Considerable space is being given in the American Press at
the present time to what the Literary Digest terms " the Asing tide of murder." Criminal homicide, judging by the figures given by Dr. Frederick L. Hoffman, con- sulting statistician to one of the largest American insurance companies, is steadily increasing. In 1900 the murder rate in twenty-eight of the largest cities was 5.1 per 100,000, in 1920 it was 8.5 and in 1921 9.3. Various writers seek to explain this increase in homicide and suggest as remedies a more rigid control of the sale of dangerous weapons and poisonous drugs, the strengthening of the police in the large cities, and a reform of criminal procedure. "Capital punishment," says the New York World, "is evidently not in itself a sufficient deterrent." The New York Globe makes an earnest plea for an honest investigation of the causes which lead up to crime. To the ordinary explanations, it says, "there should be added the iniireasing congestion in cities without corresponding provision for play facilities, the improved opportunities for escape lying in the greater size of cities, the availability of motor-cars and other means of rapid transportation, and the disturbed economic condition of the last few years."
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