Show THE UNITED STATES AND civilization MR MB WILLIAM ROBERT an englishman who resided for several years in the united states has an article in the january Fw For nightly entitled the administration of justice in america P he dwells largely on the miscarriage of justice in murder oases cases and comes to the conclusion th it the United states stata cannot lay any reasonable claim to be considered on a level with the civilized nations of europe this to is rather art an emphatic assertion and one which no doubt will be resented even in england by the majority of the ahe people but what to is giving the average american patriot a 96 left handed banded sort of solace in this case la Is the fact that mathilda ma M blake has an article in the january westminster on the protection of women the article relates to the women of great britain and she obtained her data from public records according to her showing the condition of women Is ia no better now in that country than it was seven centuries back miss mies blake cites instances from police courts where women have been outraged and wives kicked or driven to suicide and only terms of six or nine months imprisonment imposed for these offenses on the other hand band she cites oases cases of pocket picking which have been punished with five years 0 penal servitude she bhe says that a husband to la rarely executed for wife murder anti and that more generally acquittal rather than conviction follows outrages and brutality on women la a england the administration of justice in england and in the united states can not be viewed as correctly represented in these articles Ho however mover there is some of truth perhaps iri edoth both it is generally admitted that domestic strife in england sometimes assumes a savage aspect but unfortunately it can be traced to the inordinate use of intoxicating liquors whether pocket picking is made almost a capital offense in that country and wife killing only a venial sin ia 18 another question and one not likely to be credited even in america with regard to the statement made by mr roberts that justice is not administered in murder cases there la Is certainly some correctness in the charge during 1891 there were in the united states murders and only legal executions thero there were however lyn lunching lynching lynch ching ings and among these theme alet victims ims were several women the figures as given for 1890 are murders 1889 1888 2184 1887 2336 and in 1886 the number was waa 1499 the vast increase in these figures may be traced to some degree to the later more effective methods of statistic gathering it to is possible that in 1891 the figures aie more correct than those for 1886 but the fact can not be questioned that murder to la on the increase in this country and that punishment lie is not commens ur abely meted out the murders for last year averaged a month or very nearly seventeen per day throughout this land while the abe legal executions will average but little over two a week in this particular dicu ticu ti lar perhaps mr roberts roberta does not exaggerate when he be says that we can not properly lay claim to be classed with civilized nations |