Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-25
BOYS FRIEND
VISITS CIT Y
JUDGE BEN LINDSAY A GUEST
HERE
MAY RETURN AND DELIVER
LECTURE
Denver Juvenile Court Magistrate
Talks of Work Planned as Well
as of What Has Been
Done

full criminals. passed through Los An
geles last night EN- route for San
Diego He arrived direct from Denver
at o'clock p. m. and went Immediate
| ly to the home of Miss Evelyn Stod-
| dard, 1862 Beacon street, where he re-
mained her guest until midnight when
| he left for San Diego.
! While in the latter city Judge Lind
say will deliver one of his noted lee
| lures in the interest Of the juvenile
| reform movement. This lecture will
| be delivered Saturday night, and if
possible Judge Lindsay expects to
reach Los Angeles the following day
in time to deliver another lecture to
the Rev. B. Fay Mills Los Angeles
| Fellowship.
Judge Lindsay is a warm personal
| friend of Judge Wilbur, the Los An
geles juvenile court magistrate, who is
| also deeply interested in the work of
| the movement virtually founded in this
! country by Judge Lindsay. If Judge
Lindsay lectures here next Sunday he
will probably be the guest of Judge
Wilbur
From Los Angeles Judge Lindsay
will go by way of San Francisco and
Portland to Pullman, Wash, where on
April he has been invited to address
| the State Teachers association in re-
gard to his work.
Encouraged by Success
Judge Lindsay when interviewed at
the home of Miss Stoddard last night
said
IT am greatly encouraged at the sue
cess with which the various Juvenile
reform movements are meeting. /
have just returned from an extensive
tour of the southern states, and ey-
erywhere 1 find the public conscience
awakening to the conditions and ne
cessities of the child world.
my tour south and east was made in
the interest of three important COM
mittees to which l belong, and which
are aimed to effect the eradication OF
fundamental evils-criminal causes-in
the environment, education and govern
ment of children. These committees
are the national child labor committee.
which was given a great impetus by
President Roosevelt's fervent support;
the national juvenile court committee,
which Is one of the most recent organ
izations and has taken up great but
urgent task, and the National Play
ground association, which aims to es--
tablish in every city just such ideal
Fairgrounds as your beautiful city of
Los Angeles Fairgrounds
large enough and sufficiently equipped
to be of real benefit to every COM
munity in which they are located.
Shape Nations Life
"These respective committees have
for their objects matters of primary I'M
portance to the present and future
generations. Inasmuch as everyone
is once child, the life of the nation is
directly shaped and regulated by its
treatment of children collectively.
1.-THE object of the national child Ia
Dor committee is to weed out all chill
dren from factories, department stores
and elsewhere, when possible, and to
otherwise improve the conditions under
which a few shall continue to labor; 1t
also aims at the establishment of trade
schools, where children may take ap-
prenticeships in industrial lines that
will familiarize them with the practical
system of life. and prevent them from
growing up mere post hole diggers'
without serviceable knowledge of any
form of mechanics. It also aims at
numerous other reforms calculated to
aid the child worker
"The primary object of the national
Juvenile court committee is to estab-
lish in every city in the United States
such an institute as Chicago. Denver
and one or two other cities have estab-
lished-namely, an institute embodying
under one roof all the departments of
juvenile government, including the ju-
venile court, the probation and truancy
departments, detention home, etc., this
being desirable In order to have the
children directly in touch with each
department. In this building would be
installed a system whereby every en-
pIoyer of child labor, every teacher of
truants or young criminals, etc., would
have Immediate telephone communica-
ton with the officers in charge.
Plan improvements
"The present aim is not for an i'm
proyement of the method by which
wayward children are handled, but for
the establishment of system by which
they may be kept out of court, ] have
learned from eight years of experience
that If l convince a prisoner my SEN
tence is just, and that am sending
him to a house of correction to improve
him and not to punish him, he will ac-
cept his fate with no Ill feeling toward
me but with a real desire to be bene-
fitted.
"The youthful criminal must be
taught that Juvenile justice is admins
tered not with a desire for revenge,
but with a desire to educate the cul-
the system, and therefore the system
must be improved to command his con-
fidence
'In order to do this it is necessary
to get to the root of the trouble. In
other words, we must improve the
childs environment before we can hope
to save him from the courts. 1t is no
longer to be doubted that environment
creates character, and to get at the
cause of crime we must eradicate the
environments which create the crimi-
nal. For that reason l am urging in
every state in the United States the
enactment of that all-important law
which is now on the statutes of Color
ado and Illinois and which / believe
goes further than any other present
plan toward purifying the child's en-
vironment.
Discusses Laws
UT refer to the contrlbutory deiin-
ouency. This law holds the man who
sends a youthful messenger into a
house of i'll repute responsible for that
mans act. 1t holds every adult who in
anv manner contributes to the crimi-
nal development of the child culpable
for the deed to whatever degree he
has caused the child to be exposed to
the dangers of environment.
IT want to see the contributory de-
linquency law enacted in California.
"As play, laughter, sport and inno-
cent forms of amusement are abso-
lutely essential to the right develop
ment of growing body, primarily Gre
ating the healthy body, hence the
healthy mind and In turn healthy NOR
ais. believe it is the absolute duty
of every municipality to provide play
grounds so equipped and regulated that
every child in the city may be al
lowed the benefits of physical culture;
IT