Semi-weekly herald., 1910-01-31
THE MENACE OF THE POLICE.
BY Hugh c. Weir, in the World Today

| Ten thousand persons are murdered
in this country every year-shot, stran-
gled. poisoned. stabbed or beaten with
a club or n sandbag. OF the murder
ers. two in every hundred are pun
ished. The remaining ninety-eight es-
cape-absolutely freel In many of
our states. the proportion of convic-
tiops is only half as great, In Georgia,
for instance, only one murderer In
every hundred is punished. In re.
cent census OF American crime, di-
| gesting the nation as whole, the
statement was made that In only l.S
per cent of our homicides do we Sc
cure a conviction.
Chicago averages iis 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 ex
ample of the average American state
records forty-five homicides-more
than the whole of the British empirel
More people are murdered in this
country in n year than are killed on
the railroads. In three years, the vic.
Tins of our murder cases total more
than the losses of the British army in
the Boer war.
This is the land of the free and
the home of tn brave. This Is the
country that first proclaimed liberty
TO men, that rose against the tyranny
of kings and instituted government
by and of and for the people On ac.
casions of patriotic addresses. we are
fond of referring to our nation as the
model republic of the world. In 1861,
we went to war in order TO set the
black man in our borders free from
the ownership of the white man. In
1898, we went to war again In order
to SET the black men on an island out
!slde our borders free from the tyranny
oi white men across an ocean. We
have said to ourselves, and to the
world, that this country shall repre-
sent mans goal OF all that is good
and great in government, that II shall
be the champion of freedom and jus.
tice, whether for the individual or
the many, and, In proof of this. a
sculptor fashions a wonderful statue
OF liberty, which we set at the mouth
os our principal harbor AS a beacon
to the stranger.
And now we discover that when our
poets and our orators and our artists
have finished telling OF our greatness
and our glory. we have fostered wick.
edness and lawlessness as has no other
nation in the world; that, behind our
boasted institutions Of government, the
thug and The thief and the assassin
are operating with vigor and Il free.
dom duplicated nowhere else in civi.
lization. And our crime and wicked
ness are steadily increasing.
There are four and half times
as many murders for every million OF
our population today as there were
twenty years ago
The significant fact about II all is
that the rest of the world does not
share these statistics. Our increased
borders In the march of civilization
as applied to the protection of pub
lie life and public property. we have
fallen woefully behind We may lead
| hn uIr in NJ,
edly lead 1t In crime. In 95 per cent
of the homicides of Germany, the gull
ty person is brought to justice In
Spain, the number of convictions Is
crimes. In France. It is 61 per cent
in Italy. n per cent; in England, so
per cent. Do these facts-when off
sci against our two convictions In
every hundred murders-explain why
our lawlessness is increasing; why we
have more homicides every year than
Italy, Austria, France. Belgium, Eng
land. Ireland, Scotland. Spain, Hun.
, gary, Holland and Germany combined
, There 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 viii search--to you as well as
, to me. They form the reason of my
/ probe through our departments of pub
lie safety. 1t was because Of them
, because of what they told and what
they failed to tell-that | entered on
the winding trail which was to lead
me through the ranks OF our lawmak-
ers and our lawbreakers.
= What is wrong? What is the reason
for our murders, which do not need
even the cover of darkness? Why are
we so much more wicked than our
neighbors? Why do other countries
punish the evildoer and we do not !?
Why are those governments, which we
, have been accustomed to view with
scorn and contecpt, able to protect
, their citizens and homes, while our
, government, which we have held forth
, as n model to the world. so shame.
, fully falls? l have gone to the men