Show national affairs written tor for the park record by FRANK P LITSCHERT N no e nation certainly no nation of the tha a ize and resources of 0 the united states has ever put under way a more constructive tive or more comprehensive movement to deal with a great national menace a than was inaugurated by preside president t committe hoover when he ha appointed a a committee ce of representative and competent citizens to deal with the problem of 0 law violation and to seek a remedy for or this ultra mo dern dem condition when we stop for a moment to think of the many elements which go into law violation our cosmopolitan population our great wealth our native organizing ability which can be misdirected as well as properly directed we can agree with mr wickersham the chairman of the commission when lie be says rays that no one can realize who has not looked into it just how baffling and perplexing the question Is there are 48 states under the federal jurisdiction mr wickersham declared yet there Is no place where statistics concerning crime are assembled to which one can go and read them as one would read health statistics in its effort to get a start on the pro blem the commission is going into the courts and police bureaus of the country tor for their figures the work of assembling the statistics will therefore be necessarily essa rily slow and laborious in addition there will be the hearing ot of witnesses and the assembling of opinion from men and women in every walk of life the job Is not one which can be done in a day and yet it Is one which ought to be done as thoroughly as possible there Is no question that something can bo be done in an effort to artest arrest the crime evil in america it is a national menace meni I 1 which can no longer te be ignored I 1 those who oppose the theory of prohibition hibi tion on 0 ol 01 the lie liquor traffic in america i are w wont nt to blame the crime wave on to athe the violation ot of the eighteenth amendment but those who have studied tb the e question while admitting that bootleg i ging and jacking hijacking hi nl form a serious problem know that the causes are deeper than this others have blamed the crime wave on to the letdown let down which followed the tension of the world war but now that the period of reconstruction Is over in america it would seem that this postwar rela relaxation x aaion ought to be about over too yet the crime wave continues the truth Is of course that crime was on the increase before the war and belore the eighteenth amendment was adopted there were violations of the liquor laws ven even then and the liquor question was in politics lust just as it is in some communities muni ties today one notable fact Is that the criminals of today are to be found in large part among the y youth 0 nth of the land just why this is true is probably due I 1 to 0 o no ono one reason it may be that the american home Is not what it used to be in many instances yet it Is an undeniable fact that all over america there are millions of homes where parents try industriously to guide their cl ildren along proper paths just as they have always done and these homes are to be found in the city as well as in the country lite life today and the rearing of children Is a much more complicated process than ever before therefore many people bla blame M a the crime wave in part at least i on to the complications of modern civilization but this Is only passing the buck the root of the evil must be found and when it Is found it will doubtless be discovered also that the tree of iniquity has several roots I 1 this Is what makes the task of the new crime commission so difficult no 0 one remedy can be found because there li Is no single reason for the increase of erl crime me at any rated rate president hoover Is to be commended for tackling this all imbor tant problem in characteristic fashion the high character of the members of the commission and their intelligence and ability can assure us that a real effort will be made to find a solution or solutions to the problem confronting i i them and certainly every good citizen has it as a part of his duty to cooper co oper I 1 ate with the new commission in every way possible we do not wa want n t america to be known as the most las lawless less of the civilized civili sed nations the reputation a n Is 15 not an enviable one and in addition ll 11 the menace Is one which gnaws deeply into the fundamentals of the republic |