Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-02-21
CRIME IN AMERICA.

espccially given to crimes of Violence
irclud,na murder. Is a conviction that
has many times found expression In
the columns of this paper. we are
not surprised, therefore, to find TINS
belief fully confirmed by tabulated
facts, giving comparisons In crime pc
tween this country and the leading
European nations,
According to Hugh C. Weir in The
World of Today, while our police are
industriously gathering In the
"drunks," there are some 25o'oOo per-
sons whom the law never touches. but
who arc engaged In the Systematic
pursuit of crime ms business lie
ends. moreover. that 200 persons
week are being murdered In this coun-
t~y. while for such efforts as are being
made to repress OF punish it. crime Is
costing the nation sS.50oooo a day.
II is the graver crimes that escape
punishment here. The ordinary. low
class drunkenness and pilfer1ng. and
the various petty forms of criminality
arc far less evident in America than
in Europe, and are undoubtedly FAR
less prevalent Yet 1t is the prevcnta-
tion and punishment (and chiefly the
latter of the petty offenses Of the
weak and the paupcrized with which
our costly system OF law and Jurispru-
dence chiefly concerns itself.
Mr.. Weir finds that Chicago aver
ages lis murders In n year In the
same space OF time Paris records only
is murders and attempted murders.
: London, four times the size of Chi
cago has only 90 murders, In the
course of twelve months. Georgia-a
typical example of the average Amer
lean State-records As homicldes-or
more than the whole of the British
Empire! More people are murdered In
this country in a year than are killed
on the railroads In three years, tho
victims OF our murder cases total moro
than the losses of the British Army in
the Boer War. q.
Mr.. Weir says:
Ten thousand persons are murdered
in this country every year-shot, stran-
glcd. poisoned, stabbed, OF beaten with
q club or a sand-bag OF the murder
ers. 2 in every 100 arc punished The
remaining 9S escape-absolutely freei
In many OF our States. the proportion
of convictions is only half as great. In
Georgia, for instance. only murderer
In every 100 is punished. In a recent
census of American crime, digesting
the nation as a whole. the statement
was made that In only 1.3 per cent
of our homicldes do we secure a con-
vlction."
While In America, the number of
murders has increased four and a half
times for every million of our popua-
tion, the rest of the world shows no
such increase. The increased wlckod-
ness Is confined to our own borders.
"In the march OF civilization, as ap-
piled to the protection of public life
and public property" says Mr. Weir.
1--WE have fallen wofuly behind We
may lead the globe in many things
We assuredly lead It In crime In 95
per cent. of the homicides of Germany.
the guilty person Is brought to justice.
In Spain the number of convictions
is s5 per cent of the total number OF
crimes In France 1t Is 81 per cent;
in Italy. II per cent. in England. so
per cent"
This is the condition, long suspect
ed by many observers, that our coun-
try presents today. After our poets
and orators have concluded the rhap-
sodies and perorations America Is by
the actual facts. convicted of being tho
chief criminal nation of the world, Be-
hind our boasted (and really excellent
institutions OF government, the thug
and the assassin are operating with a
vigor and freedom duplicated no
where else in civilization.
What is tho reason for this appalling
fhilure of civil government in this
country Not that the people of the
Republic are naturally more inclined
TO crime and deeds of violence than
the people OF other nations: not at all
The explanation In that the few who
arc inclined to crime are not convict
ed
The police; in many instances. and
arc more OF less in league with the
criminal element In New York CITY
seyenty-nve per cent OF the criminals
arrested for lesser crimes In the red
light districts are freed by the ward
politicians. In Salt Lake City. nests
OF criminal and degraded humanity
arc hcrded together for the express
purposes and profit of immortality This
Is carried out under the apparent pro-
lection OF the police and the connivance
and participation OF certain. high city
officials themselves. In few other
cities. perhaps. Is the alliance between
city officials and these nests OF vice
which are the chief breeders of crlrno
and ruin, so open and fragrant as In
this city. And in no other of the
smaller American cities are the evil
results moro plainly manifest. Nightly
hold-ups, robberics. orgies of drunken
riot. and plague Of the Vices OF So
dom. arc all Haunted before the
public. TO the horror and alarm of the
whole populacc: yet these conditions
elicit from the rulers OF the political