“As It Was in the Days of Noah”
In McClure’s Magazine for December, S. S. McClure writes of “The Increase of Lawlessness in the United States.” Instead of merely theorizing or moralizing upon the subject, he presents “comments on the prevalence of crime and lawlessness in the United States, taken almost at random from representative and serious newspapers, and from the published statements of judges and citizens.” He also prints “the statistics of murders and homicides in the United States which have been collected for twenty-three years by the Chicago Tribune. These statistics confirm the general impression regarding the rapid and alarming increase of lawlessness in our country.” We take the following paragraphs from some of the comments quoted:— Lawlessness pervades the land, unrest and discontent breed over apparent prosperity. We have become the money center of the world, but this has bred a feverish appetite for gold, with all its vulgar accompaniments. In an address on “Suggestion and Crime,” delivered before the members of the Patria Club in the Hotel Savoy last evening, President Henry Hopkins, of Williams College, declared that the prevalence of crime in this country was greater at the present time than ever before, and that the foundations of the national life are threatened. It is less than two decades since James Bryce wrote his “American Commonwealth.” He was then able to give the highest praise to the law-abiding spirit of the American people. Should he rewrite his chapter as a result of his visit to this country this fall, he would have a different story to tell. The violence and the indifference to violence shown by our great cities, Chicago included, are symptomatic of a great and rapid change that is passing over the country. Last week there was a shameful negro-burning in Georgia. There have recently been labor riots in New York City. We all know of the war on law and order in Colorado. . . . And we have just had a touch of anarchy in the army.