STUDENT SUICIDE WAVE.

Shannon News, 10 May 1927, Page 3

STUDENT SUICIDE WAVE.

SWEEPING THROUGH AMERICA. FORTY-TWO CASES THIS YEAR. SAN FRANCISCO, April 14. An extraordinaiy wave of studer* suicide has been sweeping the United States since the beginning of the present year, no fewer than 42 cases being reported to date. Jazz, high living, loss of religion, and a reduction of th? moral code are the causes assigned to it by the psychology department of the University of California. „ ' Rich i;>ir.riies are the main sufferers. Dr. William Untermeyer, nation-ally-known writer, whose son committed suicite at Harvard University, said he will devote the whole of his fortune to endow-educational research to prevent suicide among the youth of the nation. Dr. Harsha, whose eon com mitted suicide at Chicago University, said he had ione all that parental love, money and influence could do for his son What, he asked, were parents to do in the future, if such influences failed? A Yale student, noted athlete loft a note, before shooting hinself, to the effect that he had tried everything in life, and could see himself a permanent failure in the world. Yet he was but 20! '

'•Why should there not be more suicides among the modern intellectual and city-bred folks?" asked a Californian professor, somewhat bitterly. "What have they to keep them living, once life begins to repeat itself and lose its first thrills? Youth; and "old geoplc whc imitate'youth, try to be a law untij; themselves. Religion has lost its hold, and patriotism is regarded as a ridiculous: and tribal sentiment.' ;