The Columbus journal. (Columbus, Neb.) 1874-1911, 1910-03-30
THE COST OF CRIME.

Hugh C. Weir in THE World To-
day." calls attention to the fact that
the United States is the worst crime.
ridden countryon the face of the globe.
He says: "Ten thousand persons are
murdered in this country every year
shot, strangled, poisoned, stabbed or
beaten with q club or q sand bag. Of
the murderers, two in every hundred
are punished. The remaining ninety
eight escape-absolutely free! In
many of our states, the proportion Of
convictions is only half as great. In
Georgia, for instance, only one muir
derer in every hundred is punished.
In a recent census of American crime,
digesting the nation as q whole. the
statement was made that in only 1.3
per cent of our homicides do we secure
a conviction. Chicago averages 1ls
murders in a year. In the same space
of time, Paris records only fifteen
murders and attempted murders.
London, four times the size of Chicago,
has only twenty murders. In the
course of twelve months, Georgia.
typical example oftbe average AmeIi.
can state-records forty.fve homicides
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, the victims of our murder cases
total more than the losses of the Brit
ish army in the Boer war. This Is the
land of the free and the home Of the
brave. This is the country that first
proclaimed liberty to men, that rose
against the tyranny of kings and insti'
tuted a government by and Of and fol
the people. On occasions Of patriotic
addresses, we are FOND of referring Il
our nation as the model republic of the
world. In 1867, we went to war in
order to set the black man in our Dor
ders free from the ownership IF the
white man. In 1898, we went to wal
again in order to set the black man on
an island outside our borders free from
the tyranny Of white mel across az
ocean. We have said to ourselves, and
to the world, that this country shall
represent mans goal Of all that ]:
good and great in government, that il
shall be the champion of freedom and
Justice, whether for the individual OF
the many, and, in proof Of al this, 9
sculptor fashions wonderful statue Ol
liberty, which We set at the mouth o.
our principal harbor as a beacon to thu
stranger. And now we discover thai
when our poets and our orators and
our artists have finished telling of oul
greatness and our glory, We have fos
tered wickedness and lawlessness n
has no other nation in the world; that
behind our boosted institutions of gov
eminent, the thug and the thief and
the assassin are operating with vigo'
and a freedom duplicated nowhere else
in civilization. And our crime and
wickedness are steadily increasing
There are four and q half times a
many murders for every million of ouI
population today as there were twenty
years ago. The significant fact about
it all is that the rest of the world does
not share these statistics. Our increas'
ell wickedness is confined to our OWL
borders. In the march of civilization
as applied to the protection of public
life and public property. we have fallen
woefally behind. We may lead the
globe in many things. We assuredly
lead it in crime. In ninety.fve pei
cent of the homicides of Germany, the
guilty person is brought to justice. Ia
Spain, the number of convictions is
eighty.tive per cent of the total mum
Der of crimes. In France, it is sixty.
one per cent; in Italy, seventy.seveu
per cent; in England. fifty per cent
Do these facts-when offset against
our two convictions in every hundred
murders-explain why our lawlessn 81
is increasing; why We have more homi'
cides every year than Italy. Austria,
France. Belgium, England, Ireland,
Scotland, Spain, Hungary, Holland
and Germany combined. These are
not theories. They are facts. These
are not the haphazard claims Of fancy.
They are the tested. proved figures Of
record, open to all who will search
to you as we'll as to me. What is
wrong? What is the reason for our
murders, which do not heed even the
cover of darkness? Why are We 50
much more wicked than our neighbors!
xhv do other countriea punish the