CHARACTER AND CRIME

Evening Star, Issue 18808, 5 December 1924, Page 8

CHARACTER AND CRIME

PSYCHOLOGY OF MODERN AMERICAN. All tlie world whs recently interested ! in tbe extraordinary trial of two repulsive ' boy criminals in Chicago, and certainly i England was not a. little amazed by Amencan judicial methods. With this case in mind (writes “ Pern ” in ‘John o’ London’s Weekly’) it has been interesting to read two books dealing with American crime— 1 Studies in Murder,’ by Edmund Lester Pearson, and ‘ Problems of Modern American Crime.’ by Veronica King. The first of these volumes is a retelling oi the stories of notorious American murders, something on the lines of Miss Tennyson Jesse's recent study of English murder. The second volume, apparently written by an Englishwoman who has lived for a considerable time in America is the more interesting, and Miss King’s accounts of crimes, police investigations, and tna.s shed considerable light on American mentality, j LAUGHTER IN COURT. To take one example. A woman, called Mrs Madalynne Obenchain, was tried in Los Angeles for murdering her lover. In the course of the trial counsel indulged in humorous repartee, and, far from attempting to repress them, the judge remarked that “ the tnal was altogether too serious, mid he did not object to a little levity.” The remark seems to suggest that murder in America is regarded as a comparatively trivial, everyday affair about which it is foolish to make too much fuss. In another case a woman called Clara Phillips was accused of killing another woman by hitting her over tho head with a hammer. After the coroner’s jury had brought in their verdict of wilful murder tho accused woman and her husband posed for the newspaper photographers, the husband having arrived at the gaol “ dressed in an immaculate Palm Beach suit, a cap, and black patent leather shoes.” It is also gravely recorded that he had bought “a one pound box of candy for Clara/ In still another case which Miss Veronica King describes, a woman killed her lover in Kansas City. She was a woman of thirty, who had been married and had a child. Nevertheless, sentimental America regarded her as tho victim of man’s sensuality, and she received hundreds of letters congratulating her on her courage. One was signed by a local doctor, his wife, and their nurse, and it ran: “Our sympathy is yours. Tho world needs more Mrls' with" the courage and wit to shoot straight. We regret, however, that you shot yourself. There is plenty to liv e for. Tho stars are up there yet, and the flowers bloom the same as ever.” This sentimental slosh is just bewildering, but that-it was characteristic of general opinion is shown bv the fact that the murderess was not even tried. UNHAPPY NOTORIETY. While murder trials in America are more or loss dramatic entertainments, and raurderers, particularly if they are women, are regarded as heroines, statistics show' that the United States is almost the most criminal country in tbe world. In a very interesting and” important book, ‘Man’s Judgment of Death,’ by Lewis E. Lawes, warden of Sing-Sing Prison, it is stated that between tho years 1911 and 1921 the average yearly number of murders per hundred thousand units of the population was 7.2 in the United States, 0.76 in England | and Vi aies. 0.40 in Scotland, 0.55 ir 1 Canada, 1.88 in Australia, 0.92 in Spain j and 3.59 in Italy. That is to say, th« 1 average in the United States was mor<

than twice the average in Italy. During the same period no great European city had half the murders in comparison with its population «s were committed in New York and Philadelphia. The general crime records give America the same pre-eminence. In 1922 the population of Los Angeles was about 600,000. In the five months from January to May there were 3,667 burglaries, 446 robberies with violence, and forty murders. Incidentally there were 4,039 arrests for drunkenness, which is a comment on the value of Prohibition. It is hardly an explanation of American crime to say that it is the result of immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, because the Italians apparently' commit more murders per head jn the western hemisphere than they do in the eastern, although capital punishment has been abolished in Italy, and is still the law in most of the American States. OUT OF PROPORTION. It is very difficult even to suggest an explanation. Obviously' there is still, in America a disregard for human life hardly to be found in any part of Europe. Miss Veronica King says that in Los Angeles there is practically no punishment for the reckless driving of motor cars. A woman in Hollywood, the -film suburb of the city', was killed at Christmas time by a car driven by a young college boy. His story was that he “ honked ” and the woman took no notice, so he drove over her. He seemed to think it was the right thing to do. It came out in the inquiry that the woman was slightly deaf, yet in face . of his confession that he had seen her and deliberately run over her ho was held to be guiltless of her death; and the papers insinuated that she was to blame for getting in the way and being killed, and commiserated the young man for having his vacation spoiled in this sad way'. While these curiously anti-social offences are ignored, or at least palliated, the Americans with true Puritan fervor are always busily manufacturing new sins—the Seven Deadly Sins not being enough for them—which are rigorously punished. You apparently may run over deaf old women with impunity, and you may indulge in murder, if you are a woman, but it is a criminal offence to drink a glass of beer, and the spirit that has made Prohibition the law has a keen nnse for the smallest impropriety. A young Californian millionaire gave a silly party at which “ silk lingered women ” (sic) ran about the house in blue pyjamas. For this he was fined £SO and j sentenced to thirty days in gaol. THE CRIMINAL’S OPPORTUNITY. I think it is an established fact that a community is protected from the criminal, not by excessive penalties, but by the certainty of arrest. An efficient, incorruptible police force is not only the best means, but the only means of fighting crime. In America not only do the majority of criminals escape arrest, but a large proportion of those arrested, even when there is practically no doubt ol their guilt, escape punishment either from the ingenuity of their lawyers or the sentimentality of juries. It is a very queer and puzzling state of affairs The richest and most powerful country in the world is not able to ensur;, the sober, law-abiding citizen anything like the same protection for his property ’ and his life as are provided by small countries like Switzerland and Norway. Lawless societies like the Ku-Klux-Klan, some of whose eccentric proceedings are described by Miss Veronica King, not

only flourish, but become an active force in politics and bav c a considerable say in the election of Presidential candidates, and no responsible American will attempt to deny that it is more risky to live in New York than it is to live in London, in Paris, in Rome, in Madrid, or in Berlin, and I should think quite as risky as it is to live in Moscow. It is perhaps true that the more laws there are the less inclination is there to obey any law. If a man knows that be may be sent to prison for drinking a. whisky-and-soda or smoking a cigarette, he is more inclined (to use 'an Americanism) to take a chance and murder his neighbor.