1 64 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Capable as many of the better-conditioned blacks are of attaining 

 all the virtues of the average white citizen, and, in some instances, of 

 transcending them, the American of African descent is, on the whole, 

 fully as prone to homicide as are the native Indians, whose savage 

 cruelty he does not hesitate, when excited by the lust for blood, to 

 emulate. In Lexington, Kentucky, for instance, where 38 per cent, of 

 the population are negroes, 13 per cent, of whom are illiterate, the 

 annual average of arrests for murder and manslaughter during the 

 four years 1901-04 was 40.07 per one hundred thousand of inhabitants, 

 the highest ratio of any city of which statistics covering more than one 

 year are available. Only 3.5 per cent, of the population are of foreign 

 birth, hence the great number of homicides implied by these figures 

 can not be attributed to the immigrant population. 



On the other hand, in cities where the proportion of negroes is 

 small, the higher ratios of arrests for homicide correspond with the 

 higher percentages of immigrants from certain countries. Other things 

 being equal, the lower ratios prevail where the foreign element is from 

 northern Europe, and the higher ratios are seen where the foreign 

 element is from the countries shown above to produce the emigrants 

 who are most given to crimes of violence. 



The following table shows the ratios of arrests for homicide per 

 one hundred thousand of population in various cities, for the years 

 1880, 1890, 1900, and the annual average ratios for the last two or 

 more years. 2 



Eeferrino; to the last two columns of the table above, it is seen that 

 despite the fact that San Francisco has but a very small negro popula- 

 tion (only 0.5 per cent, of the total inhabitants, in 1900), the annual 

 average ratio of arrests for homicide is greater than in Louisville, 

 Kentucky; or in Charleston, South Carolina, where the negro popula- 

 tion is relatively large. This corresponds with the fact that San 

 Francisco has a large number of Chinese (about 16,000) in her popula- 

 tion; a large proportion of Italians (7,508, in 1900); about 1,500 

 Mexicans, and a large proportion of foreign born from various countries 

 other than Scandinavian, Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon. 



The latest report of the Sheriff of San Francisco County shows that 

 of the prisoners committed to the county jails during the fiscal year 

 ended June 30, 1904, 70 per cent, were of foreign birth, while the 

 proportion of foreign born in the total population is about 34 per 

 cent. 



2 The proportion of homicides committed would, of course, serve more ac- 

 curately as an index of relative criminality, in respect to the crimes of man- 

 slaughter and murder, than would the number of arrests therefor. The 

 former statistics not being available in many instances, the latter have been 

 used as a basis for the present study. The writer's thanks are due the many 

 chiefs of police, and others, who have so kindly assisted him in procuring the 

 statistics of arrests for homicide in the various cities mentioned in this study. 



