Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 222, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1911 — FIFTEEN MURDERS IN INDIANA DURING AUGUST. [ARTICLE]

FIFTEEN MURDERS IN INDIANA DURING AUGUST.

Forty-Six Suicides and a Total of Twa Hnndred Fifty-Nise Tlelaat < Deaths Daria# Month. The stale casualty report for August issued by Dr. J. N. Hurty, secretary of the State Board of Health. Tuesday shows that 259 persons met death by violence during (he month. Of that number fifteen were murdered and ferty-eix committed suicide, a total of sixty-one, as August’s crime wave. Of the murder victims, eleven were killed by shooting, three by blows with an ax and one by stabbing. Of the suicides, ten chose shooting, eight hanging, three drowning, one cutting throat, one stepping in front of train, twelve carbolic acid, six “rough on rath,” two strychnine, two morphine and two took other poisons. Of the accident victims, forty-seven were killed on steam railroads, one by an in terfirban train, four by automobiles, ond by a motorcycle, three by contact with machinery, four by electricity, ten by fractures of bones, eleven by burns and scalds, six by drowning, five by poisons of various kinds, fourteen by horses and vehicles, six by suffocation, five by lightning, three by heat prostration and the remainder in various other ways.

An abstract of the mortality statistics of Indiana for August shows that the total number of deaths in 'lndiana was 2,653, as compared with 2,921 in July. In August, 1910, 3,234 deaths were reported. The rate for each I, population (based on the annual rate, assuming that the August rate extends throughout the year) was 11. in August, 1911, and 13.5 for corresponding month in 1910. In the larger cities of the state, comprising a population of 1,147,277, there were 1,338 deaths, or a rate of 13.7, while in August in 1910 there were 1,521 deaths, the rate being 15.6. During July, 1911, there were 1,450 deaths in those cities. v/ pie cities named and their death rates for August of this year follow: Indianapolis, 14.6; Evansville, 10.6; Fort Wayne, 13.2; Terre Haute, 12.9; South Bend, 13.7; Muncie, 13.6; Anderson, ' 13.2; Richmond, ’ 11.1; Hamriiond, 16.8; New Albany, 13.1; Lafayette, 15.2. - The' number of children less .than 1 year-bld that died was 457, or 17.2 per cent of the total deaths. Between the ages of 1 and 5 yeasp there were 168 deaths; between 5 years and 9 years there were fifty-two deaths, and between 10 years and 14 years there were forty-six deaths. Persons more than 65 years old, numbering 799, died during the month. / The northern sanitary section of the state, with a population dr 927,229, reported 887 deaths at a rate of 11.2. liT the corresponding month last year there were 1,066 deaths, or a rate of 13.2. In July of 1911 there were 941 deaths, or a rate of 11.9. * _ The central sanitary section, with a population of 1,114,007, reported 1470 deaths, or a rate of 12.3. During August ,of last year that section reported 1,364 deaths, or a rate of 14. In the month of July, 1911, there were 1,211 deaths, or a rate of 12.8. The southern section, with a population of 659,560, reported 596 deaths, or a rate of 10.6, as opposed to 804 deaths in the corresponding month of last year, or a rate of 13.1. In July, 1911, 769 deaths were reported, the rate being 13.7.

The southern sanitary section shows the lowest death rate. The central sanitary section had the highest death rate due to pulmonary tuberculosis, pneumonia, poliomyelitis and violence. The southern sanitary section had the highest death rate due to typhoid fever, scarlet fever, whooping cough and influenza. The northern sanitary section had the highest death rate due to diphtheria, measles, 'pneumonia, diarrheal diseases, puerperal fever and cancer. Speaking* of the record of violent deaths in the state during the month, Dr. Hurty said: “Why these suicides of more than one every day? Why, also, these accidental deaths—about seven daily? Would it not b$ wise to give the State Board of Health sufficient support to study the conditions that produce such great destruction of life in one month? It is said that law is jealous of human life. If a mother destroys her child; society interferes with energy until she is apprehended and punished. “Yet, month by month, the law permits this awful record of murders, suicides and accidental deaths to go on, with little or no effort to prevent it. I can not think this is good business. A thorough Investigatioh into the cause of destruction' by violence would be the first step toward trying to lessen the evil.” A >IO,OOO damage case has been filed in the circuit court at Columbus, this state, against Raymond Gottschall. 1* years old, by Elisabeth Harms as guardian for her daughter, Grace Harms. 18 years old. It is alleged tn the complaint "that on the night of July J, the defendant threw a cannon cracker into a crowd of girls at a lawn social, which exploded and destroyed one of the Harms girl's eyes. ■ ‘w * V ■ ’■' ""tn ' Jj,