Tanana leader. [volume] (Tanana, Alaska) 1909-1910, 1910-05-05
MURDER AND INDIVIDUALITY

MURDER AND INDIVIDUALITY
According to Hugh G. Weir, writing in The World
Today not long ago. persons murdered in the
United States every year. There four and onehal
times many murders for every million Of population
today as there twenty years ago.
In endeavoring to point out for this Mr. Weir
lays the blame at the door of the American police He
Inmates that they fail to catch the murdere The Denver
Post defending the police seeks other and says
1.-The fault is national one and it lies in the contempt
the American people whole for restraint of any kind
Born of revolution and taught from the days of 176 that
defiance of authority is cardinal virtue the American
fairly worships at the shrine of Individual iberty-for
which he often mistakes unbrdled license. All the laws
made safeguard the liberty of CITIZEN to
Of crime and attempt to nict the prescribed
punishment is to raise an army in his defense. With
the exception of the foreign quarters in large Cities
venture the assertion that very very few murders
committed in this country where the murderer is not
rested But punishmenthat is another matter entirely,
and the failure Of conviction must be laid at the door
legislation of the lawyers the courts and above ALL of
the American people at large"
Mr. Weir laid the blame for the increase in the crime
of murder at the wrong doorand he assuredly ddthe
Post in crcsng him went wider of the mark In twenty
years. if murder has increased four and onehalf fold
to bear out the Posts contention the sentiment of ndvd
ua liberty must have increased in less degree during
the tme 1t has not done On the contrary the
last twenty have powerful forces set in
ton against individual liberty than in all the preceding
years Of American history The doctrine that individuals
have rights except such granted them by
authorized to act for the today has aderents
America than perhaps in any other country. There is
scarcely posoce any of the states territories where
publications not regularly distributed whose avowed
purposes to create solidarity to eradicate patriotism
and to destroy root and branch everything that partakes
the slightest degree of individualism.
Whatever the direct may be for the increase
the crime of murder it is not growing spirit of individual
liberty. Perhaps the provocao has increased than
the crimes the belief that the kicked dog ought not to bite
may many kicks but the dog does always
share in the belief
Seriously there is phase of this murder business
that deserves sober thought and it has to do with ndvd
ual responsibility. It is only too for maudlin
public sentiment to blame society when unusually
hdeous crime has been committed the ground that
perpetrator has drunk whisky smoked cigarettes OPIUM
through evil associations become morally weak and de-
pravedthe theory being that society ought to
and kept him strong and undeed The logic of the idea
is false it's effect demoraling Society must derive
its strength from the individual and to the
is to preserve the weak ct the expense of the strong
LAS result of the congressional discussion, Repre-
sentatives Foster of Vermont Kchn of North Carona
Wood of New Jersey Latta of Nebraska and Ssson and
Collier of Mississippi going to the trip to Alaska
this year and personally Investigate the conditions in the
territory" newspaper paragraph If the gentlemen