The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1925-04-28
ALARMING INCREASE IN
ACTIVITY OF CRIMINALS
COSTS BILLION YEARLY, THE
BANKERS ASSOCIATION RE-
PORTS. PEAK IN 1924.
OUTLAWS COLLECT BIG TOLL

Every Man, woman ana OnIlu III Cfle
United States Is Robbed of $27.2O
Every Twelve Months by Bandits
Of All Types and Kinds.
Thousands of Americans never will
forget that the world war cost the
government of the United States in
the neighborhood of two and three
quarter billions of dollars year.
Thousands more struggle to compre-
bend the fact that it costs about 49,
I000,000,000 a year to operate the gov
eminent Of the United States. And
yet it is little known fact that crime
and criminals take a toll of more than
$3,000,000,000 year in the country.
Outlaws Exact Taxes.
Indirect taxes, history tells, always
have been repugnant to the American
people Yet an enormous indirect tax"
| is being taken day and night, year in
and year out in the United States by
I bandits, burglars and many other
classes of criminals of greater or less
err magnitude The toll of $4,000, 0OO,-
000-iwhich was reached in 1924, ac-
cording to reliable information-rep
PRESENTS a personal tax" of $27.Z0 on
every man, woman and child, no mat
ter what age, in the United States.
To this, too, must be added the mil
lions of dollars spent every year by
the federal, state and municipal gov
ernments in guarding against crime,
detecting crime and criminals, punish
ing criminals and finally in support
ing criminals who have been sent to
penal institutions. That makes the
crime bill in the United States each
year still greater
Banditry Increasing.
The criminals engaged in the pro-
fession of looting the American peo-
pie and their homes and places of bus
mess range all the way from pick
pockets and petty sneak thieves, who
are satisfied with few dollars, to
train bandits who do not stop at steal
| ing millions, as was done in Illinois
not long ago. In addition, there are
the burglars who loot homes and the
bandits who rob banks and bank mes
sengers and other places of business.
These run up the total Of $3,000,000,-
900 a year.
On the other hand, there are the
state, national and municipal police
authorities, the courts and the penal
| institutions If there were no crimi-
nails there would be no need for these
agencies, so the expenses of operat-
ing them may be charged to the ac-
count of crime and criminals.
Bank Bandits Keep Busy.
The toll taken by the lesser classes
of criminals, even including the train
bandits. differs but slightly during one
year as compared with another, statis-
tics show, but in one line of crime
there has been an alarming increase.
Criminal depredations against the
banks reached the peak during the
last year Q924," says a statement
from the American Bankers Asso-
citation. THE constant increase in
criminality since 1919 has passed the
day of reckoning, and unless bankers
themselves apply more drastic proven
tatives there is no assurance of this
rising tide of crime subsiding. Last
year developed alarming increases in
the operations of bank crooks OF all
kinds, check operators, bandits, en-
bezzlers and swindlers taking their
toll.
THE laborious task of bank bur-
glary apparently is yielding to the more
daring and productive art of robbery
known as the holdup.' In 1921 there
were 240 burglaries against members
of the association; in 1924 there were
! %. During the same period, however,
bank holdups increased from 81 to
los"
Mail Robbers Increase.
Then next in line OF crimes which
cost the American people huge sums
| come the mail and train bandits. Fig
ures announced by the government
! show that these crimes are on the in
crease. too. At the same time the
burglar. the pick-pocket, the conf
dence man, swindler, bad check pass
er and the hundred and one other
types of criminals of the taxation"
/ class continue their Expectations.
| In the days gone by bandits fled
in the trains, and were easily caught.
Then came the telephone and the
telegraph, and criminal had still
more slim chances of escaping. But
then the tide turned. The automobile
was invented Today nine out of ev-
cry ten outlaws escape from the
scenes of their crimes in automobiles,
making capture extremely difficult.
Crime at High Tide.
There is no escaping the conclusion,
the authorities point cut that crime
in the United States now is at high
tide, measured in dollars alone and
wholly apart from the great loss of
life that it causes. The cost of crime
to industry and human happiness in
this country, it is pointed out, has
reached a point that calls for drastic