Evening star., 1936-04-25

two and a half times Italy's, more
than IL times England's. and about
7 times the average homicide rate on
the Continent of Europe. 1t is 2s
times the rate in Holland. Nowhere
in the entire British Empire does the
rate approach ours. And our per-
centage of convictions for all crimes
is lower than the European average
More people commit crimes and more
escape. We are simply the most GRIM
inal country in the so-called civilized
world.
Racial Composition Factor.
One cannot undertake a war against
crime without attempting to analyze
the reasons for this condition of
affairs. 1t is not simple thing to
do. Factors certainly enter into the
picture which are not covered by such
explanations as lax government ~
Racial composition doubtless plays a
role. The homicide rate in the
South Is almost twice that of the
whole country; New England has the
lowest rate, and Vermont the lowest
rate in New England. Florida has
the highest, with Mississippi. Ala
bama. Georgia and Louisiana follow
ing closely. These rates are for muir
der. The figures would be quite
otherwise. if other crimes were
counted.
An immense number Of crimes are
Pnropaittnd hy i'm,
migrants. This may be attributed to
the collapse of home authority, for
often the parents bring religion and
cultural and moral standards from
Europe which are repudiated by their
Americanized children. who feel MOTH
ing but contempt for the old-fash-
ioned and foreign ways of their
parents. Overcrowded public schools
taught by underpaid and harassed
school teachers, unsupervised play in
the streets of congested tenement
areas in the cities and the immense
amount of publicity given to crime
and violence in certain classes of
newspapers and in motion pictures,
accessible to juveniles as well as
adults. doubtless contribute to the
criminality OF this group.
Children Play "G"-Man.
Far too many American criminals
are youngsters. In 1885, 140,746 ar
rests were made in this country of
youths between the ages of l6 and "a
For the urban child today the &C.
man opd tho oopuctor ara for,;I;o rc
They figure in his games. In recent
query of hundreds of school children
on the question of what they wanted
to be when they grew up, "G"-mer
were tops, because it is SO exciting.
doubt very much whether the fash
ionable glorificatior of the "G"-men
on the radio and in motion pictures
serves the purpose of proving to ado.
lescents that crime does not pay
On the contrary, it concentrates theil
interest upon crime as an exciting
game in which one fellow with CUR
outwits or outshoots another fellow
with a gun. When my own child, moi
yet six, who leads what is thought tt
be a protected life. begs me for toy
machine gun, because the other boy,
have them" feel little sick.
Geography geography
and the Constitution. There is M
European country where it is so cas-!
for the criminal to put thousands o
miles between himself and the seem
Of his crime. We have 5000 mile
Of roads between coasts traversed b,
cement roads and 48 States withou
frontiers. We also have 48 separate
and largely unintegrated police sys
TENS. The Urschell kidnapping case
to take an example, covered sever
States and $4,000 square miles O.
territory-an area as large as mos
of the continent of Europe-and tht
Federal authorities, in pursuit of theil
prey, had to cooperate with police
systems, whose authority stopped al
State boundaries.
Fight Crime Through Taxation.
Nowhere in the world are there such
number of machine guns, sawed-ofl
rifles and repeaters in private hands
But in order to deal with this source