The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-02-25
LOOKING AFTER THE BAD BOYS RIGHTS How He Can be Mace a Good
 CitlzEn HE SHOULD BE DEVELOPED Best Qualities of the Boy Should Be drought to the Surface and Pro- bation Officer With Assist
 ants Is Needed.
HE SHOULD BE DEVELOPED
BY JOHN MELPoLDER.


 tialities the experiences and the pro- cesses of development of primitive man. He Is an indlvidualist, a lover of inde- pendence--or 1icense-and an adventurer. He is restless under restraint, but withal plastic in any direction. Like his distant progenitors, he Is fond of the hunt, be 1t with a slingshot or a modern rife; he builds his hut or dugout, and in true marauder fashion ravages his mothers cupboard, or appropriates in the early morning hours his neighbours milk and roses, or enters at night the merchants s store by way of the transom to complete his stock of food and implements which he considers indispensable to natural existence. The happiest moment of his life is realized when, in his crude re- treat he can quietly enjoy the fruits of his labors. smoking his pipe-or cigarette -of peace with the other members of his tribe or gang" and discussing the habits and exploits of his real or imaginary heroes-outlaws and prize fighters, rob bers and pirates. He Is a nomad from instinct and sometimes from a neces- sity; he loves to explore the great mys- terious beyond, the modern freight train furnishing him with the freest and swift est means of locomotion.
 Unlike his ancient prototypes, however his advent in this world Is dated by 1S9- A. D., and he is introduced to complex civilization which has ingeniously pre- pared definite restraints upon everyone of his individualistio tendencies by a series of punishments, laid down with the exactitude of a yardstick, for any deviation from the straight and narrow path of a twentieth century enlightened conduct Custom, rule and law, wrong sin and crime; police, judge and jail These are a few of the words which our little primitive man must learn to give modern definitions of. During the few years of his childish life he must learn those lessons which 1t took the human race thousands of years to develop by peace and war and which call upon him to take up arms against the evil enemy that is lodged within his own little self The battles to be fought within the breast of a strong boy demand fortitude, persistence and a self-control that are not generally recognized, and therefore he is so little understood by many a parent, teacher or prosecutor.
 Crime Among savages.
 Prof Arthur Cleveland Hall. in his book on Crime and Social Progress" writes under the heading of "Crime Among Savages" as follows: "Herein lies a great danger that people once so war like, so independent, finding government of every kind very irksome and very hard totbear, may become too tame, with the manly fiber killed in them-as it was among the Ancient Peruvians and Mexi- cans-under the yoke of a deiied em- peror and a cruel and implacable religion. They are full of humility, obeying every one. writes Zurita of the Mexicans, and they are thoroughly lndolent, for they have become accustomed to act only from fear of punishment. This Is not the stuff out of which the enduringly pro- gressive civilizations of the world are made. While the first success ful and conuuering groups were those that most easily tanned themselves, the final conauerors and leaders of the world 8 civilization were and are those who round this tanning process so exceedingly diffi- cult that for many centuries they Jagged behind and were despised as mere bar barians and savages by the great nations of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia and Persia.
 Thus history points out plainly that those nations whose people were most easily restrained through fear of pun ishment had lost, or lost thereby, their manly fiber, and ceased to exist; while those sturdy lovers of individual liberty and independent action experienced the greatest difficulty of tanning themselves, but developed into the leading and most civilized nations of the earth. This is true with reference to our normal, strong and independent boy. With him unques- tioning obedience through fear of punish ment begets weakness, but independent activity wisely led and guarded makes for strength of character and true lib- erty-loving manhood. This is the lesson that should be remembered and applied by each parent in the discharge of his parental duty by each teacher in the management of her class. and by each legislator in the establishment of laws and methods for the prevention of juve- nile delinquency
 Weak Parental Control.
 Ignorant, weak or vicious parents, to whom the development of the character and conduct of the boy Is entrusted large ly during the formative period Of life, hardly exercise wise restraint upon him, with the result that as he advances in years he possesses a growing contempt for parental control. The teacher in the oyercrowded school cannot give the in- dividua1 attention and instruction he needs and has to maintain rigid disci- pline in her class of from forty to sixty pupils with definitely prescribed pro- gramme of studies to be finished each term. if not each day. Here our little indepedent devotee of license also gains an erroneous idea of the necessity and wise purposes of discipline. In our con gested centers of population the "city fathers" are constantly increasing the category of city ordinances governing the simplest actions of its citizens for the safety, health and morals of the com- munity as a whole The police and the court must see that these laws and ordi- nances are properly enforced and pun ished if disregarded. Here, again, our little individualist may develop a con tempt for law and order. In court his case is considered more or less of minor importance as compared with the more serious cases of adult offenders. and 1t is quickly disposed of either by a severe threat of punishment for a repetition or the offense or by commitment to re- formatory, the latter of which he usually considers to be a worse punishment than his transgression deserves. Thus he may be surrounded with authorities in the per- sons of parent, teacher. police and judge, without having ever been wisely and pa- tiently ins0ucted in the purposes and necessities of control, discipline. law and order; while fear of punishment, in the shape of the parents rod, the polceman's s club and the reformatory Is relied upon mainly as a means to deter him from cutting out his own path of Independent action. Thus he may be developed into a mere unquestioning automaton. readily submissive to any control, right or wrong, or into a little anarchist declaring war upon organized society through his con tempt for all law and order-a criminal in embryo.
 The government of America is based upon democratic principles; its particular