The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-03-19
American crIminaIity.

Seeing ourselves as others see US is
sometimes an advisable, if not always
a pleasurable, proceeding; but the citi-
zens of this country need not consult
foreign vision for a graphic picture OF
United States crime. There is always
a subconscious and satisfactory feeling
that foreign critics are eXaggerating be-
yond all credible bounds when they
write, as did the Englishman, Sydney
Brooks, in the London Chronicle a year
or two ago: ANY American who can
afford to engage a lawyer may commit
murder with almost complete i'm
punity. The odds are rather over sew
enty to one against his being executed.
l am not speaking at random, but am
summarizing the criminal statistics of
the last twenty years. They make APP
paIling reading They show that
America is the only country where the
proportion of murders to population is
positively on the increase"
Coming from a Britisher this testi-
mony may perhaps be regarded by
some as too highly colored by national
jealousy One of ourselves, however,
Mr.. Hugh c. Weir, contributes to a
Chicago periodical, The World Today,
an article on American criminality that
is calculated to stagger optimism and
silence Dragging about our incOmpara-
BILE greatness and glory. Here are a
few of Mr.. Weir's more striking state
ments.
I'm this country 10000 persons are
murdered every year-shet, strangled,
poisoned, stabbed or beaten with a club
or a sand-bag OF the murderers, two
in every 100 are punished. The remain
ing ninety-eight escape-absolutel
free! In many of our states, the pro-
portion of convictions is only half as
great. In Georgia, for instance, only
one 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 homicides do we secure a
conviction.
Chicago averages lis murders in a
year. In the same space of time Paris
records only fifteen murders and at
tempted murders. London, four times
the size of Chicago, has only twenty
murders. In the course of twelve
months, Georgia Ga typical example Of
the average American state) records
forty-five 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 muir.
der cases total more than the losses of
the British army in the Boer war. :.
There are four and half times as
many murders for every million of our
population today as there were twenty
years ago!
And our increased wickedness Is con-
fined to our own borders. In the march
of civilization, as applied to the pro-
lection of public life and public prop
perty, we have fallen woefully behind.
We may lead the globe in many things.
We assuredly lead it in crime. In 90
per cent of the homicides of Germany
the guilty person is brought to justice.
In Spain, the number of convictions is
IS per cent of the total number Of
crimes. In France it is 81 per cent; in
Italy, n per cent; in England, 30 per
cent. Do these facts-when offset
against our two convictions in every
100 murders-explain why our lawIess-
ness is increasing; why we have more
homicides every year than Italy, Aus
tria, France, Belbium, England, Ire