Bisbee daily review., 1911-11-05
ANTONIO STELLA, Nj. D.


 have deterrent effect It is for the alienist to say whether press suicide reports tempt others But fl We were not so modest we might suggest that bank footing Is a much less popular pest!ne in New York today than 1t 'Sas a few months ago Well adver- ised punishments for suicide might effect a similar distaste in those tempted"
 Suicides Decreasing.
 The 1910 United States bulletin on the suicide death rate put suicide at No. F in its list of Twenty Leading Causes Of Death" Such diseases as tuberculosis. pneumonia. heart dis ease and levers head the list, with cases running from 10000 to S1.720 deaths in 1909 The census report shows S,402 suicides in the country in 1909, with S.s32 cases for 1908.
 This merely numerical increase in l909 Is due 10 the greater accuracy shown in the 1910 census taking. the report continues. The wide dispro- portion besween our large population gain in 1900 and this small three per cent. increases in suicides reported proves a steady and real decrease in self-murder in the United States" The Chicago Tribune's annual poll Of the country, published on January I.lsl0, cited 10S52 suicide cases in 1909, and l0,230 in 1909. or a decrease. The suicide death rate has de | creased in cities" admits Frederick ! Huffman in his annual careful Spec | tator report for 1908 Huffman has collected data for 15 years in Ameri- cas- 65 largest cities, based on the sucide percentage in every 100000 | population unit He found the suicide rate for every I00. 1000 population unit in 1894 to be l6 per cent His l 1909 report. which tallies closely with the census bulletin on city suicides, shows the decrease in the 65 cities 10 be I97 for 1909. New York city had the still lower rate Of 1S.9 in 1909, the greatest city Of the country having | reported 1I6 cases less in 1909 than in 1908.
 Suicides in Election Years.
 The Huffman statistics for the Is years covered show a suicide percent age which rises and falls, the highest lhgure being 21 and fraction. Sev eral years saw it rise higher than 1909 and these were notably the years of presidential elections.
 1 That physicians and surgeons head the list of suicides" all these reports agree, the census bulletins included That report goes on to say: We find contrary to superstition. the agricul tural population at the foot of the sui eide death rate. Lawyers, especially younger ones. stand next 10 physicians iOther professions and trades con tribute cases as follows: Agents bookeepers, salesmen. servants. walt CTS. barters, and agricultural laborers The most common causes Of suicide 1T 1909 were found to be despondency 1 rec; unknown causes. 1. .467; insanity 559. domestic infelicity. SS4; Il health. 936: business losses, ST; liquor l5O: disappointment in love. 245. | Is noted that the sI suicides in 190' for business despondency show a de crease from 600 suicides for tha cause in 1908. The most common means Of suicide used was poison, il 2,s46 cases; then followed. asphyxia by gas. sss: cutting instruments. 536 drowning. 507; jumping from higl places. l56; crushing, S4; unspecife' means. 5s."
 The Huffman report explains th l city suicide as produced by the 1T tensity of modern life and generall attempted by sane but desperate mer because they think death Is bette chan life. Our figures show th above cause to be more common tha
 mental diseases or by any industria pressure on labor. Generally speal ing. the American leisure class pro duces more suicides than the Workin 2 and middle classes Bankers an brokers. after careers of fraud and di' sipaucn. consider suicide as the onl
 Alternative. So do tired society pe'