Note and Comment

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 18, 1902

Is crime on the increase in this country? It is often said that only the pessimist holds the affirmative view on this point, yet we often note comments on the increase of crime from sources that cannot be regarded as biased in that direction. For instance, we find the Chicago Tribune of November 9 saying editorially that “that week is now the exception in New England when the newspapers do not report murders of a mysterious kind. . . . Three such cases are now engaging public attention in that section.” After some further reference to these cases, the Tribune says:—

New England is not the only scene of these brutal crimes. There is scarcely a day in New York in which some cruel and mysterious murder, often of a peculiarly revolting kind, is not reported. The prevalence of murders has aroused considerable discussion, but as yet none of the students of sociology and criminology have been able to give a satisfactory explanation. One alienist who has examined insane cases for years declares that insanity has nothing to do with the increase of murders, and that it is only in extreme cases of dementia that there is a desire to commit murder, and that patients are always placed in asylums before they reach that stage. Dr. Parkhurst, in this connection, hits pretty near the mark when he says that the increase of crime is due to the decrease of respect for authority, beginning in the home and showing itself in disobedience to home laws, which leads to contempt for the laws of the country. He says further: “We become habituated to the things we talk about and read about. Hence it has come to pass that even in polite society men and women—good men and women they are, too—fail to experience any but the mildest sort of a shudder upon learning of the most atrocious crimes, and that the late recruits to the ranks of the murderers are not altogether from the lower classes.” Jane Addams, the other day, expressed a similar sentiment, attributing the increase of crime to the lack of respect for public authority and to the failure to enforce laws. Some day the public will have to give heed to these real warnings. The crime of murder is increasing not only in New England and New York, but all over the country. The record for 1902 will show a larger number of murders than the record for many years past, the total being out of all proportion to the increase of population.

To understand the meaning of these things it is only necessary to know that we have reached the closing days of earth’s history, when opposition to the law of God is proclaimed even in the pulpit, and evil men are waxing worse and worse, as prophecy has foretold.