DISCUSSION AXD CORRESPONDENCE 



379 



homicide during the two years 1903-4 

 was 9.56 per 100,000 of population. 



In Cincinnati, the average for the six 

 years 1898-1904 was 6.2:5. In 1890 the 

 disparity was still greater, the ratio 

 being 4.04 in Cincinnati and 13.01 in 

 Cleveland." This higher rate is as- 

 cribed at length to the influx of for- 

 eigners into Cleveland, in ■ spite of the 

 contrary view of the chief-of-police, 

 from whose report the figures are de- 

 rived. But is it not true that in a de- 

 eade this crime has increased 50 per , 

 cent, in Cincinnati and decreased over ! 

 25 per cent, in Cleveland, in spite of the 

 latter's growth in ' undesirable ' popu- 

 lation? Still, the foreigners in Cin- 

 cinnati are not bad enough for Mr. 

 Shipley's purpose; he therefore re- 

 cords that the 18.61 per cent, of for- 

 eigners in its white population allowed 

 by the Twelfth Census furnished 64.04 

 per cent, of the 7,135 whites arrested 

 in 1904; he then enumerates the ar- 

 rests for murder and attempted mur- 

 der and calmly asserts that ' a large 

 proportion of these crimes were un- 

 doubtedly committed by foreign-born 

 whites,' although the figures at his 

 command do not seem to even admit of 

 the usual separation of whites and 

 negroes. Anybody ignorant of the fact 

 that 'arrests' are made for misde- 

 meanors as well as felonies might infer 

 a connection between the percentages 

 quoted above and the tendency toward 



homicide, which Mr. Shipley would 

 doubtless be the first to deny; never- 

 theless, such careless juxtaposition 

 must seriously inpugn the authority of 

 an investigator. 



Murder is the most atrocious crime 

 in our penal code; before we throw the 

 suspicion of homicidal proclivities upon 

 hundreds of thousands of innocent im- 

 migrants, let us weigh our evidence 

 seriously and see whether our own sta- 

 tistics are truthful. Is wilful homi- 

 cide reported and punished uniformly 

 throughout the country? Do our 

 courts deal equally with the foreigner 

 and the native, the Caucasian and the 

 Mongolian, the rich and the poor? Is 

 a classification into nationalities suffi- 

 cient, or must age and sex also be 

 taken into account? Are certain oc- 

 cupations, leading to violent habits, 

 chosen by the immigrant from inclina- 

 tion or forced upon him by our social 

 and economic conditions? Is the 

 Italian, the Russian or the ' Hun ' less 

 amenable to law than were the found- 

 ers of the Texan Republic, the ' forty- 

 niners,' the ' Filibusters,' the ' cow- 

 boys' and the ' rustlers ' ? Above 

 all, is Mr. Shipley right in asserting, 

 on page 168 of his article, that the 

 second generation of foreigners is al- 

 ways worse than the first ; if that be 

 true, what becomes of the boasted 

 strength of our American civilization ? 



Morris Loeb. 



