CRIME IN AMERICA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 26 January 1927, Page 8

CRIME IN AMERICA.

ABOUT 12,000 MURDERS. COMPARISON WITH. .CANADA. TORONTO,. Dec. 4. When superficial observers- speak glibly of the possibility of .the . annexation ol Canada- to the’ United States tliey not only fail ;to appreciate Canadian and British loyalty, but they also fail to take into account certain fundamental conditions. Take clime, for example. Tlie two large United States cities that are closest to Central Canada are Detroit and Chicago. A murder a day seems to be the ambition of Chicago; in,the first 10 months of the present year, lot? muiders and .164 cases of manslaughter---oOt}: killings in. 304 days. In Detroit hold-ups and shootings . are commonplace.

By contrast in Toronfco, a city of 000,0(10 population, there has not been a single real premeditated murder in the present year. There have been only three killings. One. resulted from a fracas btween two Italians, the suivivor being convicted of manslaughter’ and given a 10 years’ sentence of imprisonment, after thc'jury had strongly recommended mercy. The second was the case of Patrick Fogarty, who killed his wife, his four children, and himself. And the third was Elmo Waldo, who killed his sweetheart and then committed suicide. Of the three killings, two were plainly cases of insanity.

j In the United States statisticians expect a total of 12,000 murders this year. On the same basis, in proportion to population, the province of Ontario should have .100. Instead of 300 the records reveal only 21. Of these, nine or ten occurred among foreigners. Several, like two of the Toronto killings, were homicides, plainly due to insanity. Au analysis of the whole .list shows only six that can be classified as premeditated murders finding their cause in yalculatod cruelty, cupidity or revenge, and in deliberate contempt of the law. While some of the killings remain mysteries, a number of the murderers were apprehended and have either been hanged or arc under sentence. “Isolated Case of Gun Play.” Banditry is practically unknown in Canada. 'An isolated case of a hold-up in the financial district of bank messengers returning from the clearing-house fs .still a cause cclebre, although it occurred a dozen years ago. About the same time a young druggist was held up in his store and killed. Two men were tracked down and promptly hanged for that bit of “gun play.” . No less than £2,000,000,000 is the statistician’s estimate of this year’s property loss in the United States through robbery and fraud. In Ontario in a year there was only a single case of highway robbery, and only a few hundred cases of shop-breaking, burglary, and minor hold-ups, involving only an insignificant property loss. It is not heavy policing that Iteeps Ontario law-abiding. Toronto has only

one policeman to every 000 of population. Towns of 2000 or 3000 or oven 5000 persons may have only a single policeman. There is a provincial force of less than 200 men. Its duties cover special investigations, and in addition it has to cover the vast territory in the north' country devoted to mining ajid lumbering which is largely without municipal organisation. There are, in addition, a handful of the famous Canadian Mounted Police, whose duties are confined exclusively to Federal law enforcement. But just, to illustrate that the germs of crime and lawlessness are present, and could easily develop if not held in cheyk, and perhaps also to discourage the growth of any “holier than thou”

attitude there have recently occurred in Ontario two or three disturbing cases of crime. Police Inspector Shot Dead. An inspector of police had been attending a band practice. He left and made his way along the street toward his own home. He had almost reached it, lie could see the lights, when a man stepped out; from a shadowed spot nearby. He was almost close enough to touch the inspector. The latter had no time to act. Three shots rang out, plugged into his body, and he fell' dyi;ug. This did not occur in Chicago, but, in Cochrane, Ontario. ' A constable took refuge in a grocery store. The crowd, increasing in numbers, grew more threatening. The chief of police appeared on the scene and led the constable forth to make his exit from the town. But the crowd sighted him and pelted him with eggs. They pulled, his car, in pieces and burned it. The chief thought it wise to put him in the cells for protection. And the Mayor discussed turning on the lire hose to disperse the mob. This is not an incident from a lawless, lynching state of the South, but au incident in the recent history of Aylmer,■ Ontario. A bailiff had been standing guard over cattle for nearly an hour, when a shot rang out. It came from behind a hill 400 yards away. Another passed by his head. He ordered the two boys with him to drive the cattle but. They had reached the gate of the field when the invisible sniped fired again. 'And the bailiff fell wounded with a bullet in the back. This did not.happen in Tennessee or in the mountains of Kentucky, but on a farm outside the village of Mndoc, Ontario.