CRIME IN AMERICA.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 3, 5 January 1922, Page 4

CRIME IN AMERICA.

The steady growth of crime in the United .States, and more particularly of offences against the person, is causing considerable, anxiety to those whose duly it is to maintain public order and to protect the law-abiding citir.cn against the depredations of the criminal class. Attention is pointedly drawn to the wave of lawlessness by a cable recounting remarkable scenes of disorder in New York at the dawuing of the New Year. But recent statistics afford proof that this outburst of murder and assault was only a more dramatic manifestation of the ppidemic of crime that envelops the larger cities of (he l'nion. According to figures supplied by the SolicitorGeneral of the Cnited States, crimes of violence have increased alarmingly during the last few years, for under this head alone indictments in the Federal Courts have increased from 9503 in the year 1912 to over 70,000 in the year just passed. The losses from burglaries which have been repaid l>y casualty companies have grown in amount from 100,000 in 1914 to over .€2,000,000 in 1920, while in the same period embezzlements have increased fivefold. ' Thefts from the mails and express companies and other carriers have been of frequent occurrence of late, and the hold-up of trains is not only more frequent, hut is no longer confined to the unsettled sections of the country. The New Year celebrations in New York ; are described as having been the most disorderly ever known, and the hours between midnight and five o'clock in the morning were marked by unparalleled viciottsness and violence.

Many reasons have been assigned for this grave outburst of crime. In the first place convictions for the more serious offences are small in comparison with the cases reported. Thus in New York in 1917 there were 230 murders and only (17 convictions: in 1018 there were 221 murders and 77 convictions; whilo in Chicago in 1919 there were 33(1 murders and only -14 convictions. The Solici-tor-General says that the respect for law among all classes is steadily diminishing, while in the busim-ss world there has lieen a widespread repudiation of contracts among business men who had. hitherto been classed as reputable. Violations of the prohibition law s are entirely too numerous for the authorities to deal with, although over a million sterling a year is spent in endeavouring to enforce the law. It lias been estimated that the annual profits from violations of the Volstead Act amount to over £60.COO.OUO. The Solicitor-General is inclined to attribute this enormous increase in crime to an abnormal aversion to work, an excessive thirst for pleasure, and a gross and widespread materialism which has largely supplanted spiritual forces. He thinks the remedy is to be found in ♦.hose unseen factors, which make for the uplifting of the human soul, and in a return to the inspired vision of those who built up the Constitution of the States.