Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-01-10
TO CHECK SUICIDE
By H, Arlington Bruce
+ It'll view to obtaining definite light


WITH a view to obtaining definite light
Nv on the basic causes Of suicide
W hence on the possibility Of lowering
the suicide rate-Dr. A. w. S.earns, Bos-
ton physician, has been making for the Ma
tional Committee for Mental Hygiene an
analytical study of suicide. His findings.
though concerned chiefly with suicide in
Massachusetts, are of general interest and
significance.
Seventy years ago, he notes, the suicide
rate in Massachusetts was 40 per 100000
population. 1t is now about IA per 1907
0OO So that in Massachusetts, as in other
parts Of the country, there has of recent
years been a really alarming increase in sui
eide.
DR.. Stearns finds, moreover, that the sui
cid rate has always been higher among city
jewellers thai among jewellers in country
districts. He rightly concludes thst at least
partial explanation of the rates steady
rise is to be found in the fact that through
out the period studied by him there has
been a great increase in city population and
a decrease i'll rnral population.
But he insists that factors other than
pressure of city life" must also be at work,
the Massachl it's suicide rate, as a whole,
being higher than the sarly Boston rate.
These other factors, his researches lead him
to believe, include:
/. A hyperesthetic condition, or increased
constituencies to stress "Our demands are
ter Of course we regard as hardship"
2. Increased liability to mental disease.
Mental disease, or insanity, is by far the
greatest single factor in suicide. lnd1-
viduals who commit suicide form selected
group, one-third Of whom are frankly in
sane, while most of the others show some
Limitation of responsibility"
8. Increased conformation OF Cuicide by
public sentiment. Concerning this DR..
Stearns remarks:
Undoubtedly the pressure Of public opin-
ion, as expressed by law and church re-
striction, has had a restraining influence.
Suicides have actually been buried ignomin-
iously in the highway in Massachusetts,, and
many have beer refused the rites of the
church.
ga hundred years ago sermon against
suicide were Numbered from the Protestant
done the act. From this 1t would appear
that change of custom is represented Ny an
increased suicide rate"
Consequently it is not surprising to find
DIR. Stearns suggesting. as one possible
means of preventing suicide, education to
revive public sentiment against suicide.
Also, as an obviously necessary measure, he
advocates energetic campaigning to lessen
the occurrence of insanity and to insure
early remedial treatment for the mentally
sick.
Oddly enough, however, he fails to urge
specifically one measure which his own find
ings show, in my opinio-, 20 be the most
niece sary of all anti-suicide measures
namely, education for character building.
If the people of today are more hyper
esthetic, more sensitive tx stress, than were
their ancestors, this is not merely because
modern conditions put a greater strain on
their nervous systems. 1t Is also because,
with Increasing national wealth, there has
come an increasing tendency to laxness of
thinking and living-a tendency which char
acter training alone can combat success
fully.
Copyright, 1922, by The Associated News
papers)