PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND CRIME. 323 



ratio was only two to one ; and if we deduct the commitments for 

 disorder and immorality, the ratio of foreign criminals is but little 

 in excess of that for native whites. So clearly is this indicated 

 by facts and figures, that Mr. Wines arrives at the conclusion 

 that " the foreign disregard for law shows itself far more in im- 

 morality and disorder than in dishonesty and violence." * 



An examination of the " Compendium of the Tenth Census " 

 of the United States discloses some novel and threatening facts. 

 The illiterates of the United States comprise seventeen per cent 

 of the total population. The morally and mentally deranged, as 

 shown by the number of criminal and insane persons, bear the 

 ratio of one to every 332 inhabitants. The general average of 

 illiteracy is exceeded by every one of the original slave States 

 with the exception of Missouri, but the average ratio of the men- 

 tally and morally unsound is only reached in the State of Mary- 

 land. South Carolina, which shows the highest percentage of 

 illiterates, viz., 55^ per cent, presents the lowest average of any 

 State in the Union as regards insanity and crime, having but one 

 delinquent in every 568 inhabitants as compared with one in every 

 167 in California, one in 205 in Massachusetts, and one in every 

 222 in the State of New York. With the single exception of the 

 State of Maine, every Northern State east of Indiana has a larger 

 ratio of insane and criminals than the average for the Union, 

 while the States west of Ohio, those on the Pacific slope excepted, 

 fall below the general average. 



If we measure the extent of unrecorded vice by the proportion 

 of saloons to population, the showing is no less remarkable. The 

 " Report of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue for the Year 

 1887," page xxxiii, shows that, for the entire country during that 

 year, a retail license for selling liquor was granted for every 329 

 inhabitants. Of the fifteen States showing more than the average 

 number of illiterates that ratio was only exceeded in the State of 

 Louisiana; while the lowest average in the country was to be 

 found in Mississippi, which, with 49 1 5 5 - per cent of its inhabitants 

 returned in 1880 as being illiterate, supported but one saloon for 

 every 1,695 persons. Even the prohibition States of Maine and 

 Kansas secured licenses for the sale of intoxicants at retail to an 

 extent only equaled by four of the fifteen super-illiterate States. 

 The proportion of saloons to population throughout the fifteen 

 super-illiterate States is one for every 700 inhabitants, while of 

 the other States California heads the list with one to every 99 

 persons, New Jersey coming next with one license to every 171 

 inhabitants, followed closely by New York with one to every 179. 



The table which follows presents some disquieting facts, which 



* "Proceedings of the National Prison Association," 1888, p. 255. 



