Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-11-09
some of those received during the pre-

49, ~
ing that year.
What a splendid showing this Is
3,046 children in seventeen years at an
average cost of $46.4S. Compare these
figures with the per capita of the two
eleemosynary institutions given here
in
If philanthropic and club women
want a useful and practical field OF
labor where untold good may be done
both for time and eternity, let them
enter this field and lend helping
hand in this work and ! predict that
Grover Cleveland's pen, so far as ms
attack upon club women is concerned,
will lapse into innocuous desuetude
The law provides that the parents,
ig able to do so. shall be made to sup
port or contribute thereto. This is
very important provision for the par
ent is largely responsible for the con-
dition of the child. A paper might be
devoted to this one subject but l shall
only briefly refer to It,
In the report already quoted from in
the first part of this paper, the chair
man of the committee on juvenile
courts says:
I'm answer to the question, what, in
your opinion are the principal causes
of trouble among the young people of
your city, without a single exception,
every chief of police answered em-
phatically. The parents are to blame.
Judge Tuthill says: TN the cases Of
ilne-tentl1s of the boys who find their
way into the Juvenile court, the fault
is found to be in the lack of any per-
sistent care on the part of the parents.
In some of the cases, the boys come
from parents who are vicious. These
are usually drunkards and utterly
careless as to their own lives, to say
nothing of the welfare Of their chill
dren."
So patent is this fault that in many
states, notably Colorado and Nebraska,
the parent or other person who Is re-
sponsible or encourages or con-
tributes to the dependency or
delinquency of any child is
subject to fine not to exceed $500
or imprisonment in the county jail for
term not exceeding six months or
punishment by both such fine and i'm
prisonment
The enforcement OF such penalty
would have a tendency to reform the
parent who most needs 1T as well as
the boy.
This paper Is already too long and
cannot go into detail to meet every
possible objection that may be urged
against the law. / have tried to meet
some of them and have quoted largely
from those who have had wide and
extended experience in a large field,
and while we have no large city in
Iowa, yet nearly all the conditions
found in the larger city as regards
children are found in some degree In
every hamlet. town and city In this
state. Let me say generally to all
those who object to the Iowa law, in
whole or in part, that every provis-
ion found therein is found in some
form in every other Juvenile court law
in every state that has enacted such
law.
Tennessee has recently enacted the
Iowa law almost verbatim. In 1905
Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, Minnesota,
New Hampshire, Tennessee, Georgia.
Washington, Oregon and the territory
Of Hawaii, and Kentucky will probably
pass the law during the coming winter
Many of the states that have had the
law in force for some time have
responsibility and providing compensa
ton for probation officers and other
like matters, and the law Is doing and
will do a great good in Iowa. If you
hear people say, eff our law was like
Colorado's. more good would be done"
let me say 1t Is in all essential par1
ticulars compared with the needs and
conditions of our people, like the Colo
-. T,,k ,cf 1n
mind that the great big-hearted, SYM
pathetic friend Of the boy. Judge Lind
say. is giving the Colorado law its rep
utation and notoriety. He says in his
book, PROBLEM Of the Children"
which / commend to all interested in
children:
IAN official requested the Judge of
the Juvenile court to send 15-year-
Id boy to Jail, giving as his principal
reason that the boy had been In jail
twelve times before the criminal courts
and. therefore. he should be sent to
the Jail the thirteenth time. 1t never
had occurred to him that the state had
failed already twelve times, when he
began his dire predictions that to place
the boy on probation with such aid
as could be afforded him by the court,
would end in utter failure. In this
particular case the boy turned out well
and after two years was an indepen-
dent and prominent citizen. But sup
pose probation had failed, it would
still have had twelve times the best OF
the Jail Even in England, where the
criminal laws are most rigidly en-
forced, according to the statistics Of
its prison inmates, more than half OF
them are serving a second time. Power
under the law may be abused. Mis-
takes under any law may be made.
No system is perfect. If any one con-
ceives the idea that the Juvenile court
was created for the purpose of correct
ing or reforming every disorderly
child, they are of course mistaken.
Jails and criminal courts never did
that On the contrary, criminality
among the youths of this country has
been amazingly on the increase. One
half the inmates of jails, reformatories
and prisons combined are under TWEEN
ty-four years of age. They are there
because Of uncorrected delinquency In
childhood While the juvenile court
and the probation system will not and
cannot entirely overcome delinquency
and waywardness, it will do 1t great
deal better than the Jail and the crimf-
nal court ever did it. This is the test
Of its success, rather than the number
of children it succeeds in correcting.
There are failures under the juvenile