CRIME IN AMERICA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 1 September 1923, Page 7

CRIME IN AMERICA

STRIKING CONTRASTS

SAN FRANCISCO, July 20. Some of the latest available statistics which have been published m thfo United States (states the correspondent of the Christchurch Press) have caused Americans to rub their eyes with surprise and they aro asking themselves whether they are a nation of law-break-ers, for an appalling array of figm , statistics and comparisons with tho crimes of ether nations of the " olld s cited by Mr C. P. Connolly m the cui rent issue of McClure’s Magazine as proof that the onlv answer can he in the affirmative. . vr « The causes of this situation, Mi Connolly finds, are lack of vespectfoilaw on the part of officials and the public, ineffective administration of law due to lack of trained and untrammelled judges and lawyers, and to an outworn and a - tiquated judicial system The tin«i, t ■ adds, "is hidden behind a bamcato tC ‘‘The 3 widespread defiance of prohibition laws lias brought ns face to face with an scute phase of a chionic n< tional ailment. There are those wlioin aist that the present crime wave is rolely due to prohibition, while others, hko ox Governor Miller of New \ ork and Sena-tor-elect Edwards of New Jersey, msist that prohibition is responsible foi a part •at least of our contemporary lawlessness. "But the record will show that we have always been a lawless nation. Burins the Boer War, England, lost 22,000 soldiers on the battlefields or by disease in South Africa, During exactly the pa me period of time we lost- through homicide 31,000, or 9000 more than were killed on the English side during the W Cither comparisons cited by Mr Connolly in support of Ins statement elude these: In 1908, Germany, withi a population of 50.000,000, reported 322 homicides. In the same year the homicides in the United States, with a wpelaiion of ?;0,000,000, numbered 9000. More significant still, in that year the convictions for murder m Germany were 95 per cent, of the total, while in the United States the convictions were only a little over 1 per cent It has been estimated that in the administration of justice in the Dm ted States the odds in favour of the or increased from about 17 to 1 in 1885 to about 680 to 1 in 1920 With a population of 7,250.000 London. in 1916, had nine premeditated murders. During the same year, Chicago one-third the size of London had 105 premeditated murders or nearlj 121 tunes London's total. In that year Chicago, with its two and a half millions of people, had 20 more murders than all of

England and Wales, with their 38,000,000 people. The Chicago murders were one more than London had during the period from 1919 to 1910, inclusive. The United States holds the record for Jynchings, while England, Scotland, Ireland and all the British possessions have not had a single lynching for more than 75 years.