The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-12-14
THE HOODLUM ELEMENT


The clever and versatile editor of rls Salt r..
Telegram-taking his text from the del.uso of-.
policeman who, to save his own life -na. +o d,..
a Salt Lake thug very vigorous and f..
full leader on the tougher element i'm our c+fr NJ
Goodwin is of the opinion that Society viii b-
by, in self-defense take from their home. the ,g
Dire, of vicious or too indulgent parents. m.
their lives into different channels and give Il
needed discipline Further on in his article L.
suggests that "A military camp under the CONF,
of kind and firm officers is the best school 9
such children"
The admission of the writer that society h,
failed to control the acquired or inherited -ende,a
to savagery in some of our young people {,
rather dismal reflection on our SUNDAY sA..
classes and public schools It is a candid ackror.
edgment on the part of the writer that with an An,
high and public school training we have no, 7r
succeeded in controlling OF indeed improving T.
Vulgarity and yiciousness so painfully uoticesblo
the daily conduct of many of our young bows s,}
girls Mr. Goodwin recommends the estabIisbm.
of military camps for these incorrigabes. brt a,
reflection he will be satisfied that his suggesti,-
while theoretically attractive would. in practice T.
fraught with serious, if not insurmountabIe ds
culties. Already our people are contributing IN.
nually for the support of our public schools. ry
schools, academies, colleges, universities and p-
vate educational institutions something like s
hundred millions year. Enough to dig two Pan
anna canals. To maintain our prisons. iaiIs a..
lums, penitentiaries and reformatories to saw not
ing of our police and detective departments, 70
ezpend four hundred millions every year.
When the military camps which Mr. Goodwin
advocates in good faith are established and
equipped and the young toughs gathered in wb.
are we to do with the vast dependent multitude Of
detectives and degenerates so rapidly multiplyn,
IN our country. What should be the attitude of A.
state toward them! Should their lives be guard
ed and their movements go7ernedl Must the stats
say to each one of them: "My child your life has
been one succession of failures You cannot con-
duct yourself decenty. You cannot control 7or
appetites and passions. Left to yourself YOU are
not only useless but you are mischievous and me-
mace to your fellow men. 1 have tried schooling
reforming you and l have failed Ym
are an incurable, degenerate, being unfit 70.
freedom, for social life. I Will feed and cIot5s
you and give you a reasonably comfortable life
One thing [ will not allow you to do-you canro.
procreate your kind. You shall be the last of YOU,
feeble and degenerate family"
Then having erected the camps and the homes
for detectives, who is to pronounce on the degen.
eracy for admission to these institutions. Womb
Mr. Goodwin include among the hdpdlums. the i'm,
beetles, the degenerates and the detectives. the bg
school boys who, the other day. forced the doors Of
one of our theatres and stampeded th women and
children with the cry of fret fire! oAtbe twenty
odd members of the high school footblI team o,
baseball club who entered a street car long ap,
conducted themselves shamefully and iAulted an
lady. Would he sentence to \bese in
situations the thirty boys and girls summoed not
ong ago, before the juvenile court of this tv TO.
grossly immoral and indecent actions in one II orr
parks; or the university graduates who pHlicg
and profaned the sanctity of an Ab
Who is to draw the line and where Is it toS
lravn NJ.
The tramp the hoodlum of the lower stra
II society is a growth, an accident, but the We
dressed school rowdy is the manufactured article
inished, marketed and labeled: Git for decn
society" And here let it be whispered that th
state and society have more to fear from the man
fractured article than from the tramp Or The
,oodlr,n