OCR Text |
Show Record of Crime in 1902. fPHE criminal statistics published J every year give a key to the moral and religious feelings of the country. They point an object lesson, les-son, which may direct one in measuring measur-ing the tendencies of the age and country in which they live. Unfortunately this record has been on the increase each year. It cannot be attributed to hard times, as the country was never more prosperous. The figures published each year are alarming. In . 1901 the number, of hemicides was 7,852. Last year exceeded ex-ceeded that number by an even 1,000, making the number of homicides in 1902. 8,852. This increase is far more than the ratio of increase in, our population. popu-lation. Another notable increase in I last year's criminal record was that of the lawless element which infests eviery large city. , Last year murders by desperadoes, numbered 333, . as against 193 in 1901. This great percentage per-centage of increase is a menace to good government, and, .needless to add, tends to undermine the social order or-der and give gloomy forebodings of the future. The number of suicides last year was 8,245, an increase of 1,000 over that of 1901. Of this large number there were 3,099 females, which is the largest increase in-crease of all the criminal statistics. To disappointed love and domestic infelicity in-felicity is attributed the large increase. in-crease. Those who were sentenced and executed exe-cuted according to law numbered 144. In 1901 there were 118 public executions. execu-tions. The lynching record in the southern states last year showed a decrease of twenty-one over the preceding year. In the northern states nine were lynched. Apart from the number lynched in the south, and which has not been yet published, the total number of criminal crim-inal deaths, including public executions, execu-tions, for the past year, is 17,250. This record would figure 1-40 of 1 per cent in a population of 70,000,000, or one person in every 4,000. It shows that the moral sentiment or religious feeling is on the decay. The census of 1900 showed that churchgoers were on the decrease every year in proportion to the ratio of increase of the population. This decrease does not mean any opposition to religion, but shows a total indifference indiffer-ence to its teaching. The statistics for the past year sound a note of warning warn-ing to every lover of his country. It can be stopped only by a sound moral teaching for the youth of our country. |