The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-01-28

The two points at which government
is developing most rapidly at the pres
ent moment are naturally the two in
which it genuinely exercises its func-
tion-in relation to the vicious, and in
relation to the poor and dependent.
The juvenile courts which the large
cities are inaugurating are supplied
with probation officers, whose duties
1t is to encourage the wavering vir-
tues Of the wayward boy, and to keep
him out Of the police courts with their
consequent penal Institutions real
recognition Of social obligation. In one
Of the most successful of these courts,
that Of Denver, the judge, who can
point to a remarkable record of the
bad boys Of the city, plays the veritable
game with them against the police
force, he and the boys undertaking to
| be good" without the help Of repres-
sion, and in spite Of the Vaccinations
Of the police. For instance, if the boys
who have been sentenced to the state
| reform school at Golden deliver them
selves without the aid Of the sheriff,
whose duty it is to take them there,
they not only vindicate their manli-
ness and readiness to take their medi
cine, out of his hve-dollar fee, over
which fact they openly triumph. A
simple example, perhaps, but signifi-
cant Of the attitude Of the well-inten-
toned toward repression government
AS the Juvenile courts are beginning
to take an interest in the social life
Of child, in order to prevent arrest,
on the same principle the reform
schools are inaugurating the most ad
vanced education in agriculture and
manual arts. A beWildered foreign par
ent comes from time to time to Hull
House, asking that his boy be sent to
a school to learn farming, basing his
request upon the fact that his neigh
boris boy has been sent to ga, nice
green country place" It is carefully
explained that the neighbours boy was
bad, and was arrested and sent away
on account of his badness, and it is
quite possible sometimes to make clear
to the man that the city assumes that
he is looking out for himself and TAX
ing care Of his own boy; but it ought
to be further possible to make him see
/ that, If he feels that his boy needs the
| education Of a farm school, it lies with
| him to agitate the subject and to vote
for the candidate who will secure such
schools. He might well look amazed,
were this advice rendered him, for these
| questions have never been presented
| to him to vote upon. Because he does
not easily discuss the tariff, or other
remote subjects, which the political
! parties present to him from time to
| time, we assume that he is not to be
! trusted to vote on the education Of his
child; and in Chicago at least, the
! school board is not elective. The an
| cestors Of this same immigrant, from
the days of bows and arrows doubt
/ less taught their children those &C
! tivities which seemed valuable to them.
Again, we build enormous city hos
pitfalls and almshouses for the defective
/ and dependent, but for that great mass
/ OF people just beyond the line from
which they are constantly recruited
we do practically nothing. We are
afraid Of the notion Of governmental
function which would minister TO the
| primitive needs Of the mass of people,
/ although we are quite ready to care
for him whom misfortune or disease
has made the exception. 1t is really
/ the rank and file, the average citizen,
| who is ignored by government, while
/ he works out his real problems through
/ other agencies, and is scolded for stay
/ ing at home on election day.
! It is comparatively easy to under
! stand the punitive point Of view, which
| seeks to suppress, or the philanthropic,
which seeks to palliate, but it is much
more difficult to formulate that city
| government which is adapted to our
! present normal living. AS over against
| the survival Of the first two, excellent
! and necessary as they are, we have the
many municipal activities of which
Mr.. Shaw has told US, but we have at
| tanned them surreptitiously, as it were
| by means of appointed commissions,
/ through boards of health endowed with
exceptional powers, or through the en-
/ ergy of a mayor who has pushed his
! executive function beyond the charter
limit. The people themselves have not
voted on these measures, and they
have lost both the education and the
nourishing of the democratic ideal,
! which their free discussion would have
secured and to which they were more
entitled than to the benefits them
selves.
Almost every Sunday, In the italian
quarter in which I live, various mutual
| benefit societies march with fife and
drum and with brave showing of
banners, celebrating their achieve
ments in having surrounded themselves
| by at least a thin wall Of protection
against disaster setting up their mu-
tuaI good will against the day Of mis-
fortune. These parades have all en-
blems of patriotism; indeed, the asso-
Citations represent the core Of patrio-
tism-brothers standing by each other
agaist hostile forces from without. I
assure you that no Fourth Of July eel
ebration, no rejoicing over the birth of
| an heir to the Italian throne, equals in
heartiness and sincerity these simple
ce' ebrations. Again, one longs to pour
into the government of their adopted
country all this affection and zeal, this
real patriotism.
Germany affords, perhaps, the best
example Of this concern of government
for the affairs Of the daily living of its
wage earners. although Belgium and
France, with their combination of
state savings banks, with life insur-
ance and building associations
backed by the state, afford a close sec
ond IN ingenuity and success. All this
would be impossible in America, be-
cause it would be hotly resented by
the American business man, who will
not brook any governmental interior
ence in industrial affairs. Is this due
to the inherited instinct that govern
ment Is naturally oppressive, and that
it's inroads must be checked? Are we
in America retaining this tradition.
while Europe is gradually evolving
| government logically fitted to cope
with the industrial situation?