Evening star., 1933-01-15

But not one word can you It out of him
on the problem that vexe governments
today-what to do in tn present year
about the appalling in ease in crimes
of violence.
The night watchman, standing with
his hands in the air and the muzzle of q
murderer's gun 3 inches from his
stomach, wonders if the law, some day,
will take the trouble to protect the law
abiding. The new criminologist says
that all would have been well if 100
years ago the murderer's grandmother
had been psycho-analyzed.
The middle-aged woman, seeing the
dead body of her husband, bank mes
senger, being brought into the house,
thinks that other women in the future
might not have this experience if it
could be made clear to gay young bandits
that that occupation is too dangerous to
be profitable The new crin1inologist tells
this woman that she must not be re-
vengeful; that will not bring her bus
band back
He further assures her that in the
event of the capture of the young men
who had the misfortune to meet her hus-
band when he was so provocatively carry
ing money in a bag, they will all be ex-
amined by an eminent specialist who
gained his Phi. d. by thesis on the
habits of ants And that this specialist
will give them the Binet-Simon test, tar
their reflexes and lead them ON to talk
most Spicily about their intimate, erotic
adventures.
After this he will testify that at the
age of both of them used to play
at finding buried treasure, and this
unique experience in the lives Of small
boys had given them impulses that were
absolutely irresistible; whenever they
happened to be hanging round bank
with revolvers in their pockets they SIM
ply had to riddle with bullets any one
who chanced to be carrying money. AS
for the newsboy they wounded while
making their getaway, and the taxicab
driver they murdered while stealing his
car-those actions were incidental and
not significant, in psychological sense.
1t is said, truthfully, that certain
number of grave crimes will occur even
in the face of severe penalties. But it is
also true that in countries where the law
is swift, sure and reasonably severe the
crime of willful murder is less than in
the United States by fully one-half.
America prefers to give 100 murderers
their lives, and often their liberty as well,
rather than save the lives of 5000 inno-
cent persons.
BY reckless motor traffic America kills
tens of thousands every year on the high
ways Other thousands she abandons to
the assassin and the gunman. But by
every device of the law, by every trans
parent bit of nonsense which slippery
lawyers can invent America protects and
prolongs the life of her only precious citi-
zen-the murderer.
An investigation by D. Trederick Hoff-
mann shows that we have 1000 homi-
cideS year.
We say, "Uh, huh" and turn to the
sports page.
1t appears that the rate of these kill.
ings is going up; it has more than
doubled since 1900.
We grin and say:
Sure, America leads the world"
It is shown that an Americans risk of
being murdered is six times as great as
a Canadians, and 10 times as great as
an Englishman's; that New York has 10
times and Chicago II times as many
murders per capita as London.
We say:
"Oh, I'm tired of hearing England
quoted all the time. What do they know
about us?"
A neat and logical answer, and it con-
tents us.
/HY somebody innnireS are there 60