The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-11-29
SUNDAY, NOV. 29, 1908.
SAVE THE YOUNG.

No more frightful Indictment can be
brought against modern civilization
so-called than the simple relation of
the history of the three young bandits
who were captured lately in Indiana
after a fierce struggle in which there
were many killed and wounded. Two
of these boys are less than twenty-one
years of age. Yet the story of their
careers is a relation of careful study
in the preparation for and accomplish
ment7 of crime. These boys have rob-
bed and murdered not of sudden i'm
pulse, but deliberately and after care
full planning. They had outlined for
themselves a still more distinguished
future of crime. They had intended
to hold up railroad trains and had Sc
cureds> dynamite from a distance for
that purpose. Human life meant moth
ing to, them, and they proudly boosted
of their murders and their many des-
perateSepportunities.
Therezwill be the usual outburst Of
maudlin sentiment over these young
fellows, for which they are clearly pre-
pairing. 1--WE have got mothers like
other people, amt we, Peter?" said one
of them to the other, and the desire
to see their people before they depart
ed for new pastures Of crime is the as
signed reason for their apprehension.
AS far as all the ascertained facts go,
these fellows are without a redeeming
trait or spark of ordinary humanity.
They are literally wild beasts, simply
gifted with the power of speech. They
are the most frightful product of mod
ern times; being the reversion of the
human type to its bloodiest and most
brutal form of thousands of years
ago, plus the qualities and acquire
ments which the progress of interven,
ing time has simply added to their ca
pacity for evil.
The charge against the systems of
our time that they are productive of
just such moral abortions and mon
strosities as these cannot be denied,
The crime of our century is it's neg
lect of the young; its indifference to
the training and conduct of the child
and the consequent degradation of the
adult. There is, here and there, an &C.
casional degenerate who would volun-
tarily select the life chosen by these
young desperadoes, but he is as much
the exception as is the child born with
six fingers or toes. The average
youthful criminal, of which every COM
munity is today producing scores. is
made such by Indifference and neglect.
The fault is partly that of the parent
and partly that of the state.
The decline of parental control. the
lessening of the restraints of the home
the decay of that tremendous resnon-
sibility which fathers and mothers
ought to feel, have exposed the new
generation to dangers that it is unfit
either to cope with or to escape. Go
on the streets in any city night or day.
and you will find them crowded with
children who have no more business to
be there than they have in a cage of
wild beasts. They are learning there
the lessons that fit them for lives OF
tndolence, debauehery and crime. It is
the parent who permits these little fell
lows thus to run riot on the streets
who should be doing time in some
penal institution.
The state, seeing this fafthlessness
OF the home and being unable to reach
It, ought at least to make provision
Tor saving youthful delinquents in its
own protection. Instead of that, we