EDITOR'S TABLE. 



123 



were the fewest illiterates as compared with 

 those where there were the most. In the 

 succeeding numbers of the Monthly two 

 writers, apparently accepting the statistics 

 without question, have proceeded to draw 

 conclusions from them. Some one has wit- 

 tily said that " nothing can lie like fig- 

 ures " ; and certainly any one who deals 

 much with statistics knows that unless care- 

 fully and thoughtfully handled they are 

 capable of giving the most deceptive re- 

 sults. For this reason startling conclusions 

 should not be accepted without careful con- 

 sideration. There is getting to be too wide 

 a tendency to accept statistics as decisive 

 proof on any subject without regard to how 

 they were prepared or discussed. 



In the January Lend a Hand, Mr. David 

 C. Torrey carefully discussed the records of 

 crime in Massachusetts, which was one of 

 the States where Mr. Reece found his high- 

 est per cent of criminals, and some of his 

 results seem worthy of quoting, as throwing 

 much light on this subject : 



From 1350 to 1835 the total commitments in- 

 creased from 8,761 to 26,651 ; in the first-mentioned 

 year, 1 to 113 inhabitants : in the second, 1 to 72 in- 

 habitants. It is found, however, on investigation, 

 that the increase is almost entirely confined to crimes 

 against public order and decency, while the commit- 

 ments for the more serious crimes against persons 

 and property have not even kept pace with the 

 growth of population. The following statistics for 

 the years since 1865 in which a census has been 

 taken proves this statement. This division by 

 crimes was first made in the returns to the State in 

 1865, and was not made in 1875: 



For the more serious crimes in 1S65 and 1870, the 

 average commitments were 1 to 301 inhabitants, 

 while in the years 1880 and 1S35 they were 1 to 436 

 inhabitants. The increase in commitments was for 

 less serious crimes exclusively, and there was an 

 actual decrease in commitments for more serious 

 crimes, in proportion to population, of forty-four per 

 cent. The larger portion of the less serious crimes, 



those for which commitments are increasing, are 

 crimes of intemperance; so Mr. Torrey makes a sec- 

 ond division of crimes, separating those of intem- 

 perance from all other crimes. The returns to the 

 State permit of this division for a longer period : 



This division shows that the total increase in all 

 crimes other than intemperance, taken together, has 

 been only fifty per cent (population not considered), 

 but that commitments for intemperance have in- 

 creased nearly five hundred per cent. The commit- 

 ments which were not for intemperance are com- 

 pared with the population of the State with the fol- 

 lowing results : In 1850, 1 commitment to 183 in- 

 habitants; in 1S55, 1 to 144; in 1S60, 1 to 147:. in 

 1865, 1 to 225; in 1870, 1 to 201; in 1875, no statis- 

 tics ; in 18S0, 1 to 280 ; in 18S5, 1 to 244. From 1350 

 to 1865 the average commitments for crimes other 

 than intemperance were 1 to 174 inhabitants, while 

 from 1870 to 1835 it was 1 to 241 inhabitants. Thus 

 a decrease of thirty-eight per cent is shown in all 

 crimes other than intemperance during a period of 

 seventeen years. 



The question of crime in Massachusetts thus re- 

 solves itself into a question of intemperance, pure 

 and simple for it is owing to intemperance alone 

 that there is an increase of commitments. Mr. Tor- 

 rey proceeds to show that the increasing commit- 

 ments for intemperance do not necessarily prove an 

 increase of intemperance. The public has a different 

 opinion of the crime of intemperance from what it 

 has of other crimes. The commitments for more 

 serious crimes could not increase without an increase 

 of those crimes ; but, because so few of the men who 

 drink to excess are committed, there is abundant 

 opportunity for an increase in commitments for in- 

 temperance without an actual increase of intemper- 

 ance. In thirty-five years public sentiment has been 

 aroused against intemperance, and the increased 

 commitments caused by this sentiment and the 

 changes in law which it has brought about are the 

 inadequate grounds which warrant claims that crime 

 is increasing in Massachusetts. The State seems 

 still to have encouragement to continue its schools 

 and its reformatories and its churches, with faith 

 that it can not only take care of the children born to 

 it, but also that it can assimilate to its social order 

 those which it is forced to adopt. — Boston Post. 



H. Helm Clayton, 

 Bute Hill Observatoet, JSeadville, Mass., 

 March 30, 1890. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



PRACTICAL ECONOMICS. 



IN" last month's Table we had a few 

 words upon the discredit into which 

 what is sometimes called the M or- 

 thodox" political economy has fallen 

 among practical men. It is a pleasure 

 to be able to call attention to a book 

 which furnishes a signal example of the 

 way in which economical studies should 

 be pursued. We refer to the volume 



brought out a few months ago by Mr. 

 D. A. Wells, under the title of Recent 

 Economic Changes. Mr. Wells is not a 

 dogmatist, though it is evident he has 

 sufficiently definite opinions of his own. 

 He conceives it to be his main business 

 to marshal the facts that seem to him 

 capable of explaining the present mate- 

 rial condition of society, and of indi- 

 cating the course that things are likely 



