increases in the cold months and diminishes in the
spring, summer and early autumn. The obvious cause is that employment is
less regular in the winter time, expenses of living are higher, idle
workers are more numerous, wages are lower, and, in short, it is harder
for the poor to live. Most men and women spend their whole lives close
to the line of want; they have little or nothing laid by. Sickness, hard
luck, or lack of work makes them penniless and desperate. This drives
many over the uncertain line between lawful and unlawful conduct and
they land in jail. There are more crimes committed in hard times than in
good times. When wages are comparatively high and work is steady fewer
men enter the extra-hazardous occupation of crime. Strikes, lockouts,
panics and the like always leave their list of unfortunates in the
prisons. Every lawyer engaged in criminal practice has noticed the large
numbers of prosecutions and convictions for all sorts of offences that
follow in the wake of strikes and lockouts.

The cost of living has also had a direct effect on crime. Long ago,
Buckle, in his "_History of Civilization_," collected statistics
showing that crime rose and fell in direct ratio to the price of food.
The life, health and conduct of animals are directly dependent upon the
food supply. When the pasture is poor cattle jump the fences. When food
is scarce in the mountains and woods the deer come down to the farms and
villages. And the same general laws that affect all other animal life
affect men. When men are in want, or even when their standard of living
is falling, they will take means to get food or its equivalent that they
would not think of adopting except from need. This is doubly true when a
family is dependent for its daily bread upon its own efforts.

Always bearing in mind that most criminals are men whose equipment and
surroundings have made it difficult for them to make the adjustments to
environment necessary for success in life, we may easily see how any
increase of difficulties will lead to crime. Most men are not well
prepared for life. Even in the daily matter of the way to spend their
money, they lack the judgment necessary to get the most from what they
have. As families increase, debts increase, until many a man finds
himself in a net of difficulties with no way out but crime. Men whose
necessities have led them to embezzlement and larceny turn up so
regularly that they hardly attract attention. Neith