The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-25
CRAWFORD JACKSON MAKES AN ADDRESS Juvenile Reformatory ASSocia- tion's Work Fully Discussed LARGE AUDIENCE PRESENT Many Interesting Incidents and Telling Facts-speaker Pays Warm Tribute to Judge Feaein and Mrs. R. D.
 Johnston.
LARGE AUDIENCE PRESENT

| q spoke at the First Methodist church last night on the subject to which he devoted many years of his life The church was well filled and the audience was in the closest sympathy with the speaker. It was evident that his hearers were much impressed with the subject as well as it's presentation, the general opinion being that great practical good would result tEerefrom As MT. Jackson stated, the pur- pose of the Juvenile society is to have an industrial school for delinquent and dependent children of as many as ten states. whose motto shall be: Protection and direction
 Below is his address:
 I wish to congratulate our wayward boys over the south not only because there are a number of intelligent friends at work on his behalf, but especially do l wish to congratulate the good people of Birmingham that they have, all things considered, one of the best institutions for such boys a East Lake in the south an institution that has for its chief recom- mendation the fact that it is entirely de- i lvered from politics, and that you can boast of having in your midst such men as Judge Feagin, who I understand has been wise enough and large-hearted enough to pass as the first of his sentence upon a delinquent child brought before him that he must learn the Ten Com mandments; and that you have also such an elect woman Mrs. R. D. Johnston. who is the devoted friend of these chill dren. Having said this much, MT. Presi- dent, by way of introduction, I will en- ter at once into this great question, and permit me to say I have serious ac- cusation to make against each of the two mightiest organizations in this and every nation-these accusations l am prepared to prove:
 First l do solemnly charge in the fear of God that the state has been criminaliz- ing her unfortunate sons and daughters, not with "malice aforethought." but be- cause of the lack of that thought which is born of wisdom and love.
 Bulwer's Novel.
 Have you ever read Paul Clifford" by Lord Bulwer? Do you recall the deserted mother who gave birth to bright son, that she passed away at the same time, and the helpless child was left in the 1 hands of the hag who kept an objection- able inn; that the wide-awalSe boy by and by broke away from his evil sur l roundlngs there only to fall into worse l associations elsewhere: that a gold watch i was night slipped from a pocket in a. l crowd returning from the theatre; thgt 1 Paul was with the thief, who escaped, l while the innocent lad was arrested, has I tily tried convicted and committed to prison with those who were schooled in l the "arts of hell and of course he be- came more and more wayward; that he 1 planned and accomplished his escape, and became later captain of a band of pro fessionals, whom he sought to hold to some standard of honor as ihe understood 1 it; that at length he was on trial for his life; and that the judge, now high in au- thority, the acknowledged pet of the ! crown and rich, had been working for l years to find his lost son, with the view. 1 in his old age, of leaving to him his high name and vast estate; that when the jury had come in with the verdict of guilty" ." and his judicial lordship asked the pris- oner at the bar if he had aught to say why the sentence of death should not be passed upon him, the prisoner arose calm ly without any attempt to justify him | self as to the specific charge against him, and is represented as delivering one of the masterpieces of English literature. I telling the judge on the bench that it was he who accused him while a mere boy of crime which he did not commit; that 1 he therefore was responsible for his place l In society. and now as convicted crim- inal.
 And do you remember. as the judge in most solemn and dignified manner had passed the sentence that the prisoner should he hanged by the neck until he be dead" that the honest old detective. who had been employed by the judge to find his long lost son, rushed into court, saying excitedly, in open court, that he held the proof in his hands that the pris- oner was the judges own son, which his l highness heard. and ordered the lunatic i n hp That ba wa nl q iourned in great confusion. and the judge WAS driven hastily to his paatial apart 1 ments. where he quickly died of the ter rife shock conscious of his wrong to his son. to himself and to society?
 In Passing.
 Is all this a piece of fiction only writ ten siXty-fve years ago? Let me say in passing: l have absolutely no patience with that pessimism which spends itself in crying out against the pharisees and hypoorites in the church, against the corrupt politicians, the scheming lawyers the oppressive corporations and the ty- rancal money kings, and at the same time parades before the public it's own honesty and magnanimity. Neither have l any toleration for that optimism which pats itself on it's well-clothed back and hugs it's well-filled stomach and serenely declares that the world is moving on glor-
 
 1 neither of these enemies of church and | state, but give me that altruism which is | honest enough to acknowledge facts, and l is brave enough to strike boldly for the deliVerance of our brothers from their manifold affictions whether they are in | high places or low, whether without or within prison walls
 1 Ex-Governor w. J. Northen, trustwor- thy to the core, said to me: "A certain i judge in Georgia told me out of his own mouth. pointing to prisoner in stripes my court made that boy criminal"
 Judge z. A. Ltuejohn, who is deeply 1 interested in this movement. has finan- cially supported it, and has introduced me | to his courts to speak in it's interest, told me this incident with permission to use it wherever l thought best; That he sent a colored boy to the chaingang for a i trifing offense, not because he wanted to- i but he thought the law forced him to pass such sentence. That boy was in sl 1 school of crime only six months, but ne i had school masters night and day who were experts. and he accordingly came out and back to-hs community, where the first night, at the midnight hour he held up an honest white man for his money with drawn revolver in his l face. s. oA-
 i A reliable Methodist preacher told me i of another judge who sentenced a boy to i the chaingang for taking banana. Just ! here let me confess: I have taken a banana. About two years ago fruit l wagon was going at a pretty lively rate down Pryor street, Atlanta, Ga, between Temple Court and the Chamber of Com- merce One or two bananas dropped out