In the comparison of the percentage of lynchings with the percentage of negroes in the population by counties no correlation can be clearly distinguished. In many counties where the negroes constitute between sixty per cent and eighty per cent of the population the percentage of lynchings is high, but there are also numerous exceptions. In the comparison of the percentage of lynchings with the percentage of foreign born in the population by counties there appears to be no distinguishable correlation. It is shown pretty conclusively, however, that there is no tendency for the percentage of lynchings to increase where the percentage of foreign born in the population is large. In the comparison of the percentage of lynchings with the percentage of illiterates in the population by counties there appears to be not the slightest correlation. The net result of this investigation into some characteristics of the population in relation to the distribution of lynchings is negative rather than positive. The proportion between the white and colored elements in the population does not seem to affect the prevalence of lynchings. It is only the proportion of whites lynched to negroes lynched that seems to bear any relation to the proportion between the white and colored elements in the population. The percentage of foreign born in the population does not seem to influence the prevalence of lynchings and there is not the slightest indication that the practice of lynching is anything else than a thoroughly American practice. So far as the percentage of illiterates in the population is an indication of the degree of culture and civilization possessed by a community, it does not appear that lynchings are confined to backward communities. The deductions which may be drawn as a result of this investigation afford no explanation why, for instance, a greater number of lynchings occurred in Decatur County, Georgia, than in any other county in that State, or why there were ten lynchings in Dallas County, Alabama, but only one lynching in Lowndes, an adjoining county. It is probably true that the distribution of lynchings is largely affected by entirely local conditions, conditions which cannot be represented by statistics.[222]