The sun., 1918-10-19
Cities where Men Find the Least
to live fsr.

The war has taken from Hoboken
the unenviable distinction Of being
among the American cities having an
abnormal percentage Of suicides. In
the first dozen years of this century
the German pier town lost annually,
through suicide, thirty-three in each
100000 Of population. The statisti-
clan was then obliged to cross the
Rockies to find a gloomier people
than Hoboken's. Now what change {!
In an article in the Spectator Mr..
FREDERICK L. HOFFMAN, the eminent
insurance statistlcian, shows that the
Hoboken suicides were last year only
twelve In 100000. Is 1t because the mil
ltary population has been so largely
Increased, or because the German i'm
migrants, to whom Hoboken was the
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES disappolnting-of
the New World, no longer arrive?
Unfortunately for California, her
cities still hold the lead in suicides.
San Francisco. which until 1911 had
long been at the top Of the black list
with rate OF about 80 In 100000, has
given way to San Diego, but the great
town Of the Pacific Is second with
41.6. Sacramento and Los Angeles
come next, and only Toledo separat ties
Oakland from her sisters. Why Is 1t
that the curse Of suicide rests 30 heav-
lily upon a region that calls itself
blessed in its climate. In the gifts Of
the earth and In the character of Its
people? Is 1t that 1t is the refuge Of
Eastern people who go there in broken
health and who become homesick and
respondent? Denver. which Is n dis.
tant health resort. has large per.
oentage of suicides, but 1t does not ap-
proach the Coast cities record. Per-
haps the trouble with California Is
that the climate is too even and there
Is not the conflict with the elements
that stimulates the man of the East.
Some might expect to find the sui
CELEBRATE large where the factory sys.
tenn is strongest. yet Fall River has a
rate Of only 6. while Newport's rate
Is %. Are high wages conducive to
love Of life? Maybe. but Detroit,
which had Is suicides in 100000
population a dozen years ago, re-
corded "a last year, making her
the eighth city on the ignoble list.
On the other hand, Bridgeport,
Conn.,, which had rate of % In the
years 1907 1911, had but II In 1917. Do
hurry, worry and ambition lead to
the pistol? Well. Manhattan and the
Bronx. which used to have rate Of
20 suicides In 100000, lowered 1t last
year to 14.3. Brooklyn Is even better.
Washington, home OF ambition. is n
far sadder city with 23.S.
MFR. HOFFMAN, who looks gloomily
at his figures, suggests that the sub
ject of suicides does not receive suffl-
cient attention from the Church or the
State. The Church has Numbered for
centuries that there is q hell for sui
w
can the State do except to make the
lives Of the people as pleasant as 1t
can! That, OF course, is very little,
for each American makes or spoils his
own life.
The figures for 1917 are, by COM
parison with the past, encouraging.
The rate per 100000 in the cities fell
! from 20.2. which 1t was in 19O7-1911,
to 1872. Mr.. HOFFMAN lays this to the
prevailing era Of unusual prosper
ity." If that were true, what Of cities
like Toledo and Detroit? We prefer
to look above and beyond material
we'll being. Last year found America
aroused. She had learned that there
was something better in the world
than peace and wages. There was
something to live for. Men thought
Of death, but not at their own hands.