Americans are wont to boast of the many things in which their country ranks first, but there is one “first” which should fill us with shame. We have reference to our crime record.
Among many other distinctions the United States must accept that of being pre-eminent among civilized nations for the extent of crime within its borders.
This is the conclusion arrived at by Harold Callender, writing in The New York Times Book Review, after reading “battling the Criminal,” by Richard W. Child. Mr. Callender does ot take this dour outlook, however, without some reasons, for we find, there are some very convincing figures given.
In England and Wales, with a total population of nearly 40 million there are fewer than 200 murders in a year of abnormal employment and extensive suffering, while a city of half a million in prosperous America recorded a greater number in a like period.
In his argument Mr. Child gives as one of the first causes of crime in the United States the extensive immigration of people of European countries to America. He gives figures to back up the statement.
Of 125 persons charged with murder or manslaughter in five cities, 26 were Italians, 19 Russians, and 35 were from Greece, Austria, Rumania, Bulgaria and other countries of Southern and Central Europe. Thirteen were negroes, and England, Ireland, the Scandinavian nations, Germany, France and one Oriental country supplied 12.
These figures may cover the case in the immigration centers but how about in the South, and particularly North Carolina? We can’t put the blame on the foreigners or the foreign born, for in this State we have practically no citizens except Americans. The same is true of the South as a whole.
Our native-born are keeping up with the foreigners, and the cure is not to be found solely in restricted immigration.
From the editorial page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Saturday, Jan. 23, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-01-23/ed-1/seq-4/
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