be true of the principal cities of
the United States, facts and figures support the claim of this
department that in this respect the District of Columbia occupies a
distinct standing of its own. Its comprehensive moral status is above
that of most communities. Were it not for the depredations chargeable to
theft, there would be comparatively little crime to chronicle. This
offense must always exist here, unless through some unexpected agency a
complete change should be effected in the social conditions which
prevail. The abiding place of a large class of idle, illiterate, and
consequently vicious persons, it is but reasonable that the respectable
element should be preyed upon to a considerable extent."[52]

The percentage of arrests for Boston during 1896 was 9.37, whereas for
Washington it was only 8 and a fraction. These facts would seem to
furnish sufficient evidence that crime adheres to circumstances and
condition and not to race and color.

But, says the author, in the North (where legal processes are
acknowledgly fair so far as the Negro is concerned) the race shows a
criminal record which is out of all proportion to its numerical
strength. In Pennsylvania 2.23 per cent of its population commit 16.16
per cent of the crimes; in Chicago 1.30 of the population are
responsible for 9.84 of the offenses, and so for other Northern
communities. The Negro's criminal status is from six to eight times
greater than his numerical weight. It has been shown in another place
that from a social and economic standpoint the Northern Negro is
completely submerged. The criminal outbreak under the circumstances is
only natural.

It is also true that where numbers are small proportions are high. The
startling criminal showing of the Northern Negro can be accounted for
largely on this principle. Suppose that there were but one Chinaman in a
community, and coming, as he naturally would, into hostile contact with
a wide area, he should be arrested and convicted. The criminal records
of that community would show that one hundred per cent of the Chinese
population belonged to the criminal class.

I append the following table, extracted from the census of 1880, to
establish this principle. The Negro in the country at large shows a much
higher criminal rate than the foreign whites, but if we limit our
inquiry to those states where the foreign population is small, the
conditions will be reversed.

_Number of prisoners in several sout