Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-04

Judge Lindsay has written so much
and so well that it is difficult to make
selections from his writings. His gen.
eral attitude is that love, tempered with
great firmness, must be the governing
spirit in all dealings with juvenile de-
linquents. But he insists, above all
that the causes of crime must be
searched for. Before judging the law
breaking boy too severely we must &c
back of the actual misdeameanor and
see what his environment has been.'
he tells us.
Here is a longer quotation. taken
from the Independent of August 27,
1908, showing how seriously he takes
| his occupation: Il believe that the
police and the courts are concerned
with the lawlessness of more than 1OO,-
900 children every year. and that means
a million in each generation of child
hood. Should there not be some warn
/ ing in this appalling fact? Some of
| you may think it is an indictment of
the home and the school. 1t is rather
! an Indictment of certain social and
economic conditions with which the
| home and the school are powerless to
contend. The child has no home where
it has no play" And again: Perhaps
the saddest thing in my experience is
the cursing of heartless parents that I
have heard from the lips of neglected
boys and girls. May not the state suf-
fer a similar penalty in that curse
which comes to it through increased
crime among our yOuth?"
! In a recent letter, headed Women
bound to face ISSUE" the Prison Re-
| form league pointed out, as an argu-
ment that should appeal to the women
of the nation, the enormous proportion
of inmates of our jails and peniten-
tiaries who r.ust : ranked with the
/ l., aTn loo I'D oxrfI
! ly has do doubts upon that head.
shirk Their Duties
Answering a series of questions in
Charities and the Commons" under
date of August 15, 1908, Judge Lindsay
has this to say: Il find the home all
ways more to blame than the school.
There is a disposition upon the part Of
thousands of parents in every city to
shirk duties because of the idea they
seem to have that it should be all per
formed by the school. Such parents
are certainly dangerous citizens" OBJ
serve how firmly he places his finger
on the great evil of the entire pro-
tective philosophy which has domi-
mated United States so disastrously, as
we are just beginning to learn. The
parents trust to the puIllc official to
look after the morals of their chill
dren. shuffling off on the shoulders of
political appOintees their own respon-
sibilities. A peril against which
Buckle, Herbert Spencer, Huxley and
the leaders of scientific thought have
warned the world increasingly.
In the same article Judge Lindsay
punctures another delusion to which
our national vanity leads us, but one
that the Prison Reform league has
been careful to expose-viz., that the
poor immigrant Is responsible for the
continual increase of crime. He says:
"I am not one of those who lay much
stress upon immigration as a cause of
crime in this country, either adult or
| juvenile. My own investigation of po-
lice records land l have investigated
those of nearly all large cities) have
rather startled me by showing how
! few of our juvenile criminals are of
foreign parentage. Perhaps more
children Of immigrants get into court.
! but my judgment is that this is large
! ly because of poverty and ignorance
I am coming more and more to the
conclusion that the causes of crime
must be searched for among those evils
that affllct our social, economic, indus
trial and political conditions"
Conditions in the South
In 1907 Judge Lindsay made a tour
of the south. and he expressed himself
Juvenile offenders. 1.-The matron of
that Jail told me she believed there
were several hundred boys that night
in jails in that state under similar
conditions. Assuming that there were
only 200, it meant that over 1000 boys
year, at least, had such experiences,
and in ten years 10000 boys under 10
We're so treated. Qn that one parti"U-
lar state it must be understood) Craw-
ford Jackson of Atlanta, Georgia, who
is making a crusade for juvenile pro-
tectories in the south, shows US pic
lures of boys in stripes on the chain
gang, mixing with various types Of
criminals. I have seen one or two
such instances myself
But as regards the treatment Of its
juvenile deiinquents, at least, the
south apparently is undergoing a
change of heart. Judge Lindsay pays
a warm tribute to the work the south
ern women are doing. He points out
that United States Senator Robert L.
VaYlor of Tennessee is a pioneer Of
more than twenty years standing in
the juvenile court movement; that
Governor Vardaman's various mes
Isages to the Mississippi legislature have
shown him to be strongly in favor
both of Juvenile and general prison re-
form. and that Governor Haskell Of
Oklahoma stands for juvenile courts.
Judge N B. Feagin has done splendid
juvenile court work in Birmingham,
Ala. for years pas, having procured
the appointment of probation officers
to LOOK after the colored children, many
of whom are sent to a farm under the
supervision of the probationary force.
The Birmingham women have estab-
lished an industrial school, to which
children can be sent instead Of as
hitherto. to the jails and penitentiaries.
Good work has been done in Mobile,
Ala, and, in spite of legal entangle-
ments which caused the juvenile court
law passed by the Louisiana Legislature
to be declared unconstitutional, there
is practically a juvenile court In opera
tion in New Orleans.
Principle Clearly Stated
The recent juvenile court law
adopted by Kentucky reads: THE
proceedings involving the child shall
not be deemed to be criminal proceed
ings, and the child shall not be con-
sidered a criminal, but as a child in
need of aid, encouragement and guild
ance." The law applies to males of II
and under and to females of Is and
under. 1t states the principle of all
juvenile court laws most correctly,
and the criticism to which such courts
throughout the country have been
most open is that they still continue
to try the child as If he were a Grim
inal. Warren F. Spalding, secretary
of the Massachusetts Prison associa-
ton has shown, however, that the law