'Chicago Tribune' for the seven years ending in 1900, when
carefully analyzed. During this period 62,812 homicides were
recorded. Of these there were 17,120 of which the causes were
unknown and 3,204 committed while making a justifiable arrest,
in self-defence, or by the insane, so that there were in fact
only 42,488 felonious homicides the causes of which can be
definitely alleged. The ratio of the "quarrels" to this net
total is about seventy-five per cent. There were, in
addition, 2,848 homicides due to liquor--that is, without
cause. Thus eighty per cent of all the murders and
manslaughters in the United States for a period of seven years
were for no reason at all or from mere anger or habit, arising
out of causes often of the most trifling character.

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.