Criminal Record for 1898.—"As for war, I call it murder," James Russell Lowell makes one of his characters to say. War being legal murder, and last year being a war year, may account for the diminution of crime in the United States. There were reported to the Chicago Tribune, 5,920 suicides, 680 less than in 1897; 7,840 murders, a decrease of 680 over the previous year, the same as the suicides. There were 109 hangings or executions for capital crime against 127 for 1897. In 1898 there were 127 lynchings; in 1897, 166. Money embezzled amounted to $5,851,263, as compared with $11,248,084 in 1897. That this does not show all the crime will be evident to the thinking ones. It gives only those reported to one great paper. Some of the greatest crimes do not at once come to light, and this is especially true in the embezzlement of money. A war year always shows a falling off in private crimes of violence.