Nor are the conclusions changed by the figures of the years
between 1904 and 1909.
During this period 61,786 homicides were recorded. Of these
there were 9,302 of which the causes were not known, and 2,480
committed while making a justifiable arrest, in self-defence,
or by the insane, leaving 50,004 cases of felonious homicides
of known causes. Of these homicides, 33,476 were due to
quarrels and 4,799 to liquor, a total of 38,275 out of the
50,004 cases of known causes being traceable in this, another
seven years, to motives the most casual.
It would be stupid to allege that the reason men killed was
because they had been stepped on or had been deprived of a
glass of beer. The cause lies deeper than that. It rests in
the willingness or desire of the murderer to kill at all.
Among barbaric or savage peoples this is natural; but among
civilized nations it is hardly to be anticipated. If the
negro who shoots his fellow because he believes himself to
have been cheated out of ten cents were really civilized, he
would either not have the impulse to kill or, having the
impulse to kill, would have sufficient power of self-control
to refrain from doing so.
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