The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-12-17

was very easy for a one-idead man or
woman TO see evils In the system that
ought to be removed, but they never
topped TO think how difficult il was TO APP
ply their theory to existing conditions
The result, however. has this encourage
ing feature. as little as they may have
thought possible. their agitations were
sowing seed which was taking root where
they little expected.
1t is interesting in this connection to re-
member how slow the State of Indiana
was to utilize the provision of the Con-
stitution which made IL obligatory upon
the Legislature to provide a RefoI School
for Children. This grew out of the fact
that the public conscience was not sufh-
GENTLY aroused to the subject. After all
the first steps for the of chill
dren were only preparatory, or rather.
as is usual in such cases. the work began
ct the wrong end of the undertaking. III
took hold of the bad boy or girl after he
or she had become unbearably bad. 1t
took many years after this beginning 10
reveal to the popular thought the fact that
reformation should begin before there was
anything to reform.
1t is comparatively recent hat civil
authorities have adopted the curfew. This
is a preventive of moral degradation that
already shows encouraging results. An
other step in this reform which the pop
uiar thought was not ready to accept UNI
til recently Is the compulsory education
scheme. To get girls and boys into schools
IN the daytime, and to keep them of the
streets at night is much more effective
than to let them so graduate in crime that
confinement in a reform school Is indis-
pensable for the safety of society AMI al
most hopeless as to the ormat or the
Child. | refer to this simply as an illus
tIation of the fact that the trend of
thought is leading to better measures than
was at first anticipated. What with COM
pulsory education, well-enforced curfew
laws, and properly managed reformatory
institutions, We may hope 10 have great
diminution OF crime among the young IN
the near future.
another branch of this reform movement
Is beginning to develop. The records Of
courts show that at least 80 per cent of
the crimes on account of which men and
women are in the penitentiaries and re-
fcrmatories of the State. are connected
with the use of intoxicating liquors. IL IL
not strange that the world is not grow
ing away from the habits of earlier years
SO that the saloon is absolutely abolished.
but there are indications evident that pub
Inc thought is being turned toward them
az the great school of vice. No one can
shut his eyes 10 the tremendous facts that
nearly all the murders and similar crimes
in Indianapolis, for instance. and other
cities are connected with saloons. Hence
from a purely economic standpoint a tide
of Indignation against the saloon as set
ting in. 1t may take an age or more tn
e~ffectually close these nurseries OF vice.
Meanwhile the professional agitator keeps
UP his agitation, not only ~denouncing the
saloon, but denouncing as in sympathy
with II, those who do not at once join them
~ their ll-0lgeSteu measures u TeIti.
However, signs are propitious- Even In
New York and Chicago and indianapolis
there are indications OF activity upon the
part of civil authorities to enforce what
little law we nave against the saloon II
is an uphill work, but there are hopes that
sufficient moral stamina will be developed
10 at least reduce the evils OF he saloon
to their minimum. One encouraging fact
is that our superintendent Of public In
| struction calls for additional help TO en-
fore the compulsory education law. That
fierce will be granted, and fewer gamins
will be found on the street during the
| DAYTIME. while the increased zeal of our
| city police in enforcing the curfew law
f~oreshadows important coming events.
Only a few weeks ago one OF these guar
dams of public morals arrested a little
girl who had been sent alone by her
| mother TO a neighboring grocery for some
| articles for family use. This was such a
! violation or the city ordinance that the
conscientious policeman ran her in without
hesitation. He was induced. however, by
some witnesses OF this heroic act TO take
her first 10 her mother and take a pledge
that the child should never again appear
on the streets after the curfew whistle
had been sounded. Now IL Is not difficult
Ia see that the time is near at hand when
conscientious policemen will venture 20
| tackle saloon keepers when they notori-
ously violate the law, though | believe tina:
the most rigid prohibition of the saloon
| must be and will be a final decree OF the
| people. 1 nevertheless believe that we
will reach IT only as public sentiment de
n,ands II. Most probably the controlling