MURDERS IN AMERICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19731, 2 September 1927, Page 14

MURDERS IN AMERICA.

MANY DEATHS IN CITIES. LAWLESS SOUTHERN STATES. One person in every 10,000 met death by violence last year in 118 cities of the United States, where a survey of crime conditions has just been concluded. There were 12,000 deaths—a rate of 10,1 per 100,000, as compared with 10.5 per 100,000 for the previous year. No distinction has been drawn in the figures between murder, manslaughter and justifiable homicide. It is scarcely possible to do so in the United States, because of differences in the State laws, the attitudes taken by juries toward these accused of murder and the large number of crimes for which nobody is ever brought to trial.

A comparison made by one American paper states that there were only 17 murders in London last year, and that there were arrests in 16 of the cases. Last year there were 510 cases of homicide in Chicago, which still leads the rest of American cities in aggregate number of murders. New York, with twice Chicago's population, reported 340 cases. Chicago, however, is slowly getting better. The 1926 record worked out at 16.7 homicides per 100.000 of population, which was 2.3 fewer than in 1925 Judged by the rate per 100.000 of population, many smaller cities have an even higher rate than Chicago. The southern States are by far the worst offenders. With the exception of Kansas City, which is on the border line, all the twelve leading cities in the homicide table are in the southern belt. Jacksonville had 104» crimes of violence among its population of 137.000. Yet, in the northern city of Grand Rapids. Michigan, with a population of about 150.000. there were only two homicides in 1926. Similar comparisons are made between other southern and northern cities, to the humiliation of the south. There is n tendency to point to America's enormous incrense in wealth as a basic reason for the national murder mania. This theory assumes that the temptations to gain big returns for human slaughter are much greater in the United States than elsewhere, and so homicide is encouraged. Rut. unfortunately for this theory, it is in the north that riches have expanded most rapidly. In the southern States there is widespread economic backwardness. The worst povertv in America is among the southerners. Similarly the theory breaks down that attributes America's criminal excesses to its alien population. Rv fnr the mnioritv of aliens reaching the United States dis perse amoncr the northern and more wealtbv States. The southern States do not, attract foreigners, and. indeed, are losing their own negro pon'dntion. owinrr to the hiVher wacr»<: offered in the north Can it be. the Fvetiing Standard asl.-s that the widespread to-nnrance prevn'""t in the Sr-nfh is thf true reason ' Tbn southern States are notorious for their reactionarv m'nrntional tp nr ? pn pipß.