The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-06
CRIME IN AMERICA
Horace Green. in Lsslle.s.

Horace Green, in LesIie's.
 American cities are the worst polic- ed cities in the world. They are less efficiently policed than any cities of
 equal size and importance n Europe. l Crime is astoundingly more prevalent In this country than it is In England, France or Germany, even taking into consideration the reaction from the great war which has been, naturally, more pronounced in England, France
 and Germany than in the United States.
 | Comparative murder statistics show a startling excess in this country. Chicago, for example in 1919. under our good friend Mayor William Hale Thompson. produced exactly sx times l the number of murders produced In
 London during the same year. all though Chicago is but one-third the size of the English capital.
 In New York, in 1916, there were six times the number of homicides occurring in London during the cor- responding 12 months. During the three years 1916-191S inclusive, rec ords show that in Glasgow, Scotland, there were 3S homicides; while in Philadelphia, which is only a trifle | larger, there were 2S1. That these conditions are not due to the war is proven by the fact that in each of the years from 1914-1S inclusive New York had more honicides than occur red in London during any three years previous to the outbreak of the war in 1914.
 The same flattering comparison holds true with regard to the pas | times of burglary, robbery, arson, rape and such activities as were re- ferred to by the cynical southern de- tective when he remarked: "If a nig ger kills a white man. that's murder. If white man kills a nigger, that's justifiable homicide. If a bigger kills another nigger, that's one less nig- ger"
 ue dDONO dip q tNiy NNN ON ~%A~ facts and conclusions reached by Raymond B. Fosdick, who waA at one time commissioner of accounts in New York. and whose knowledge of crime would make Machiavelli writhe with envy. From America, and for com parative purposes from all over the world, police records have been gath cred to become . part of his analytic process. He tabulates them, sifts them, compares them, ponders them, weighs them.
 Fosdick concludes that in the av- craze American city, under ordinary circumstances, from seven to ten times as many crimes of a serious na- ture are committed each year as are committed during the same period in English, French and German munich palities of similar size.
 For these conditions several differ ent factors are to blame, including politics, which prevents sustained ten ure of office by good police commits sioners.
 But even allowing for politics. MT. Fosdick shows that the antecedent reason for all this crime is our heterogeneous population. English and French cities have, of course, cer- tain clements foreign to themselves; but not In the same proportion.
 But when it comes to the prosecu- tion of criminals already apprehend- cd, there exists an even worse, be- cause less/ excusable, situation. The small number of prosecutions result ing from arrests, and the small num- Der of executions following murder, constitute the real crime in, America They are the result of laxity in pro- cedure, faulty prosecuting personnel, unenforcable laws and maudlin public sentiment.