The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 1926. NO CRIME WAVE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 17 March 1926, Page 8

The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 1926. NO CRIME WAVE.

“In view of the oft-repeated statements regarding a post-war crime wave in Britain,” the cable messages inform us this week, ‘‘it is interesting to note that twentyfive prisons linve been closed in England since 1914, representing* nearly half the complement.” This- is good news indeed. The Prisons Report issued by the Imperial authorities shows that th6re are 55,619 inmates of prisons, which is 2597 fewer than in the previous year. Maintenance cost ,£1,034,000. The regime has been transformed, the report says, through the introduction of. more humane treatment, interesting work, helpful training, attractive concerts and lectures, less rigid rules, and permitting of conversation. In seme important respects, at least, Great Britain has not yet caught up to America, hut it will he as well for every country to look to its laws, so that the way of the transgressor will not be made too easy. The American crime statistics should he closely studied by every enlightened citizen. In Cook County, in which Chicago stands, gunmen killed 296 persons in the first 291 days of last year. Motor accidents, by the way, led to 621 deaths. One of the chief factors in the serious crime statistics of the United States, declares a winter who has given long and careful study to the question, is the growing maudlin sympathy for criminals, the release of hardened offenders on parole, the difficulty of convicting murderers, the long delays between arrest and conviction, and between conviction and appeal, which give time for the disappearance or “squaring” c.f witnesses. If a man believes that an incorruptible and unsentimental jury will send him to gaol for burglary with a, recommendation that he should have no remission of lu’s sentence, or that he should be declared an habitual criminal, burglary would cease to flourish. If the young offender did not reckon on the shocking mis-applica.tions of the first offenders clause he would he less liable to begin a. career of crime. Leniency to crime, close observers iu America tell us, and the sympathy for the poor murderer in the United States, has had the result of causing a murder a day by shooting alone in Chicago. The motor car and the pistol are the tools-of-trade of the burglar* and gunman. There should be uo need for any citizen to cany pistols. Heavier sentences for the folk who “borrow” motor cars from the kerb would also help. British crime statistics are good by comparison, and every effort must he made to keep them so. Almost ©very day the cable messages tell of wh«t has been called the “unending increase in banditry.” On Monday news came from New York that while the Metropolitan Retail Jewellers’ Association’s plate and retail jewellery stores were closed for one day, as a protest against inadequate police protection, and as a demand for increasing the force by 25,000. one of the most sensational diamond robberies occurred at the busiest street, cernei', five armed men robbing a jeweller’s shop and os canine' with 100,000 dollars in gems. It. is claimed by the British prison authorities that human© treatment is already accomplishing wonders. “The gaol-birds are better educated than formerly,” says the governor of one of the leading - prisons, while another avers that '“unemployment in England is causing a. heavy crop of young - prisoners.” The great problem facing - all enlightened communities is not so much the hardened criminal, hut how to stem the tide of criminality at its source, since in so many instances the criminal is more in need of medical treatment than rigid prison punishment. Doubtless some consolation will he diawn from the crime statistics ot Britain which reveal the ebliliig - of the' tide. But, epidemics o± violent, crimes come spasmodically, and the problem of the crime waves still confronts the police authorities in all countries, it is nevertheless disquieting to uote the. amazing state of affairs m the United States, since it, is reasonable to suppose that there must, be, some basic, cause for the unchecked epidemic of violent ciime that lias menaced the whole country lor so many months.