A Red Record.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XV, Issue 231, 25 November 1912, Page 1

A Red Record.

AMERICAN MURDERS INCREASING;. A startling disregard for human life .in the United States is shown by the homicide statistics for thirty American cities published in a New York insurance journal. The figures (writes a San Francisco correspondent )also indicate an alarming increase in the killing habit, and altogether mak|e a bad record. In the decade from 1881 to 1891 there were five homicides to every 100,000 of population. In the following decade (1891-1901) the rate decreased slightly to 4.9; but during the decade ending 1910 the rate rose to 7.2. Compared with the homicide rate iu England and Wales the difference is remarkable. In that country the homicides amount to but 0.9 of the population. The first year of the present decade (1911) shows an increase over the percentage for previous decade in the United States. Chicago leads for 1.911 with 203 homicides, and Greater New York is a close second, with 197. In the number of homicides per 100,000 in the last decade Memphis leads with 47.1. The remarkably high 'rate in southern cities is, of course, attributable to the large negro population. The number o'f homicides in the larger cities of the United States lias increased between 1882 and 1911 from 5.5 per 100,000 to 8.3.