The Hawera Star. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 1928. TIDE OF CRIME IN AMERICA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 4 January 1928, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 1928. TIDE OF CRIME IN AMERICA.

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock in Hawera. Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki. Kapongft, Alton, Hurjeyville, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara. Ohangal. Meremere. Fraser Road and Araratn

.From time to time mention is made of a wave of crime in the United States, and the desperate offences' recorded during the last few days' would indicate that lawlessness is assuming alarming proportions. Not- long ago one of the ablest- of American publicists, Air R. Washburn Child, after lengthy investigation, said it was not a wave of crime that, the country had to face, but a rising tide which threatened the security of the citizens. The most, •plausible explanation advanced is that it- is a result of the war, and while it must be admitted that, the end of the Avar did bring a very evident slackening of the moral fibre and a good deal of unemployment, the cold light of statistics shows that the crime tide has been steadily advancing since 1900. In a search for more convincing reasons, American have come to the conclusion .that the sentimental protection of violent and impudent wrong-doers has made the path of the criminal particularly easy. The most cold-blooded murderer can be sure of alienists ap-

pealing to tlie sympathies of juries by the discovery of abnormalities and unfortunate complexes, and doctors •will argue on his behalf that the presence of adenoids or the absence or deficiencies’ of certain glands make him merely an irresponsible sick man. If these fail to make the proper impression, somebody will be found to say that ho was dropped on his head when a baby. In what has been termed a carnival of sentimentalism about the criminal and the law-breaker, this appeal to misapplied science seldom fails to procure acquittal or, at the worst, a light sentence. Thus it is said that the enforcement of the law for the most serious of crimes has come to be a joke in the United States. But a deeper reason for the startling increase in crime is America’s inability to assimilate her enormous alien population. It is now generally recognised that in the vast, unselected stream of immigration are those from European nations where the racial background, or oppression for centuries, has produced people of a passionate and vicious character, who, with exaggerated ideas' of liberty, drop naturally into a career of crime. These congregate in the great cities and their isolation' from the national life becomes a menace to law enforcement, and a breeding ground for the most desperate criminals. Slowly but surely it is being brought home to the law-abiding section of the American people that these dangerous immigrants should be taught that law-breaking brings swift and inexorable punishment. In no civilised country is there a desire for brutality in penal institutions,, but in the United States it is said that gaols "have degenerated into a sort of sanctuary in which the practice of coddling and pampering the law-breaker and the pervert has been reduced to a science or a fine art.” Sentences to penal servitude no longer have terrors for the criminal, who looks upon his confinement merely as ap annoyance, interfering with his regular routine. To thoughtful people in America, disturbed by this crime tide, comes the fear that the whole system of law enforcement. is on the verge of a breakdown. Only one murderer in a hundred pays the penalty of his crime; the arrested man gets bail and goes out to commit further crimes; and counsel can so take advantage of delays and technicalities that, the wrong-doer escapes punishment by the lapse of time. The inefficient enforcement, of law in America has roused the people, and' evidence -will be taken to remove the reproach which makes this great country a by-word among civilised nations.