The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-27
Judge Lindsey's Address to So
clety for Friendless.
How Children Are Checked on
the Downward Road.
MANY ARE IN PRISON.
Says List of Youths in Peniten-
tiaries Is Surprising.
Trouble With the Country's
Criminal Courts.

At the opening session of the third
annual convention of the Kansas So
ciety for the Friendless, which was held
Tuesday evening at the First Metho-
dist church in this city. Benjamin B.
Lindsey, judge of the juvenile court of
Denver, Colo, delivered the principal
address. Saving the Children from
Crime" was the subject of Judge Lind
Eey's address, and it was particularly
interesting to those who were present
At last nights meeting in view of the
fact that an effort is to be made by
the members of the society to get a
Juvenile court law through at the next
session Of the Kansas legislature. 1t is
thought that such a law would prove to
be a great help in the suppression of
crime among the young, and conse-
quently Judge Lindsey's remarks and
advice upon the subject were received
with much enthusiasm. He said;
I'm order to make any noticeable re-
duction in the alarming statistics with
which we are confronted by sOciOloglstS,
showing that the average age of all the
criminals lodged in our prisons today
is less than 20 years, it is positively
necessary that We begin our work with
the boy at that age when he is easily
Influenced. Any one will tell you mat
the most important part of a man s life
1t is at that time that his character
is being moulded, and in order that he
shall develop into a good and useful
citizen it is necessary that the greatest
care be taken in regard to his environ
mentS and his associates. If he is neg
lected and does not receive the proper
training and care at home his feet Will
stray to that path which will in the end
land him at the doors of the peniten-
tiarY. When we stop to think of the
great numbers of boys who are allowed
to roam the streets-their parents never
giving them serious thought-we
wonder Why it is that there is not more
of them in the penitentiary today.
Still, there are plenty of boys in the
penitentiary. If [ had the time 1 could
give you a list of statistics that would
surprise you. The figures are alarming.
On the occasion of a recent visit to the
city of Atlanta, Ga, I made it a point
to investigate the records of the police
department at that place and l found
that out of $4,000 arrests made at that
place during the year previous to my
visit there, 1000 of them were boys, six
teen years of age. or under These fig
ureS will no doubt surprise you, but
when I tell you that if the same pro-
portion of the people of this country
over twenty years of age were arrested
as have been arrested under that age,
almost the entire population of this
country would be in the hands of the
law, you will be more surprised. It is
a fact, however, and it is to be regretted
that such conditions exist The situa-
ton is an alarming one, I tell you, and
one that should receive our serious con-
sideration.
How shall we do away with these
conditions is the question which now
presents itself. And it is not an easy
one to answer. I think, however, that
the best way to overcome these diff
cuIties is to reconstruct the methods of
administering punishment to children
which have existed in the courts of this
- :
past it has been the custom to pass
judgment upon children in the criminal