The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1929. CRIME IN UNITED STATES.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 April 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1929. CRIME IN UNITED STATES.

Mu Hoovkk’s dramatic declaration that |j|'e ami property an* less sale in tin* United States than in any other civilised country in the world is interesting, says the Christchurch Press, if only indication that the _ remarkable prevalence of crime stories in the eal.de news from the United States is not due merely to the enterprise of American journalists. Those, of course, who have a closer knowledge of conditions

in the United States will realise that .vir Hoover is not an alarmist when he says that “in many of our cities murder can be committed with impunity,” and that his country is suffering “not from an ephemeral crime wave, hut from a subsidence of its foundations.” There is perhaps little to be surprised at when we consider the mixed nationalities of which the American people are composed, and also the inefficiency —and sometimes worse—of the American judicial system. But Mr Hoover’s proposals tor elfeeting an improvement are a little novel. “If a law is wrong,” lie .says, “rigid enforcement is the surest guarantee of its repeal.” The moral outlook implied in this statement is a queer one; apparently Mr Hoover thinks that the best way to got rid of a social injustice is to make it so flagrant/ that the community are comollod in sheer desperation to root it nit. The law which is causing so much uneasiness, and which the President had in mind when he was speaking, was the law against alcoholic liquor, and if it is to he strictly enforced, half the population will immediately go to gaol. Mr H over is either exalting the law for the law’s sake—an attitude that is commendable in a policeman hut not ill a President —or he is blinding himself to the facts. It should certainly he an axiom with every policeman that “no iiidividua' has the right to determine what law shall lie obey-

ed,” hut statesmen must realise that in the long run it is the community that decides what laws shall he enforced and what shall he tacitly winked at. The sanction of public opinion is nccossarv for the enforcement of all legislation, and a law which offends against common sense can never be really effective, as even New Zealanders have good reason to know. An attempt by interested or intolerant people to force obedience to an unpopular or unjust law results ultimately in a lowering of the moral standard of those charged with its enforcement, and in the lowered respect of the community for the law generally. That is what has happened in tin* United States. Air Hoover is probably on good ground when he says that, only a small pen-oil I age of the crime in the United Slates can he traced direcl.lv to Prohibition, hut the point is that indirectly Prohibition has weakened the hole fabric of law and justice. The fad that the police have been corrupted is the least evil. Tin* really grave‘‘"matter is the I act that neople who would normally respect the law and obey il arc almost as ready now as flic habitually lawless to treat it with contempt.