The Sentinel=record., 1914-06-17
DECLARES INSULT
 POPULAR CRIME
UNUSUAL INSTANCE SHOWN IN WHICH LITTLE THINGS ARE
 TAKEN INTO COURT.
Magistrate Assesses a Fine Because Man Said He Would Not Want to Testify Before Such a Youth.

Berlin, June l6.- Insult, or beleide- Sung, as it is termed in Germany, is 'easily the most popular crime in the Fatherland. This is strikingly shown by statistics Of sucn cases for 1913. just issued. The report is that of the socalled Schiedsrichter, the official peacemakers before whom such cases must be brought in an effort to effect a compromise before recourse to the courts is had, The report shows total of more than 224,OO0 cases for the year.
 Thousands of these cases were un- dcubtedly due to the most trivial causes Newspaper reports of insult proceedings show cases like the fol- lowing.
 Man fined because, when a police man in citizens clothes declared him. self to he an officer, the culprit re. piled You look like it."
 Woman, wife of d striker. impris- oned because, as a group of strike breakers was passing, she "spat con tenptuously."
 Striker fined for saying Pew" as strike breakers were passing.
 Police lieutenant fined for saying to young man in the station house, Keep still, green youth"
 Socialist fined for sending socialist campaign literature to a Prussian policeman.
 Landrat Ca local official in great power in Prussia) fined for insulting young magistrate by declaring that he would not give his testimony to such a youth
 Socialist editor fined for insulting the public authorities by referring to many time convicted pander and petty thief as the crown witness" in allusion to the fact that a brother editor had been convicted in another case upon this mans testimony.
 That Prussian will have a Catholic majority in two or three generations is the conclusion of two writers, who separately have been studying the statistics of population. In 1875 out of every 1000 children born in we'd | lock- eos had Protestant parents, but by 1911 this number had sunk to 519. On the other hand, the number of l children of pure Catholic parentage rose in the same years from 339 to ] ms Tho gonpInefAp fg E Ia | the movement of the past 36 years continues uncaanged for another period Of equal length, the purely Catholic births will then be IFS, as compared with only I35 Protestant. | these figures leaves out of account the children of mixed marriages and those of Jewish parentage. It is in teresung Q note that the percentage 1 of Jewish bIlths has fallen more sharply than that of uhe Protestants; where there were ILL Jewish births per 1000 in 1875 there are only D. III 1911. The school statistics of Prussia strikingly confirm the move ment described above From 1886 to 1911 the gain of Protestant pupils in the common schools was S09,090. whereas the Catholic pupils gained 920000. In explaining the cause Of tnis movement 1t is pointed out thdt l Protestant population of Prussia is much wealthier than the Catholic, and it is also much more largely rep Presented in the big citles-and it is precisely among the wealthier classes and in the urban population that the birth rate has declined most sharply.
 The growing interest in athletic sports in Germany finds fresh illus tration in the opening by the Elm peror on May 2G of an extensive field for sports, to be used solely by the 14.000 students of Berlin University, the Charlottenburg Technical Unver- sity and the other educational insti- tutions of Berlin. The Emperor ani the Empress attended the dedication and the Prussian minister of educd- ton and public worship delivered the principal address. He described the rapid growth Of interest in athletics among German students, which he at trihuted 10 the impulse given by tlrs Emperor himself A great change, he said, had come over the students; ports and games. walking and rowing had become universal The grounds he added, had been given by ths Prussian state, which also bore tho expense of clearing them and erect ling the necessary houses. Th'
 grounds ase in the Grunewald, thC
 large forest lying half an hours rid'
 to the west of Berlin.