134 JOHN R. COMMONS 



noting the relative seriousness of their offenses, and paying 

 attention to the female offenders. Only one class of offenses 

 can here be noted in detail, namely, that of pubUc intoxica- 

 tion. Although classed as a crime, this offense borders on 

 pauperism and the mental diseases, and its extreme preva- 

 lence indicates that the race in question is not overcoming 

 the degenerating effects of competition and city life. Sta- 

 tistics from Massachusetts seem to show that drunkenness pre- 

 vails to the greatest extent in the order of preeminence 

 among the Irish, Welsh, English and Scotch, and least among 

 the Portuguese, Italians, Germans, Poles and Jews. The Ital- 

 ians owe their prominence in the lists of prisoners to their 

 crimes of violence and very slightly to intoxication, though the 

 latter is increasing among them. In the southern states the 

 ravages of drink among the negroes have been so severe and 

 accompanied with such outbreaks of violence that the policy 

 of prohibition of the liquor traffic has been carried farther 

 than in any other section of the country. Probably three 

 fourths of the southern negroes live in prohibition counties; 

 and were it not for the paternal restrictions imposed by such 

 laws, the downward course of the negro race would doubtless 

 have outrun considerably the speed it has actually attained. 

 Besides the crimes which spring from racial tendencies, 

 there is a peculiar class of crimes springing largely from race 

 prejudice and hatred. These are lynchings and mob violence. 

 The United States presents the paradox of a nation where 

 respect for law and constitutional forms has won most signal 

 triumphs, yet where concerted violations of law have been 

 most widespread. By a queer inversion of thought a crime 

 committed jointly by many is not a crime, but a vindication of 

 justice, just as a crime committed by authority of a nation 

 is not a crime, but a virtue. Such crimes have not been con- 

 tinuous, but have arisen at times out of acute racial antago- 

 nisms. The Knownothing agitation of 1840 to 1855, which 

 prevailed among religious and patriotic Americans, was di- 

 rected against the newly arrived flood of immigrants from 

 Europe and Asia, and was marked by a state of lawlessness 

 and mob rule such as had never before existed, especially in the 

 cities of Boston, New York, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville 



