Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/337

Rh ratio was only two to one; and if we deduct the commitments for disorder and immorality, the ratio of foreign criminals is but little in excess of that for native whites. So clearly is this indicated by facts and figures, that Mr. Wines arrives at the conclusion that "the foreign disregard for law shows itself far more in immorality and disorder than in dishonesty and violence."

An examination of the "Compendium of the Tenth Census" of the United States discloses some novel and threatening facts. The illiterates of the United States comprise seventeen per cent of the total population. The morally and mentally deranged, as shown by the number of criminal and insane persons, bear the ratio of one to every 332 inhabitants. The general average of illiteracy is exceeded by every one of the original slave States with the exception of Missouri, but the average ratio of the mentally and morally unsound is only reached in the State of Maryland. South Carolina, which shows the highest percentage of illiterates, viz., 55 per cent, presents the lowest average of any State in the Union as regards insanity and crime, having but one delinquent in every 568 inhabitants as compared with one in every 167 in California, one in 205 in Massachusetts, and one in every 222 in the State of New York. With the single exception of the State of Maine, every Northern State east of Indiana has a larger ratio of insane and criminals than the average for the Union, while the States west of Ohio, those on the Pacific slope excepted, fall below the general average.

If we measure the extent of unrecorded vice by the proportion of saloons to population, the showing is no less remarkable. The "Report of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue for the Year 1887," page xxxiii, shows that, for the entire country during that year, a retail license for selling liquor was granted for every 329 inhabitants. Of the fifteen States showing more than the average number of illiterates that ratio was only exceeded in the State of Louisiana; while the lowest average in the country was to be found in Mississippi, which, with 49-per cent of its inhabitants returned in 1880 as being illiterate, supported but one saloon for every 1,695 persons. Even the prohibition States of Maine and Kansas secured licenses for the sale of intoxicants at retail to an extent only equaled by four of the fifteen super-illiterate States. The proportion of saloons to population throughout the fifteen super-illiterate States is one for every 700 inhabitants, while of the other States California heads the list with one to every 99 persons, New Jersey coming next with one license to every 171 inhabitants, followed closely by New York with one to every 179.

The table which follows presents some disquieting facts, which