The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-11-13

similar institution. The training in
these institutions are to give habits oil
industry and develop the powers OF the
child, two ofythe great ends to be Oh.
tanned in these retormatory institutions.
The utility Of these institutions has
been triumphantly demonstrated. Sew.
enty.five per cent. Of the criminal pop
ulatlon may be said to originate from
the neglect Of juveMle offenders. 1t ie
the pliancy of youth that most fire..
quently commits the first offeuse, and
In the history of crime it is rarely found
that the first transgression is committed
by the adult. 1t is the young offenders
that augments the number of criminals
and are the feeders of the dungeons and
the prisons. l have seen it stated
i" That the report of the Warden of the
New Hampshire State Prison shows
one melancholy and startling fact, and
that is, that one half Of the convicts
now in prison have not yet reached the
fifteenth year of their age, and that
nearly one-tbird Of the whole mum Der
are less than twenty years of age. Du.
ring the past year boy of only nine
years of age has been confined within
the prison"
Retrlbutive justice has failed to stay
the crime, and to reclaim the young or
fender. The prison association with
old convicts but renders the
young offender the trained and
schooled apprentice in crime. The
LaU Review says, that the number OF
juvenile offenders, committed in l849
was 1855, that Of these 43l4 were re.
committed, and 76l had been committed
four times and upwards. These reform
atory institutions have proven the most
efficacious remedy to this evil by re-
claiming the young offender. The
kindness, the instruction and the EN-.
ployment Of these institutions forms
another character and changes the
erring nature. The reports of these
institutions furnish the most indisputa.
BILE evidence of this: at Mettray the
reformed are eighty-two per cent, at
Rawhe Hans still more; at New York
about three fourths are reformed, and
three to five per cent. in Pennsylvania
is the number who have been found in
prison. As far as the public economy
is involved, the records of these institu-
tons and the prisons furnish the most
ample evidence that the expense Of re-
forming offenders in these institutions
is from twenty to twenty five per cent.
cheaper than the punishment in
prisons.
The States of this Union have a
great interest in the successful mainte-
nance of these ir~,Itutions. The United
States scheme of government, State
sovereignty and Federal union has 80
far not only proven the best ever devised
to secure popular freedom, but is preg-
nant with results that challange the
admiration OF the civilized world. The
unparalleled progress of the past is over
Swallowed by the destiny to which it is
so rapidly tending. We have terrific
ry of twelve hundred millions Of acres of
unsurveyed land, enough besides the vast
amount of surveys to give an acre and
a half to every man, woman and child
on the face of the earth, territory
enough to form one hundred States, and
its average cash value is equal to its
immense extent, its cash value acreper
in each State and Territory is returned
at $40 70. At the rate of our past pro-
gress, in sixty years we shall have one
hundred millions of people. Every
pulsation and breath that moves and
governs this vast system, emanates
from the popular heart, and depends
upon the virtue and intelligence of the
people tor its life-giving principle.
By the most recent statistics with
which we are furnished,it appears there
are &c, 22l churches in the UnitedStates,
the total value of church property is
eighty-six millions, four hundred and
sixteen thousand, six hundred and thir-
ty-nine dollars, and there is one church
for every six hundred and forty-six Of
the entire population. There were A.
100000 of our youth receiving instruc-
tons in the various educational institu-
tons of the country, on the first OF
June, 1850, or at the rate Of one In
every FIVE free persons.
1t is said no State in the Union is
without its legal provision for the pro-
lection and support OF the INDECENT
nopulation. la MANY of the States they
receive the care and attention which
places them in an enviable condition
compared with some Of the laborlng
classes of other countries. Every State
in the Union has one or more State
prisons, and all the counties OF States
have their county Jail for the confine-
ment and punishment of offenders.
Yet with all these safeguards pro.
yided for the security of persons and
property, and to nurture and sustain
our State and Federal government with
the affections of an intelligent religion
and moral constituency, the census OF
1850 shows that the number Of persons
convicted of crime in the United States
for that year was about $1,000, a
numerical force greater than the
entire navy or army Of the United
States, a number sufficient to protect
our trade on every sea, and to man and
defend the forts and garrisons of the
entire country-a sufficient number to
guard and protect as police every
town, city and county in the entire
Union. But the picture is rendered
still darker and more forbiddiug; The
National Police Gazette of April 3,
1854, says: THE picture of crime
among us seems to swell into the COM
pIeteness of awfulness." De Bows
Review, of 1855, says of the crimes OF