The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-08-17
JUVENILE COURT.

An appeal was made by the Juvenile court COM
mission composed of his excelency the governor
of the state, the attorney general and the supern-
tendent of public instruction, calling attention to
the provisions Of the law passed by an act of the
state legislature in the March session of this year.
The appeal states local abuses and suggests rene
dies that will in measure remedy the deficiency
of the law in covering peculiar local conditions.
The paper is worthy of attention and the sugges-
tions contained are based good common sense
view of the question The commission is correct
in several of its statements and the reflections are
worthy of careful consideration by the general pub
lie. 1t is true that every one in community
should give helping hand to the obliteration of
sources of temptation to children 1t is as much
the duty of every citizen to do these things as it
would be his or her duty to protect a child
from impending physical danger and even more.
There is between these two instances as much diff
ference as exists between the individual and re-
stricted harm to physical accidents and the elias
tic communicating contagious nature of moral
evils. 1t is true also that men who are granted
licenses to pursue certain traffic by the community
should govern their desire for greed and exhibit
strength of character enough to refuse to offer
children the opportunities that although not i'm
moral in themselves might through looseness lead
to immortality Those people who conduct cheap
theatres where pictures are shown and songs rem
dered could as easily introduce healthy amusements
and refining spectacles since they know that chill
dren are their best patrons. Children do not de-
light in perverse things and an entertainment to
be light and even comical need not be morally
harmful. The best method to pursue against those
who show such regard for their little patrons is
to boycott them by publishing through the city
their harmfulness
There is one feature, however that no amount
of caution will cover and no prevention prevent.
All these suggestions are merely external They
correspond to external applications in skin erup-
tons when the blood is in bad condition. Unless
good sound moral internal condition is established
in little patients these are but temporary rem
edies and superficial The child is not as much
protected by the pointing out of moral evils as by
the instilling of principles that make him or her
appreciate the excellence of virtue. 1t is better
physically for the human system to be prepared to
fight and conquer inimical germs than to be taught
to be constantly guard in avoiding them. One
is good, it is true but it is a lesser waste of en-
ergy and valuable time, if whether these germs
not we have fortified ourselves to combat
them. And here is the point for reflection Howe
BY good, clean homes with a healthy atmosphere
about them. That is one condition But one of
greater Importance, and one which this paper rec
ommends, in accordance with all Catholic teach
ing, is this; Do not for an instant let the grand
total of your instruction be mental development.
You cannot educate side of a boys or girls
nature and not leave him or her moral freak.
You cannot dissociate moral training from mental
discipline You cannot round them out into bean
tiful soul form without both. You cannot give
them strong defensive against evil without in
sitting sound moral principles in youth, and you
cannot instil these principles effectively without
the teachings of religion. You may boast all YOU
will and pretend to get suspicious when you are
reminded of it and your pride in your present sys-
tenn will blind you temporarily, but Salt Lake will
learn the lesson and the nation viii also.