i74 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ratio per one hundred thousand of population. (The ratios were com- 

 puted on the basis of statistics of crimes of violence compiled and 

 published by the Record-Herald, of Chicago.) The white bars show 

 the proportion of the population who, according to the United States 

 census for 1900, were engaged in manufacturing pursuits, and the 

 black bars indicate the percentage engaged in mining and quarrying : 



It will be observed that Pennsylvania and West Virginia are the 

 only states in the Union which are engaged extensively in mining, and 

 yet have a comparatively low ratio of homicides. This is largely due 

 to the fact that the mining districts in these states are adjacent to well- 

 populated and comparatively cultured communities, whereas in the 

 West, the mines are situated in states or territories which contain few 

 or no large cities, and wherein the rural population is of a rather low 

 order. Colorado, for example, has but one large city, and is one of the 

 five most sparsely settled states or territories of the (continental) 

 Union; whereas Pennsylvania, on the other hand, has more towns of 

 over 4,000 population than any other state, giving it the highest per 

 cent, of urban population of any commonwealth in the Union with the 

 exception of New York. Again, whereas West Virginia has 38.9 

 persons to the square mile, Nevada has 0.4. 6 



Consistently with all that has herein been stated, we find the greater 

 percentages of foreign-born who are most given to crimes of violence in 

 the very states shown to produce the greater proportion of homicides, 

 and most of which are engaged most extensively in mining, as may be 

 seen by comparing Pig. 7 with the one preceding. 



Not wishing needlessly to multiply examples and evidences, it may 

 be said in conclusion that, however desirable the hundreds of thousands 

 of ignorant immigrants annually landed on our shores may be from 

 an economic standpoint, as ' much-needed laborers/ or, however chari- 

 tably we may personally feel toward the hordes of hapless human 

 beings who seek to better their condition by coming to this land of 

 freedom and opportunities, such a vast addition of untutored and 

 poverty-stricken people, unused to self-restraint, can not be absorbed 

 without a material increase in crimes of violence throughout the United 

 States, and especially in the large cities, where the recent immigration 

 has for the greater part congested. It is to be hoped that the evidences 

 of the Children's Court of New York City, and of police statistics in 

 general, are symptoms rather of conditions to be remedied than of 

 evils destined to grow more portentous. 



6 The Report of Warden C. E. Haddox, of the West Virginia State Peni- 

 tentiary, for 1903-04, shows that the five counties in which mining industries 

 predominate, with a total population of 139,812, sent 419 persons; while 

 sixteen other counties, whose population is engaged in agriculture or other 

 equally stable pursuits, numbering in all 205,175 persons, are represented by 

 28 convicts. In the mining counties one person in every 333 was sent to the 

 penitentiary; in the sixteen bounties mentioned, one in each 7,327 of popula- 

 tion was sent to prison — a difference as great as 300 is to 13. 



