The Weber Literary Journal ily behind in their work from year to year. There are criminal cases that have been on the docket in New York City for two years, the docket as a whole being about a year and one-half behind. Indictments pending in federal courts in 1921 numbered 79,999 as compared with 9000 for 1912. In the meantime these criminals continue to plunder society by desecrating our laws. If ever the culprit is convicted, it is too long after the crime has been committed to provide a lesson for the criminally inclined. This situation brings home with impelling force, the fact that the millions of dollars the American people have invested in their forces of law, are paying debasing dividends in nefarious crime. The burden of providing police protection, the ponderous machinery of justice, and the maintenance of penal institutions, is imposed upon the people, and yet their property is insecure, and their lives and liberty jeopardized. The present laxity of law enforcement creates a disrespect for all laws. The American tendency to disregard those laws which seem inconvenient, has a pernicious effect upon all legal institutions. Among all classes and in all sections of the country the Eighteenth amendment is ignored. The demoralizing consequences is the dishonoring of all law. Chicago and Milwaukee, notoriously known for the illegal sale of illicit liquor, have become two of the most lawless centers in the United States. The germ of disrespect for one law has contaminated great masses, and the cities have become sinfully diseased. Only yesterday the police commission of Chicago publicly announced to the nation that citizens of Chicago have to pay bomb tribute for the safe erection of any home, and that murder can be committed in the presence of witnesses and the law is powerless to bring the slayer to iustice. It is only natural that the abuse of one law leads to the desecration of another. Petty thieving leads to grand larceny. People cannot expect to violate laws, personally distasteful, and compel others to obey all laws. All are governed by the same government, and all must accept its rules of conduct. To allow laxity of law anywhere means laxity everywhere. Obversely, a rigid enforcement of law decreases crime. Eng- 36 The Weber Literary Journal land has gained a universal reputation for unflinching government and has been rewarded by having fewer murders in all the nation than our veracity has admitted in the city of Chicago alone. It is England's boast that every criminal is captured within twelve hours after the perpetration of crime. It is the boast of some Americans in our border towns that the law is not strong enough to catch a murderer. If this be the case, order and government are being superseded by disorder and anarchy. To violate law is to strike at the very bulwark of government. In the countries where law is law, order prevails, property is protected, and the safety of the people is secure. Our Anglo-Saxon brothers, England and Canada, unyielding in the supremacy of law, enjoy the blessings of tranquil life more than any other nations, for they do not yield to crime. In Russia, exactly the opposite conditions exist. There government has not been strong enough to even attempt national enforcement. The individual does as he pleases, property rights are controverted, crime is rampant, the government is tottering and life itself is dangerously uncertain. While America is not confronted with a trembling transition from despotism to sovietism, yet today because of her legal laxity she is threatened by an insidious internal organization. Criminal forces in America are becoming highly organized and effective. Authorities estimate that at present there are 350, 000 professional criminals in the United States. If these organized criminals ever become as powerful as organized law enforcers, America would be ready for anarchy and bolshevism. Must America concede to them while they are yet controllable? Should we stand idly by while the forces of crime undermine our national character and gnaw at the very vitals of our government? There are those who admit the destructive dangers of the alarming avalanche of crime but cannot see the possibilities of improvement. Certainly, efficiency demands a greater vigilance in detecting crime and a speedier method of dispatching justice. The most effective way of enforcing law, however, is to 37