The Prevalence of Bank Burglary
According to recent statistics, bank burglary was never more prevalent in the United States than now. This is not true of the great city banks, which are guarded with all the care of an old feudal castle in time of siege. The all-night watchman pacing outside, electric alarms connecting forbidden ground with police headquarters, the bright and complete illumination of bank interiors, the barricade of steel around the vault, and finally the vault itself, render large city banks practically safe. But this is not the case with the smaller country towns. Most of the recent burglaries have taken place in the Mississippi Valley States. The number of successful burglaries (the unsuccessful are equally numerous) in the last five years are thus given by a writer in the American Banker: Maine, Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Idaho, Nevada, one each; Connecticut, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Oregon, two each; Massachusetts, Texas, four each; Pennsylvania, 6; Minnesota, 7; Wisconsin, 9; Indiana and Michigan 10 each; Ohio and Missouri, 17 each;9Nebraska 18; Kansas 24; Illinois 35. Another evidence of “increasing lawlessness,” which would have been still more aggravated if it were not for extraordinary precautions taken.