The Lehi banner. [volume] (Lehi, Utah) 1891-1917, 1907-08-08

idleness to crimiuality The
American criminal is not the
product Of the trades, Of the
workshop or the factory" He
continues as follows:
oThese records indicates chat
the age of greatest criminality Isl
somewher between the ages 'oi
twenty and twenty five, and that
from 60 to 20 per cent of felous
are entirely unskilled IN any trade
or profession. The United States
Census Of 1890 showed that, of
~, Sq4 convicts, 81, 426 were ignor.
ant of any kind of trade. French
statistics covering 4 period OF over
fifty years reveal the following
number of indictments per 100, 600
of each of the classes named:
| Agriculture, y; liberal professions
and proprietoIs. 8; factory labor
ers, Il: commerce. Is; domestic
service, %; without regular trade
or occupation, 400.
'In the reformatOries, where the
prisoner by reason of his youth has
had less time in which to acquire
a trade, the percentage of the nm
skilled is necessarily much greater
than in the penitentiaries The
writer had occasion to discuss this
with the superintendent of an in.
sttution of this kind, which has
upon its records the names OF
I3.thI bows whom il has received
during period ot several years.
The ages of the boys, ut the period
of reception and discharge, ranged
between ten and twenty.One years,
thus covering the entire period be
tween childhood and manhood.
" How many of these boys had
ever been apprenticed before
reaching your institutionp tn,
superintendent was asked.
q None, was the reply.
How many had knowledge o
a tradei'
"To the last question the yer.
prompt and positive answer wa
Z this: Absolutely none; if the,
had, they would never have com
here.
"ln the reformatory to whlc
reference is here made every DO
4 is taught trade, and it is yer
seldom that one of them is agai
u heard of as a violator of the law
Sin the largest penitentiary
the United States, where more tina
n two thousand conyicts are COZ
stantly confined, about So per cen
n are without knowledge of an
occupation when received.
D. this prison the factory system pr
p walls. all are taught some trad
and only about IA per cent. ev'
e return to crime"
The writer continues:
r GAS has been shown, the age
greatest criminality follows il
mediately upon the age of leg
D. maturity, and the class of crimi
ality is the non working elias
p Bring child to maturity withO
/, knowledge of useful work, and "
"a place him in class which staff
n tics show is the most likely to cor
nit crime, and at the age wht
of most crimes are committed--th
assuring a kind of double pro
oil ability OF moral delinquency al
industrial failure. Contrast su
case with that of the boy "
,d has learned to make an honI
living. Whether he beshOe CUTE
rs, machinist, electrician, brass mt
der, or what not, in all hum
5h probability he will continue to p
IL his trade He will feel some ser
of responsibility to his woI
m His mind will he occupied by t
duties of his calling, and he W
Ii pass 10y the idle and dissipated
=, "A time when, as experience h
~ shown, the human mind is INT
ELL susceptible TO the influences I'll
make for crime. Nor is this
re mere supposition. II is a fact We
.o fed 10y the prison records.
vi" az the habits formed in you
TO may bo regarded aS in any sense
index or forecast Of the Charac
of the adult, then, in the light
the criminal statistics, the pr,
lem OF child idlenoss may jus
,al lay claim to some measure of
dignity and importance so fire.
in accorded TO much mooted probl
of child labor; and before max.
OF. a. ip,nn.gihlp for the VOuth tO