Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-12-18

D RESS dispatches report increasing crimes
Of robbery and bloodshed in Chicago.
The headline under which one lead
ing paper published the facts was "ChicagC
| Crime Wave Grows; Murder and Banditry
Galore" and the caption did not overstate
| the case.
Crime is not more prevalent in Chicago
| than it is in other large cities in the north
such as Detroit, New York and Philadelphia;
although it is but just to say that Philadel-
phia is making a most vigorous effort to put
down crime and punish criminals, and the
strong hand of General Butler is accomplish
ing commendable results in 1.-The City of
Brotherly Love-" However, the necessity for
engaging such man as General Butler for
the purpose he is serving reveals a state Of
things in Philadelphia very much to be
deprecated. And each and all of the large
cities in the north need General Buffers to
help rid them of alarming conditions of
crime To degree they are submerged
with lawlessness. Crimes of violence espe-
cially abound in them Robberies and muir
ders are of daily occurrence in them, fol-
lowed by few arrests and still fewer conyic-
tiOns of the criminals.
In Chicago, a prominent judge recently
accused the states attorney "of deliberately
refusing to assist the courts in lighting
crime 1t thus appears that the criminal
classes in that city are strong enough to in
fiuence. if not control, the prosecuting Of
ficers of the state and that fact is the worst
possible phase of the distressful and danger
Gus situation.
No man who is supporter of law and
a lover of his country will find any satisfac-
ton of a sectional sort because Of the waves
of crime sweeping over the larger cities OF
the north Three urban centers doubtless
have to contend with peculiar and obstinate
difficulties. Their size so rapidly attained,
is no small obstacle in their way to good
order and the suppression of crime.
ThOughtful men, who are just, will also
acknowledge the sad fact that the great
est failure of the United States in the
matter of government is the failure OF our
country in the sphere of municipal gov
eminent. Few American cities are we'll
governed. Cities in any and all lands pre-
sent perplexing problems. Thomas JEFF
ferson saw clearly this fact, and expressed
the hope that the new republic would
never have oVergrown urban communities,
and Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor Of the
German Empire said cities were ulcers on
the body polite which he desired to eX-
coriate. But the hope expressed by Jeffer-
son has not been fulfilled and the view and
purpose of Bismarck have not been real
lied. New York and Philadelphia and
Baltimore have grown beyond all their
prospects and expectations in Je@terson's
day, and Cincinnati, Chicago Cleveland
and Detroit have sprung up in the wilder
ness which Virginia coded 1.-The North
west Territory to the Federal government
/
framed. Berlin and Hamburg are greater
now than they were when Bismarck died
notwithstanding the economic and political
! consequences of the World war.
For many reasons European cities have
| better governments than American cities
/ possess. They are occupied by homogene-
! Gus populations strongly attached by at
lection to the lands in which they exist
while the large American cities, especially
those of the North, are inhabited by large
bodies of foreign imm grants, among whom
patriotic devotion to country is a
sentiment almost, If not quite, unknown
This fact makes the problem of municipal
government quite complicated. Such being
| the case, good citizens in every section of
our Wldely-eXtended nation will not be
| swift to censure the crime-cursed cities of
| the North, but, on the contrary, they will
be disposed to feel for these urban centers
the most sincere sympathy and the most
genuine and friendly concern.
In like manner the same spirit Of kind
and sympathetic consideration should be
extended to the people of the Pacific coast
and the people of the south in dealing
with their racial problems, which are sc
perpleXing and battling.