Increase of Crime

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 9, 1916

Increase of Crime

RECENT statistics gathered by Frederick L. Hoffman, from an investigation of the records of thirty cities, indicate that the rate of homicide for the past year was 8.6 per cent of every hundred thousand of our population. In other words, the total number of persons murdered in the United States during 1915 approximated 8,000. Contrasted with the two previous decades, the decade just closed shows an alarming increase. Regarding this situation the editor of America (Catholic), under date of January 8, says:—

“The conclusion is obvious. Life is held far cheaper than it was ten years ago, and far cheaper than a quarter of a century ago. The increase in murder is a deplorable thing in itself, but it is also a symptom of the passing of the moral standards that have given to our people the vitality and the prosperity that have made us an object of envy to the world. Increase in divorce, increase in suicide, increase in the shamelessness of literature, art, and drama, are other indications of the accelerated retrogression away from Christianity toward paganism. It is time to call a halt. It is time to stop playing with trifles and striking at shadows. The ax should be laid at the root. And the root is the irreligious spirit that is so rife among us.”

It is time to call a halt, but how shall this be done? How can this terrible tide of lawlessness which is setting in so strongly be turned back? It cannot be done by legislation, although of course that is necessary. At best the civil law can only restrain the outward acts, and so long as the heart, which is the source of all life's issues, remains unchanged, there is very little hope of raising the status of society. There must be on the part of the great Christian church an awakened consciousness of sin. The moral conscience of the individual must be aroused and educated. The state cannot undertake this work. It is a work which must be done in the home and by the church.