Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 73.djvu/131

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UMAN life is the cheapest thing in Chicago," recently declared Judge Cleland. "This city," he asserted, "witnesses a murder for every day in the year." Now 365 homicides a year would mean, for Chicago, that one out of every 5,614 of her citizens is destined to be murdered each year; or, in other words, that 17 in each 100,000 of the population would annually meet death at the hands of a fellow citizen. This would place Chicago on a criminal level with Lexington, Ky., where nearly 39 per cent, of the population are negroes. In Chicago the negro element forms scarcely 2 per cent, of the total inhabitants. As a matter of fact, however, whereas Lexington stands first in the scale of American cities in respect to the ratio of deaths by homicide to total population, Chicago stands about eighth in the list, showing a lower record for homicides than either San Francisco or Los Angeles, as may be seen in the accompanying table.

(Most of the averages given are for a period of six years.)