Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-11-30
SHALL WE LEAVE THE TRAPS SET?

When a boy Of 10 to Is years of age
is sent to prison or reformatory Tor
crime. there is something wrong in the
community that sends him. When a
little boy or young girl is listed as
incorrigibly bad and uncontrollable.
there is generally something wrong IN
the family. If there is one thing that
crys out in accusation against modern
civilization, criminal conviction OF
children is that thing.
Getting away from home for an exc
ample. the Chicago newspapers have
been featuring stories of boy robbers
and child highwaymen. Little boys
have been held for burglary and youths
of tender age for highway robbery.
Getting closer home, the reformatories
Of Iowa are too we'll populated. Com
ing to distinctly local conditions and
responsibilities, it is not uncommon
in Marshalltown to find the judges OF
court called upon to pass upon the
necessity
boys Of 10 to 10 years to the reform
school.
Now this is an easy plan, it does not
bother or annoy the individual citizen
overmuch. 1t shifts all personal re-
sponsibility, but it isn't active citizen
shin Christian principle or even COM
mon horse sense to set traps for chill
dren and punish when they fall into
them. We are taking great pains to
offer educational facilities Of a literary
kind to all children. The public
schools are expensive. The boy has
chance to learn to read and write and if
he can. stay in school Latin, geom-
ery and moral philosophy. Surely all
that is enough Having offered the
little bow a contrast to the ignorance
and vicious atmosphere that may OBJ
tain in his home and immediate neigh
borhood we have done all that can be
exnected of us. He has had an oppor-
tunity for IAN education" 1t is up to
him. The taxes have been paid.
Suppose some little boy comes up
before the Judge charged with a cat
alog Of crime for a sentence to the re-
form school. Surely he is bad boy.
His mother says so. He even drinks.
Suppose the investigation develops that
this mother had sent him to the saloon
with an order for liquor and that the
saloonist had filled the order Suppose
it further developed that the boy had
bought liquor on orders written by
nobody knows who. This is no fairy
tale. That it happened much nearer
home than Chicago is vouched for by
respectable authority. Perhaps the boy
would be best in the reform school I'M
der the circumstances. Shall we SEND
him there and leave the trap set for
another boy? What of the saloon that
traffics with children? What OF the
mother who sends her child to saloons
| for liquor and then comes to the courts
with a bad boy for the reform school?
This was her bad boy. while she made
| him type of undesirable citizen.
When she had finished the job she
throws him on the state. The saloon
pays the mulct tax. 1t helped make
candidate for the reformatory and
prospect for the penitentiary. Cold
bloodedly weighed against the cost of
another Pell trial and appeal to the SUI
preme court at the county's expense,
against the prospect of another con-
vict, how does $1,000 a year figure in
the trial balance?
We must take care of the children.
Organized society is criminally
neglectful of its future. The boys
chance to get literary education will
not suffice He needs opportunity to