Today the evils of crime and licentiousness appear in the world in some of the most unbelievable and shocking forms. No longer can any individual afford to be ignorant of or callous to the worldwide crime problem, nor should he stand helplessly aside or recoil from duty while immorality brazenly threatens to infest all that is good and pure. The Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States not long ago stated that major crimes reported over a typical three month period had risen by 20 percent over those of a similar period in the previous year. Law enforcement agencies over many years have striven against crime and corruption; nevertheless, they view with alarm the still rising crime rate and frankly admit that they cannot do the job alone but need the wholehearted support of individual citizens in the form of enlightened attitudes and willingness to assume public responsibility.
All of us should be genuinely concerned, and we should do all we can to handle the crime and immorality of our times, both for our own protection and for the well being of the world at large. But first the people of the world need to learn that contrary to general belief it is possible not only to cope with, or curb, crime and corruption but possible to eliminate them.
J. Edgar Hoover, Chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, stated to the press at one time: "We must . . . realize that crime and corruption will continue to flourish as long as people believe [that] such operations cannot be eliminated and that we should therefore seek ways to live with them." Intuitively, however, mankind do hope for, and perhaps unconsciously struggle to obtain, a more ideal way of life, one ultimately free from all evil.
