The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-08-25
19oe's SUICIDE RECORD.

New York Times: One is almost
tempted TO take gloomy view of our
complex American civilization on
looHrE over the suicide record for
last year published last week by The
Spectator, a life insurance journal OF
this city, to find that Il, 500 persons
deliberately took their own lives. This
feeling Of discoura cement is not les
scned by a comparison of these figures
with the records for previous years.
y ~ :IsIe that the unofficial estimate
for 1908 is not greater than the actual
record for 1908. But. the latter was
The GREATEST suicide year fl the his
tory OF the country, due in large meas
ure ii was thought, to the after effects
OF the 1907 panic. For fair .compari-
SOM must en1bIa ace a considerable
number OF years, and then the almost
mbroken increase becomes apparent;
the excessive sacrifice Of lives little
short OF appalling.
In 1890 sixty-hve leading American
cities showed a population of t0903,-
AL, 1,34S suicides, and a suicide rate
OF 14.3 per 100000 population, Five
years later these cities had increased
In population 20 12,623.983, with 1909
suicides, or 1873 suicides for every 10O,-
900 persons. In 1900 the rate was 16S
1873 in 1903 and 20.7 In 1904. There
was a Slight falling off in suicides for
the next three years, a period of gem
eral prosperity, but the panic in the
fall Of 1907 sent the rate again above
20 per cent, and there IL remains. The
fun force OF the increase Is at once
seen by he close association OF the
rates, 1873 and 200, at the two ex-
tremes of the 20-year period.
Frederick L. Hoffman, who ana
lyzed the figures for The Spectator,
has been able to draw some interest
ing conclusions. Forty two of the
sixty-fve cities for which the rec
ords are complete show an increase
for last year over 1908, the slight de-
crease in each of the three remain
ing twenty-three cities alone bringing
down the average a point below the
high-record rate of the year before.
The increase was greatest in Denver,
or 22.2 per cent, followed by Salt Lake
| City with 22.1, and Hoboken with %
| per cent. The highest actual rate in
| 1909 prevailed in San Francisco, with
I OS'S ShiNAtAS 4OA y &NUSObU pOpu1d-
ton. Oakland. on the opposite side
! of San Francisco bay, came next with
a rate Of 55.1, and Hoboken third, with
a $40 rate. interestingly, Mr.. Hoff-
man finds the same cities maintaining
| their high suicide rates from year to
year with almost unbroken, regularity
1t is actually significant, however, and
not readily explained, that most OF
| the cities returning highest suicide
rates contain proportionately large
| Teutonic populatio
! Perhaps the most striking conclu-
sion is to be drawn from study Of the
methods resorted to by those bent or
ending il ALL" 1t is that, after all
the suicide is at heart coward. This
has been asserted often, but here
seems capabie OF mathematical dem
onstrations. The large number OF
suicides, or as per cent out OF 9
total of IA per cent for five years
l900-1905, resorted to poison, AWAY.
considered towards weapon, while
IL per cent employed in asphyxiation
closely related to drugs in the sense
OF ease and absence of blood. Sucf
methods as hanging, cutting, JUMPING
from high places, and crushing, all O
which hurt, are occasionally heard OF
but the records show they are no
popular