270 



THE ABNORMAL MAN. 



Crime in the 

 United States. 



A Grave 



Problem. 



Education and 

 Crime. 



in the other countries named, while England has 

 the lowest rate of increase of any civilized coun- 

 try, Sweden coming next. 



In the United States, according to Mr. Round, 

 U. S. Statistician, in 1850 the number of crim- 

 inals to each one million of the population was 

 290; in 1860, it was 607; in 1870, 853; in 1880, 

 1,169; m 1890, 1,315. Thus it will be seen that 

 crime in this country more than quadrupled in 

 the forty years prior to 1890, or increased over 

 480 per cent, while the increase from 1890 to 

 1900 has been fully as fast as in any previous 

 decade. 



Statistics of the feeble-minded and insane are 

 as appalling as those of crime. Legislators, edu- 

 cators and reformers may well pause at the 

 threshold of the twentieth century long enough 

 to ask themselves the questions : "Whence and 

 whither are we drifting? Why are these things 

 so? How shall we stop the increase of the ab- 

 normal man? How shall we stay the rising tide 

 of insanity, vice and crime that threatens to sub- 

 merge our Christian civilization? How shall we 

 instill the elements of health and principles of 

 virtue, honor and charity into the physical, men- 

 tal and moral nature of the man of today and 

 the generation of tomorrow ? 



Postnatal education and religion unaided by 

 proper prenatal influences will not solve these 

 great problems. In Spain the proportion of 

 illiteracy to the population is 65 per cent, but the 

 remaining 35 per cent commit one-half of the 

 crimes of the country. 



Warden A. A. Brush, of Sing Sing, New York, 



