The San Francisco call., 1910-10-30
IS The CITY BAD
FOR THE YOUTH?
Prominent Citizens Discuss the
Ethical Theme of Clyde
Fitch's Drama
influence of Urban and Rural
Residence on the Young :
Is Debated

Is character better developed by the
Influences Of city or OF country life?
This question, suggested by that re-
narkable drama. The City" the-iast
work OF the late Clyde Fitch, which
opens an engagement at the Savoy the
ater in this city tonight, was put be-
fore several prominent citizens of San
Francisco and their opinions are ap-
pended below.
An idea of the chief problem which
the characters inSthe play are COM
PEELED TO face and master may be
CLEANED from the big speech in the
third act uttered by the young man.
George Rand Jr., who had come from a
Eman town upstate and fought his
way TO a commanding position in the
great city-to a point where he was
about to receive the nomination for
governor Of his state His political
ambitions and career are crushed, yet
he stands firm for the right and re-
solves 10 make amends for the wrongs
IN his past life. Thus. when the
others OF his family are lamenting their
several nisfortunes and blaming them
on the city which they had come to
conquer. young Rand turns to them and
cries:
No. you're all wrong. Do not blame the city.
It's not her fault: it's your own. What the
city does is 20 bring out what's strongest In us.
II at heart we are good. the good In will
win; II bad. God help us. Do not blame the
city. She gives man his opportunity; 1t is Up
to hin what he makes Of it.. A man may live
IN & small place all his life-deceive the whole
place and himself into thinking he has got ali
the virtues. when at heart he's hypocrite. but
the village gives him no chance TO find QUITO
prove IL TO his fellows-the small town is too
Of It and knocks-New York or Chicago, Boston
or Ssn Francisco no matter what city, long
as It's BIG and busy and selfish and self-cen-
tsreo-and she opens her gates and takes him
in, and she stands him in the middle of her
market plece-where Wall street and Herald
square and Fifth avenue and the Bowery and
Harlem and Forty second street ali meet: and
there she strips him naked of all his DISCUSSES
and OF all his hypocrises. and she paints his
scrapers with it-NEhst he wants TO do and what
he thinks he is. And then she says to him
Make good if you can, or to hell with your'
And what Is in him comes out TO clothe his
nekeoness, and 10 the city he can't lie. /
know, because l tried.
And here are the pIainspoken views
Of San Francisco's representative men
on the conditions above described:
P. H Mccarthy. mayor of San Fran
cisco:
Every mans or woman's moral environment is
Just what he she may choose TO make IL. No
physical condition can overcome the inclinations
Of the heart, nor the determination OF the soul.
Even as the great open spaces and areas in the
country are essential TO our being. so Indeed are
the equally great centers Of population where
congestion brings a natural consequence.
sometimes, undesirable conditions and un-
wholesome atmosphere There can be no gain
saving the fact that rural life is the ideal one
from the standpoint Of a nature loving indi-
vidusl; yet ! would not say that equally
ideal life may not be attained in our cities The
teller, for the most part lives In or near great
cities, where the engines of Industry are in
operation. He must not be discouraged with the
untensble thought that his surroundings are per
force less attractive and desirable than those OF
his rural brother. mans life il what he
makes it We have purity and health exempli-
FED ia the country; have purity and
health here in the city IL ve but bend our efforts
In that direction
z. B. Power, assistant attorney gen
eral Of California, says:
Up to the time Of their majority. young men
and roung women should remain among the
wholesome and refining influences Of rural CON-
munities. There the proper foundation is, laid
for material success and moral growth later on
In large cities. If the youth is brought at too
early an age into city IT is though a ten
der sspling subjected 10 severe storms
which only the sturdy well matured tree can
survive Character building rests largely with
the Individual; hut a safe and sure rule would
natures heart, free from the trials and tempta-
tons which beset their elders in the crowded
pared for the test. set them down in our cities
and let them develop under the best influences
there possible.
Judge Frank J. Murasky, noted in
1alIOrnta Tor MS amldDle and effective
activities in the reformation of youth,
has interesting views on the influence
OF city life on the moral development
Of children. His work qualities him to
speak with authority. He says:
This problem resolves itself largely into one
OF home training. early associa tions and latent
individuality. Whether boy or girl be born and
bred in city or country matters little, provided
the child has proper home surroundings. an
adequate education and wholesome parental in
fuenceS. The city. a city. is not essentially y
and in general a bad influence upon the young.
There are forces for good well as for evil at
work IN every large community. and in every
who lead upright lives and in every respect are
the moral equals Of their country cousins Close
contact with the stress and struggle of city
life viii. q rule. strengthen naturally strong
characters end weaken naturally weak characters.
In other words the city brings out the worst
in q bad man or woman and the best in good
one
John r. Seymour, chief of police of
San Francisco. li&d this to say:
Criminals are not necessarily confined 10 the
city OF course IL Is true that large cities offer
opportunity for crime than small CON-
nunities. but IL seems to that this is a
question which is largely up TO the individual.
A country boy whom you would never suspect
mingle with low companions and develop into
crook Of the worst kind. IL boy or girl has
been subjected 10 the proper home influences and
IS taught to respect law and order and the usual
rules Of moral conduct IL is immaterisl whether
he or she be brought up in the city the
country.