U. S. Murder

That impassive observer of U. S. vagaries, the insurance men's Spectator, last week reported the country's 1928 tally of murders. The tallier was fatherly and literary Dr. Frederick Ludwig Hoffman, statistician of the Prudential Insurance Co. since 1894.

Memphis. Tenn., as usual, had the lead in rate--60.5 homicides per 100,000 population.

Chicago, as usual, had the lead in numbers--498. But Chicago's rate per 100,000 was only 15.8, letting it out of first place among the six largest U. S. cities. Big Detroit committed 16.5 murders for each 100,000 of its population. Across the river, Windsor, Ont, had an estimated rate of only 9. Bloodthirsty Negroes were what boosted Detroit's figures.

In the South whites did not let Negroes handicap them in this curious competition. Both races committed practically the same number of murders. In ten Southern cities there were last year 731 killings, an average rate of 38.6 murders per 100,000. In the country's six largest communities the number was twice as great (1,513), the rate one-fourth as high (10.0).

Some figures:

Six Largest Cities Murders Rate per 100,000

Detroit 228 16.5

Chicago 498 15.8 Cleveland 134 13.3

Philadelphia 182 8.8

New York 401 6.7

Los Angeles 70 4.7

Ten Leading Southern Cities

Memphis 115 60.5

Birmingham 122 54.9

Jacksonville 74 52.6

Atlanta 115 45.1

Little Rock 30 37.9

Macon 22 35.9

Savannah 31 31.0

Nashville 39 27.9

Houston 72 26.2

New Orleans in 111 25.9

Attributable causes of the shambles: gun-toting; inept enforcement of capital punishment.