg~
il is stated that the laboratory will be
used for the gathering of sociological
data. and that especially the causes
of social evils shall be sought out,
with view to lessening or preventing
them" From what has been said Ia
ready it will be sufficiently obvious
that the growing insistence on the
necessity of searching for those causes
cannot be regarded as the work of any
particular set of agitators, but rather
as the determination Of the race to save
its life. That this is not too strong a
statement will, we venture to assert, be
shown by an examination of the au-
thoritative figures with which this re-
port tristles;
Education No Check
After demonstrating that in the pre-
ceding thirty years there has been
of primary, secondary and higher ed
ucation and a most marked increase in
the number of libraries and literature
placed at the disposition of the public,
the report proceeds to the considera-
ton of the increase Of patho-social
phenomena" The first point touched
is the stress of commercial life, but 1t
is dismissed with this curt remark:
1.-THE number of failures from 1857 to
o1r ar-f four fold
that Is, much faster than the popula-
tion. But the amount per failure has
decreased in about the same ratio; that
is, the increase has been with the
smaller dealers" Proof of this is given
in a brief table, taken from Mulhalrs
Dictionary of Statistics.
There follows a review of the evil
effects of the condensation Of popula-
tion in large cities, a few representa-
tive states and centers being selected
for the purposes of comparison. Ex-
haustive figures from the census are
given to show the great increase in
deaths from alcoholism and suicide in
the cities as compared with the states.
In deaths by alcoholism New York
City leads, with rate of 2ll per mil
lion. Then come Boston, 1SO; san
Francisco, 1T, and the state of Cali
fornia, as a whole, 143. No other states
or cities get into double figures.
In the matter of suicide California
fares even worse, for San Francisco
heads the list with a rate of 297 per
million, and the state as a whole
comes second with 100. The figures
for Los Angeles are not given. Then
follow st. Louis, 177; Chicago, 1853; New
York City, 149, and Boston, 120. If,
as many not unreasonably suppose,
suicide is the supreme test of unhap-
Diness, the Golden State has proved
a cruel step-mother to her children.
Cities Fare Worst
It is made clear by the tables that
alcoholism vice that is often the
offspring of despair-and suicide ravage
the city far more than the rural popu-
lation, and Mulhall's Dictionary of
Statistics is again cited as authority
for the statement that within the thirty
years. from 1860 to 1890, the popula-
ton of cities of $4,000 inhabitants and
over increased $50 per cent while that
of cities under $4,000, and of the rural
districts increased only so per cent-a
startling discrepancy.
The growth of insanity is prodigious;
the figures, taken from the United
States census. showing that within the
thirty years, from 1860 to 1890, the in
sane have increased in numbers from
765 per million to 1897, and the feeble
minded from 602 to 1926.
In the ten years, from 1880 to 1890
the number of criminals in prison in
creased from rate of 1859 per million
to one of 1915, and of juvenile criminals
from 229 to 237
Recapitulating it is found that the
North Atlantic states hold an unenvi-
able supremacy in the matter of in
sanity. with the western states second;
Ta4f "a VI