seen by comparing the Italian figures with those of the entire population. Mr. Shipley would make them five times as homicidal as the average, while the ratio in the third column is as three to seven.
Mr. Shipley perhaps realized this disturbing factor, though he does not mention it; for he goes out of his way to impugn the character of the immigrants' children, by quoting statistics according to which more than half the children brought before the New York City Children's Court are of Russian or Italian parentage. As homicide is expressly excluded from the jurisdiction of that court, the use of these statistics might seem irrelevant; but since the prejudice created might have some indirect influence upon the reader's judgment, I present an analysis of the report of that court for 1905, which is fuller than the earlier ones and in many ways might be more disadvantageous to the immigrant. In this analysis, the most serious interpretation has been given in doubtful cases, and yet it will be seen that the great majority of arrests are for trivial offenses, such as selling papers without a badge, breaking flowers in the parks, throwing stones in the street, etc., incidental rather to unguarded childhood than to viciousness. Over one quarter of the arrests have nothing to do with the child's character, as they are for improper guardianship or violation of the child labor law—further comment seems superfluous.
Finally, Mr. Shipley is not happy in his discussion of the conditions in individual cities; to follow him from town to town, however, would be tedious and would frequently result in a mere repetition of strictures already made upon his general inferences. We can take his comparison of Cleveland and Cincinnati, upon which he lays great stress, as an illuminative example. It appears that these two Ohio cities, of nearly equal size, present diverse conditions of nationality, Cleveland containing 46.1 per cent of foreign-born, among whom more than one third come from southern and eastern Europe, while Cincinnati has only 17.8 per cent, foreign-born inhabitants, something more than one tenth of whom come from southeastern Europe. "In Cleveland, the average of arrests for
Table II.
| Birthplace. | Dis charged. | ||||
| United States. |
North- western Europe. |
South- eastern Europe. |
Other Countries. | ||
| Crimes against person or property | |||||
| Felonies | 809 | 18 | 133 | 4 | 419 |
| Misdemeanors | 1,175 | 15 | 211 | 11 | 580 |
| Prostitution, etc. | 94 | 4 | 26 | 25 | |
| Petty offenses of all kinds | 3,177 | 38 | 339 | 9 | 767 |
| Truancy from school | 48 | 2 | 12 | ||
| Disorderly and ungovernable child | 563 | 12 | 104 | 12 | 182 |
| Insanity, attempted suicide | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||
| Improper guardianship | 1,870 | 16 | 212 | 25 | 867 |
| Child labor law violation | 427 | 3 | 54 | 3 | 19 |
| 8,164 | 107 | 1,083 | 64 | 2,874 | |
