p. 8 | INCREASE OF CRIME by Wm. Penniman

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 11, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 44.

INCREASE OF CRIME.

By Wm. Penniman

BY WM. PENNIMAN.

"EVIL men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." Crime is defined by lexicographers to be any violation of law, either human or divine. Sin is defined as the transgression of the law of God. "Vice is a moral fault, or immoral conduct." Crime is generally a transgression of the law of God as well as of the law of man. Therefore when we speak of the increase of crime, it is about the same as to say increase of sin, wickedness, vice, or lawlessness.

Judge Vansickel, in a New Jersey court, in October, 1891, referring to the increase of crime and its causes, said:—

In 1891 more than 6,000 murders were committed in the United States, and in only one case out of fifty has capital punishment been meted out. If this disregard of human life is not checked, more than 6,000 persons are doomed to die in the year to come.

We think that the facts in the case prove that the judge was right in his prediction, as there were more than 7,000 in 1892. The judge goes on to prove that the causes of this increase are undue sympathy for the criminal, a prejudiced jury, and the consequent failure to administer the just penalties. But it is not in the province of this article to discuss the causes of the increase, more than to say that many of the causes are no doubt criminal as well as the effects.

The fear of punishment does not always prevent crime. When a wicked man has murder in his heart, and is determined to wreak his vengeance on someone, no fear of death or of hell fire will deter him. We have instances of this in recent cases of terrible and outrageous crimes, and the perpetrators have been hung, burned, and handled in various ways by mob law. This mob law is still in exercise, and the inhuman brutes continue their ruinous work, to give occasion for more lawlessness or mob law. It seems that this lawless method of dealing with some criminals is worse than the crime for which the criminal is punished. In a case which recently happened, it was the intention of the mob to burn a negro while alive, but as he happened to be killed in another way, they burned him after he was dead. Some time ago when another was burned alive and many were gathering around him to see the sight, he coolly said to the crowd, "Please step aside and give the ladies a chance." This is a specimen of the boasted civilization and refinement of the nineteenth century.

I think we have no record of any white men being burned in this country for similar crimes, but it is not because some of them do not deserve it as much as the degraded blacks, that they are not. It is right for man to administer whatever civil justice human law requires, yet every Christian should take into account that God says, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay."

We are living in an age of covetousness as well as an age of murder, in a time when justice is nearly dead and money is king. This is one reason, if not the greatest, why crime is so much on the increase. Very much is implied in the words of Scripture, that "the love of money is the root of all evil."

Said a man to me some time ago, "Give me $100,000 and I can kill any man in Macoupin County and get clear"—referring to several cases where money had cleared men. This is one of the reasons, if not the greatest, why only 120 persons received capital punishment in 1891, when in that year there were over 6,000 murders.

There never was an age of the world when there was such a heaping up of earthly treasures as now. How many millionaires can we find who have not made their fortunes illegally or criminally? And is not this kind of crime on the increase?

Again, look at the evils of intemperance in our land. Is it not the love of money as well as the love of drink that keeps up the army of 1,000,000 of confirmed drunkards? If statistics show that 240,000 saloons employ more than a million men, and that there is $1,200,000,000 expended annually, and $800,000 because of drink and drunkenness, and hundreds of millions foolishly wasted on tobacco, tea, coffee, and many other useless articles, and only comparatively a few millions in Christian missions, is it any wonder that crime of every description is so terribly on the increase? that conversions have become so scarce, and the dawn of the millennium seems so distant as to cause the hopeful Talmage to exclaim (when looking at both sides of the question), "Within the last twenty-five years the churches of God in this country have averaged less than two conversions a year each. There has been an average of four or five deaths in the churches. How soon, at that rate, will this world be brought to God? We gain two, we lose four. Eternal God! What will this come to?"