The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1907-01-24

ditions would be useless BESIDES. II
would not be my way of looking at
this puzzling child question. which
| strikes home TO the understandings
of men in so many different ways
To me II has always had but one
fsigniiicance. Years Of labor on me.
tropolitan newspapers intensified that
| significance. Now 7 feel that II is
time to appeal TO you--the people of
our newest state. Maybe plead more
/ feaTlessly than | otherwise would
| were Il not for the fact that my own
| childhood was spent on the prairics OF
South Dakota. | think God every day
/ of my life for the good fortune of that
| childhood. which has been n large
measure responsible for the resear-
! ches ! have made into the ways OF
CHILDHOOD in many localities.
why not look at the facts with a
beneficient spirit of commonsen'@
lowering over MS? Doing that, Il seems
TO me that the phase uppermost Is the
Economy of It. Many mimic palitie5
and state governments are beginning
to see the truth of this, but the trouble
is that they begin In the middle or up
somewhere near the top. when all
the time a thousand wayward roots
1and,r i,'!y in unfeartile Soil "r drink
foulness from humanity's cess-poois.
National Destiny in the Child.
Let us begin with the cultivation OF
the roots,--the very life of our civil
lizationl Before tomorrow. we have
today. The only thing that counts
really counts-in a nation, is its child
hood Given a childhood OF proper en-
vironment. and progress can snap her
fingers at all the evils. all the carpins
prognosticatOrs of national woe ever
imagined or discovered. As sure as
there are waving wheat ields ana
full granaries i'm Oklahoma, an honest
childhood is the inevitable forerunner
of an honest manhood. Never nina
the grown-ups. In this real economy
they count for little You can't make
over the average man. but you can
pretty nearly make over the ordinary
child of good health and intelligence.
If your laws are so wisely framed and
enforced that childhood is not denied
It's fair and full measure of develop.
ment. YOU have cause for rejoicing
Economy, Says Conservative Youth.
And so we consider the ECONOMY
of it, Likewise, we analyze its mean
ings.
Being new and progressive your
state will include many things in its
constitution. What are not included
in the constitution will be enacted into
laws by your legislature.
There will be either an article in
the constitution or a law upon your
statutes which will have to do with
the states prisons.
Another will have to be with your
criminal court.
Then there will be your poor house
and your insane asylums and your
county jails and your reform schools
All, these are peopled by grown-ups-
men and women. It will cost the state
hundreds of thousands of dollars of
actual money. Strange too il is tax
payers money That Is the only way
we run astAte in this republic. We
make our citizens pay taxes to keel
up expenses.
Sometimes, here in Chicago. Il cost
twenty or thirty thousand dollars e
convict a criminal. This is homes
taxpayers money Then, after he /
convicted, it costs more to keep or tt
hang him. No matter how econom
ically you try too run his boarding.
house, or manage his execution, 1t vii
be an expense. This. also, is taxpay
ers' money We must not loose sigh
Of that fact for a moment In our cor
sideration of this many sided chile
question Wherever there is a stat
or county or municipal expense, it Is
the taxpayers who pay it. There Il
genuine economy i'm our considera
ton of all these spendings.
1t would be fine If we did not hav,
to spend il all--for these repulsivC
and humanity marring purposes. Some
times I think we have heard so man
fairy tales that we have forgotten how
to look good old truth in the face
There is really small need for us T.
worry over crime. The percentage O
criminals is too absurdly small Their
are several millions of people in tn
state OF Illinois and only three thous
and in round numbers. reside In tn
state prisons This is not any feai
ful or awe inspiring proportion of tn
whole.
All the while | was watching child
hood being delivered out of bOndag
here in Chicago, was trying to fnc
out a reason for crime.
Economy Of the Child Question.
A great criminal. a man withOu
hope or honor. SO far as you or
could judge. set me to thinking abou
the child question. II was the wee
before he went to the scaffold snar
ing and unreDentant Pete Neidei
meir was his name He was one o
the carban bandits. and as hardened
murderer as this boasted civilization
of ours ever produced How man,
men he killed in his time the polio
We're never able 10 determine. EeiC
ermeir did not tell them Yet
/ looked at him IN his cell through In,
thick steel gratings. he looked NOR
like a fearless man than his real char
acter.
| tried 10 tell him what ! had com
TO the jail for--to find out some of tn,
truth about his life: to find out VIII,
he was Neidermeir who shot dow
three men in the car barns withou
giving them a chance. instead O
Neidermeir, college graduate. per