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The Commoner.
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER.
Vol. 4, No. 5a.
Lincoln, Nebraska, January i3, 1905.
Wholt Number 208
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McClure's Magazine recently printed a sym
posium of comments on the prevalence of crime
and lawlessness in the United States. It is ex
plained that these co ments are taken "almost
at random from representative and serious news
papers and from the published statements of
judges and citizens." The opinion is expressed
that "these statistics confirm the general impres
sion regarding the rapid and alarming increase of
lawlessness in our country," and it is pointed out
that at present there are four and one-half times
as many murders and. homicides tor each million
of people in the United States as there were in
1881.
McClure's has done the public a distinct serv
ice by the publication of thi3 symposium and it
would be well for all good citizens to seriously
consider the situation described.
The Indianapolis News says that there has
been something very like civil war in Chicago,
shameful negro burning in Georgia, labor riots
in New York city, war on law and order in Colo
rado, a touch of anarchy even inthe army. "What
does it all mean?" ask3 the News. "Are our peo
ple losing not merely their respect for law, but
their very sense of what law means?" Then
the News says that corporations, aided and
abetted by able lawyers, violate lavs or evade
them; that the railroads in- Indianapolis have
hardly 'made a pretense ' of complying with the
-ordinances requiring flag men and safety cuts;
that the water company gives sometimes pure
and sometimes river water. The News charges
that one cause fpr this deplorable condition is
"the total indifference of the people"" that they
do not insist that the laws be enforced.
The New York World pointed to the fact that
a woman in Rochester, N. Y., stabbed another
woman to death, was found not guilty and that
this woman was lionized by the jurors and "plainly
made to feel herself a heroine in the public esti
mation." Chief Justice Charles B. Lore, of the Dela
ware court, addressing the Universal Peace Union,
said:
Lawlessness pervades the land, unrest and
discontent breed over-apparent prosperity. We
have become the money center of the world,
but this has bred a feverish appetite for gold,
with all its vulgar accompaniments.
Wo would call a halt upon our- captains of
industry who have brought our country to its
present height of frenzied speculation. Plants
worth only thousands of dollars are,, by the
magic of watered stocks and glittering adver
tisements, swollen into millions.
Gigantic frauds are palmed upon the people
as successful business enterprises. Our greatest
financiers are racking their brains to circum
vent the law and the people, and by lawless
ness achieve wealth, being careful only to keep
outside of actual violence and the common
jail.
When their cunning evasions of the law
are crowned with success all men are tempted
to lawlessness. Captains of industry, how -much
qf the unrest, the mob violence, and the
labcr troubles of the time, have been bred and ,
fostered by your, methods? We ask for an
answer!
In his charge to the grand jury at Montgomery,
Ala., .Judge Thomas uttered 3trong warnings
against the increase in crime. He quoted figures
to show that the number of homicides in the
United States for three years was one-third larger
than either the total number of people killed on
the railroads in' the same period or the total loss,
in the wars in. South 'Africa.
In a recent publication Justice Brewer of the
United States 3upreme court, said that in conse
quence of delayed justice criminals become bolder
and crime more frequent while in still further
consequence the people feel forced now and then to
take the law into their own hands.
President Henry Hopkins of Williams College,
in a recent address, declared that the prevalence
of crime in this country Is greater at the present
time than ever before and that the foundations of
national honor are threatened.
The Chicago Record-Herald replying to tho
New York criticisms of Chicago, declared "New
York herself is gravely concerned over an epidemic
of murders, robberies and holdups. Her police
seem utterly ineffective and Chicago is looking
about to discover the cause and find a remedy."
Tho Pittsburg Gazette in its issue of November
12 said that since January 1, 1903, twenty-3ix mur
ders have been committed within the city limits
of Pittsburg and that the assaisins of twelve of
the victims escaped the police. The Gazette
charged that in some instances the officers know
who the 3layers are.
The Chicago Daily News says that robberies
are increasing in number in Chicago and that
highwaymen are more bold and more desperate
than formerly; that there has been a marked
and significant change in the character of these
crimes during recent years; where formerly a
footpad'rarely resorted to violence save as a means
of avoiding arrest, today the robber'3 weapon is
used to injure, maim and kill. The News places
the responsibility for many of the failures to en
force law and administer justice upon the "polit
ical pull" that protects the dive keeper, and it
adds that the same villainous influence hampers
the administration of justice and secures light
sentences and Bridewell pardons.
A San Francisco dispatch to the New York
Sun says, that for a fortnight there has been
a robbery in S'an Francisco for every day and
that since October 14, 1898, one hundred and four
teen murders, exclusive of Chinese killings, have
been committed in that city, while no one has
been sent to the gallows. This dispatch says that
there have been forty-seven murder in San Fran
cisco for which no one was arrested.
In its issue of September 21, 1904, the Chicago
Record-Herald said that the "sweep of crime over
the whole city arouses citizens."
The Louisville, Ky., Herald printed a partial
list of crimes committed in Breathitt county in
recent years. This "partial list" shows that dur
ing the period named there were twenty-eight
assassinations or attempted assassinations in that
one county and that among the persons killed were
three women.
The Charleston, S. C, News and Courier said
that the safest crime in South Carolina is the
crime of taking human life; that murder and vio
lence are distinguishing marks of our present-day
civilization." We do not enforce the law. The
News and Courier adds: "We have grown so ac
customed to the failure of justice in cases where
human life is taken by violence that we excuse one
failure and another until it will become a habit
and the strong shall prevail orr the weak, and
the man who slays his brother shall be regarded
as tho incarnation of power."
The Memphis Commercial Appeal said: Life
in this community is cheap." '
The New York Sun pointed to the fact that
222 homicides were committed in South Carolina
'The'cycrgoDaiiy News printed the following
editorial:
There is less crime in English cities as a
rule than in American cities, because of the
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more efficient polico systems abrond, nnd tho
absence of political considerations In tho ad
ministration of polico forces. London, with
an area of G88 square miles and a population
of 0,500,000, had twenty-four murders last
year. There was no "undiscovered crime," as
tho murderers were all arrested, except lu four
cases, where they committed suicide. Chicago,
with lesa than one-third of the population and
area covered by tho London or metropolitan po
lice, had 128 homicides reported. In eighteen
cases tho murderers were killed at the time of
the crime or committed suicide; four other
casos wore those of officers who did tho killing
in the performance of their duties, leaving 10C
casos for the police to work upon. Out of that
number, thirty-four convictions were scoured,
while in nineteen eaaea no arrests were mnde,
and in fifty-three cases the arrests did not re
sult In convictions. London has proportion
ately a larger police force, and the London
judges sentenced nine prisoners to no hung and
sent four to an insane asylum. Only one man
was hung in Chicago. Clearly, the London
police and tho London judges are much abovo
those of Chicago In tho performance of their
duty.
- ' Tho Chicago Journal says.
In Chicago during the past year there
were 118 homicides, besides a large number
of deadly assaults, in which the victims re
covered or partially recovered.
In Paris, according to statistics just com-.,
pleted by the police in that city, only fifteen'
murdera or attempted murder occurrod In
tho same period. In London, three or four
times the size of Chicago In population, there
were twenty murders.
Those figures illustrate the situation in
Chicago. More than eight times as many mur
ders in Chicago as in Paris! Six times as many
as In London!
The McClure symposium makes a terrific ar
raignment of political methods in vogue In tho
United States. It maintains that the enforcement
of law can not be expected from officials who aro
elected generally for reasons other thnn their spe
cial fitness for their tasks and frequently for tho
definite purposes of robbing the people who elect
them. McClure's describes tho oligarchy which
consists of these three classes:
1st. Saloon keepers, gamblers and others
who engage in businesses that degrade.
2d. Contractors, capitalists, bankers and
others who can make money by getting fran
chises and other property of the community
cheaper by bribery than by paying the com
munity. 3d. Politicians who are willing to seek and
accept office with the aid and endorsement of
the classes already mentioned.
According to McClure's the oligarchy gets con
trol of the party machine,, nominates and elects
men who will agree to help it rob the city or state
and who will agree also not to enforce the laws in
regard to the various businesses that degrade a
community of this description. It 13 said:
We find under various modifications this
criminal oligarchy in control of many commu
nities in the United States. We find represen
tatives of this combination in the United
States senate, among governors of states, state
legislators, mayors, aldermen, police officials.
We find them among men in business life cap
tains of industry, bankers, street-railway mag
nates. In short, wherever franchises or con
tracts of any kind are to be secured from a'
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